Photo by the author.
By Matthew E. Milliken
MEMwrites.wordpress.com
March 6, 2023
I took my third trip to Princeton, N.J., on Monday, Feb. 20, which was President’s Day. After walking for more than six miles that morning, I showered, dressed, packed some snacks and hopped into my car to drive to Central Jersey. I came into town from the east/northeast on New Jersey Route 27. That becomes Nassau Street, which fronts the north end of Princeton University’s campus and serves as the town’s main street.
I parked off of North Harrison Street, which runs roughly north–south and intersects with the east side of Nassau. It was a little after 2 p.m. I walked west on Nassau for about half a mile. I turned around in front of Firestone Library and headed back toward my car. Along the way, I mused about where I wanted to enjoy a late lunch.
After stumbling across a small joint named Thai Village, I decided to eat there. I donned a mask, stepped through the door and asked the waiter if I could sit outside. He said it was fine and immediately picked up a menu, a drinking glass and a water pitcher to bring outside. I zipped up my jacket, took my seat and began looking over the menu. I ordered shrimp spring rolls for an appetizer and shrimp fried rice for my entree.
It was a bit chillier than I expected. The temperature had risen to a high of 63 degrees Fahrenheit — extremely warm for mid-February, at least in the days before climate change evidently took hold — but it seemed to begin dropping the moment I sat down. At one point, the waiter asked if I’d prefer to dine inside, but I declined. I remain very leery of contracting Covid-19, and I thought it better to tough out the brisk outdoor air.
The spring roll was fine; it came with a delicious peanut sauce, of which I could have eaten a lot more. The shrimp fried rice was very tasty. I surprised myself by eating everything rather than taking any away in a to-go box.
I paid, used the bathroom and resumed my trip east on Nassau.
Shortly after setting out, I came across a woman walking in my direction. She was escorting a dog with a beautiful sleek gray coat that I estimate weighed at least 65 pounds. As I approached the pair, the dog looked toward the street, which was to his right, and stopped walking. The woman did not immediately register this.
I started moving around the dog, but something about the way he had frozen made me come to a stop as well.
The woman noticed that both the dog and I had halted.
She said something like, “Oh, he must have seen a car that looks like my husband’s. No matter how many times I explain that it’s not my husband, he just doesn’t understand.”
“Poor baby!” I exclaimed. I continued walking. The last I saw, the dog’s head was still pointed to his right.
When I got back to my car, I called up driving directions to the same parking area for the Watershed Institute that I’d used after my first Princeton trip back in August. The drive was somewhat familiar, even though the early part of my route was different from the one I’d taken last year. Thankfully, this time, there was no rain storm like the one that had put the kibosh on my plan to walk around Princeton’s downtown last summer.
At the parking area, instead of taking the path north to the property’s northern boundary, as I’d done in 2022, I went south toward the visitor center. I set out just after 4 p.m.
But I didn’t get very far. The ground was soft and muddy, and big standing pools covered parts of the trail. What’s more, the temperature had fallen even farther. Around 10 minutes into my journey, I apparently wandered off the path and found myself on the outskirts of a large, irregularly shaped field.
Upon consulting my map, I found that I was close to Wargo Road, which bounds at least part of the institute’s eastern side. I crossed the field, stepped onto the road and took it north to Moores Mill Mount Rose Road, which I followed west to the parking area.
In all, I walked a little less than two miles in Princeton. My Watershed Institute excursion lasted a little shy of 30 minutes and saw me covered about 1.7 miles, which works out to around 18 miles a mile. To that point on Monday, I’d walked roughly 10 miles.
I changed clothes before getting back on the road. There was no one else in the parking area, and I was sufficiently screened from the view of passers-by thanks to the local foliage. I also opened both of my car’s passenger-side doors for additional cover. Once I squared away my muddy boots and dirty clothes in the trunk, I began driving toward Philadelphia. It was a national holiday, and I intended to spend the evening playing low-stakes live Texas holdem poker.
Evening was well under way by the time I parked at Live Casino in Philadelphia. Before I headed into the facility, I paused at the edge of the parking deck at took a picture of the setting sun, shown above.
MEMwrites 
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