Whew. We made it to New Jersey.

To say that my nerves were shot after arriving at our “campground” would be an incredible understatement. I mean a massive, colossal, gargantuan understatement. After riding along while Jason navigated the narrow, bumpy side roads lined with cars, my body felt electric with fear. I was amazed that we didn’t hit, or get hit by, a car, delivery vehicle, or human being.

To exacerbate my situation, there’s a construction site bordering us that is pounding ginormous steel beams into the earth, each thunk vibrating through the camper and my bones. 

After lying down for a few minutes I decided to take a gander at our tickets for the Statue of Liberty. It was 2:50 p.m. and we were to arrive at security by—3:00!!! Oh no!! 

Being the South Dakotans that we are, we decided that the quickest way to get there would obviously be by car. After all it was only a mile and a half. To the family truckster! 

Let me tell you something about driving what amounts to a bus here: it’s not easy and it’s not fast. Especially when you don’t know that you’re supposed to ignore red lights when no one’s coming or just run pedestrians over when turning. Suffice it to say we enraged many and were the recipients of a cacophony of honking. 

Then came the decision of which parking lot to go to. I chose wrong. Jason was right. It was like Opposite Day. This led to us sprinting (not like Usain Bolt sprinting, but like out of shape people sprinting or in shape people speed walking) toward Ellis Island and a bridge. Only that bridge was for employees only. It was at this time that Jason asked what the instructions on the tickets said. “How should I know? I didn’t read them. Why didn’t you read them?” So he did. Then we sprinted in a perpendicular direction to where we witnessed our ferry shoving off the dock. The last ferry of the day. I would have teared up but my body was using all available resources after running farther than I had run in years. Thankfully Jason kept running.

When the rest of us caught him he had a big smile on his face. The tickets had listed the winter schedule and we still had several more opportunities to catch a ferry. Awesome!! We panted through security, boarded the ferry, and got up close and personal with Lady Liberty herself.

Afterwards, the boys played at Liberty Park playground, Jason made delicious steak stir fry, and we slept like dead horses.