Atlantic City & Irrfahrt - 120 miles searching for hotels in New Jersey

Saturday 12.06. – Philadelphia – Atlantic City – Philadelphia – ?

We have breakfast at the hotel and then visit the Quaker House opposite the hotel. It is a plain assembly house, but the largest of its kind in the USA. It was founded by William Penn (hence: Pennsylvania). After this short visit, we check out of the hotel at 11:00 a.m. and spontaneously drive about 60 miles to Atlantic City on the Atlantic Ocean. Compared to what I remember from my one-month stay here 30 years ago, it is even "worse" now. It looks like a Las Vegas by the beach.

Casinos, huge hotels, outlet shopping centers in the city - it's just one big party.

After an hour, we make our way back to Philadelphia, where we arrive around 3:00 p.m. Drop off the car, say goodbye, and G. hops on the shuttle bus to the terminal for the return flight.

I now have a compact car (KIA Rio) and it is filled with my five pieces of luggage (okay, I didn't pack very economically because for me this is just a transition). First, I drive north again to King of Prussia to do some relaxed shopping at the mentioned shopping center. I find a pair of jeans and three tops at Macy's and finally a travel bag to replace my current one.

Quickly, I go to a take-away Chinese restaurant and eat some chicken in 5 minutes, and then I head to any hotel. It's almost 7:00 p.m. when I leave there, and I won't find a hotel until 11:40 p.m. In between, there are 120 miles of searching, in complete darkness, in the desolate areas of New Jersey, where there were no street lights, signs, people, or houses. Either the hotels are full or I drive for miles without seeing one at all.

I take the highway to New Jersey towards the coast and drive without a map (who would have thought I would come here?). I go back and forth and decide to drive back to Philadelphia again. I can't even say exactly where I was in the end. It was definitely again in Pennsylvania, somewhere in the area around Valley Forge, just before King of Prussia, where I had started hours before.

Finally, I find a Marriott that is so far away from everything that there must be a room available. The guy in front of me at the reception gets the last one and I feel like crying. The woman at the reception is nice, makes phone calls, and gives me a very rough description of how to get to a long-stay hotel. I get lost several times and only by chance end up at this hotel and get the last room - the accessible room, because - at this time - no one expects it to be needed anymore. It costs 100 dollars and I don't care, I'm in bed and asleep within 15 minutes.