Fisherman’s Mark – Lambertville

New Jersey – Tuesday, March 26

The messy weather was gone, and today I was off to make a donation to a food pantry in Lambertville – a town on the west side of New Jersey that sits along the Delaware River and the D&R Canal. The food pantry is called Fisherman’s Mark, and I liked the name – as the website says, that name has meaning: “from Saint Andrew, a FISHERMAN who brought people to a safe haven, and the belief of the founding board that each person leaves a MARK where they live, play and work. At Fisherman’s Mark, we have dedicated ourselves to helping others make their mark the best it can be.” Their website had a wish list of needed food, and I stopped and shopped at the Stop and Shop along the way – I ended up getting soup, spaghetti sauce, tuna, canned chicken, cereal, oatmeal, ketchup, mustard, and mayo – condiments were on the list! I found the food pantry building with no problem, and they helped me carry the bags in. One of the volunteers was so happy to get some more food that she took me over to show me the empty cereal shelf in their cupboards. This food pantry is open 5 days a week, and like most places I’ve visited, they have seen the need for assistance increase. In addition to non-perishable food, they also pass out fresh produce, and they had a nice selection of that available for the people who were coming in. The volunteer was very interested in my journey, and we talked about that for a little while. Then they were busy helping people choose out some food, and I took a couple photos and left.

I found a place to leave the van, and Tula and I got out for a long walk. We went all through town and it was a wonderful one to wander through – lots of old buildings, and antique shops and unique things to see. There were even several flag collection boxes – not quite sure what those are for. Once again it strikes me that I’m seeing so much more by finding good places to walk instead of just driving through. Since I’m not much of a shopper, it doesn’t bother me at all not to be able to pop in and out of stores (if there was something I was really interested in seeing, I could always go back once I put Tula in the car.) I simply enjoy walking past and seeing such a huge variety of things. I headed down by the river and figured I would find the canal nearby, and indeed I did. So we walked a few more miles on the towpath, and this time it wasn’t muddy. This was part of the same canal system that I was on yesterday – the canal cuts across a good chunk of the state. The miles and miles of canals in this area were all hand-dug – mostly by Irish immigrants. They’re about 8 feet deep and seem to vary a little in width, and some of the locks and lock houses are still around. It was such a labor intensive task, but before the trains came, they really were a time saver in shipping goods back and forth. Tula had a bit of a challenge in the first part of the canal walk – there were so many ducks and geese that she had a little trouble restraining herself, and once pulled the leash right out of my hand. She made a number of “false charges” at them – she pretty much knows exactly how much leash length she has! Another time she just looked longingly at the ducks in the canal, like she wanted to join them, and I began to wonder if she was going to try to get in the water, but she just watched them from the towpath. I only walked a little over 5 miles today – with the extra miles I’d walked earlier in New Jersey, I was ahead of the game, and I wanted to save the rest of my miles for tomorrow.

I drove by the Washington Crossing State Park, and had hoped to spend a little time there, but they were closed by 4:30, so I was out of luck. And it took me a while to get back to the motel anyway, with detours and rush hour – Ive seen a lot of construction zones! I noticed there was an oil-change place near the motel, and I was able to get an appointment for first thing in the morning. Gotta keep that van running well!