The Aroma of Jersey

I don’t know how anybody can enjoy going to Giants Stadium or the Meadowlands on a regular basis. I’ve never seen such confusing, ridiculous traffic (and I'm from Montreal!) There’s no way to get there except by car, and when you’ve got 50,000 people leaving at the same time, it is a nightmare.

Also, what's up with tailgate parties? For god's sake, people, pack up your empty beer bottles. What kind of hooligans pull away from a parking space and leave a dozen beer bottles for other cars to run over?

But the worst was during a stretch while crawling away from the parking lot, where we were overcome by a smell. An indescribable odour. The kind of stink that New Jersey is infamous for. A combination of industrial waste and swampy grassy damp. I cannot describe the stench. I’ve never smelt anything as foul.

So now I can say I’ve been to New Jersey.

This trip helped me better understand American Car Culture. NJ is a state where you literally cannot walk to anything. There are no sidewalks and everything is so spread out, you have to drive everywhere. You have no choice. And the traffic is endless. There are big stinking trucks on every road. I can’t imagine living there.

Except for Princeton. We stopped in Princeton because my bro-in-law had great pizza there 5 years ago, so we had to go back. The town is lovely, green and wealthy, and the pizza was very good. It was a real Italiano pizza place and my sister kept expecting Paulie to walk in at any moment and blow away the guys at the next table.