Backroads of New Jersey
The call came from my editor at Voyageur Press, "Are you interested in doing a book on the backroads of New Jersey?" Hmm, depends on what you mean by a backroad. Could be an oxymoron. It's a small state, the most densely populated. Stuck between New York and Philadelphia, it's been the butt of jokes since vaudeville. What's a backroad where the fleeting impression from the New Jersey Turnpike is presumed to summarize the state, and "What exit?" to best identify its residents? When the interstate is built, all the older roads become backroads of a sort, and those passing through no longer see the place. But take an exit to find representation of all that America has made, in close proximity, the beginnings of the West so to speak. And a natural world too where North and South overlap. Even still a Garden State beyond the refineries.
