Atlantic City
I had always wanted to visit Atlantic City. Not sure why, but a city, on the Atlantic Ocean, with a 6-7 mile long wooden boardwalk just sounded cool! It's not.
We plugged in the closest public parking lot to the boardwalk and were directed to this spot (above). This was the back of a building that fronted on the boardwalk, so it was close. However, we were not sure if our truck would still be here when we returned. That Lincoln has been stripped, and there are enough used mattresses to furnish a hotel on highway 99. Dumpsters are overflowing, graffiti is rampant, and eerily, there were not many folks around: except these 4 characters, smoking and drinking (after all, it was after 10:00 AM). Nevertheless, we decided to risk body and life, and donned our backpacks to trek the boardwalk.
It was a foggy day; adding to the mystery of why anyone would spend their time here. We strolled the boardwalk for about an hour; traveling 1-2 miles south. If you did not know (and I did not), Atlantic City is a gamblers mecca. Most, if not all, of the money in this town comes from Donald Trump and the like. Between the casinos are junk touristy shops of souvenirs and T-shirts, rat food joints, tobacco shops, liquor (they call them "package stores"), massage parlors, and fortune telling shops. That's it! every 1/8 mile there is another string of them. No kidding. Like you would have missed the last package store, or needed your fortune told again since you forgot it already from 10 minutes previously.
Now, I know this is politically incorrect, but it was kind of a freak show here. Maybe it was because it was around noon, but this guy in the wheel chair had no arms (but he had hands) and he was holding a plastic jar begging for cash. 100 yards down the boardwalk was a lady who appeared to have been burnt over 80% of her body and had half a dozen major surgery scars on half of her appendages, also begging. Another 100 yards there was a guy with no body below his belly button. No kidding! he was "sitting" (I don't know how you do that without a butt) on the boardwalk. It looked like there was a hole in the boardwalk and only his upper body was sticking through; but that was not the case. No hips, no butt, no legs, you know...not even one of those. No, I don't know how he does that. It was freaky. We turned around and headed back for the truck. We had had enough of Atlantic City.
I could not believe this was it. We spent the next 2 hours driving up and down blocks trying to find something worth seeing. Couldn't find it. Didn't exist. So we packed up the truck and headed to New York.
We plugged in the closest public parking lot to the boardwalk and were directed to this spot (above). This was the back of a building that fronted on the boardwalk, so it was close. However, we were not sure if our truck would still be here when we returned. That Lincoln has been stripped, and there are enough used mattresses to furnish a hotel on highway 99. Dumpsters are overflowing, graffiti is rampant, and eerily, there were not many folks around: except these 4 characters, smoking and drinking (after all, it was after 10:00 AM). Nevertheless, we decided to risk body and life, and donned our backpacks to trek the boardwalk.
It was a foggy day; adding to the mystery of why anyone would spend their time here. We strolled the boardwalk for about an hour; traveling 1-2 miles south. If you did not know (and I did not), Atlantic City is a gamblers mecca. Most, if not all, of the money in this town comes from Donald Trump and the like. Between the casinos are junk touristy shops of souvenirs and T-shirts, rat food joints, tobacco shops, liquor (they call them "package stores"), massage parlors, and fortune telling shops. That's it! every 1/8 mile there is another string of them. No kidding. Like you would have missed the last package store, or needed your fortune told again since you forgot it already from 10 minutes previously.
Now, I know this is politically incorrect, but it was kind of a freak show here. Maybe it was because it was around noon, but this guy in the wheel chair had no arms (but he had hands) and he was holding a plastic jar begging for cash. 100 yards down the boardwalk was a lady who appeared to have been burnt over 80% of her body and had half a dozen major surgery scars on half of her appendages, also begging. Another 100 yards there was a guy with no body below his belly button. No kidding! he was "sitting" (I don't know how you do that without a butt) on the boardwalk. It looked like there was a hole in the boardwalk and only his upper body was sticking through; but that was not the case. No hips, no butt, no legs, you know...not even one of those. No, I don't know how he does that. It was freaky. We turned around and headed back for the truck. We had had enough of Atlantic City.I could not believe this was it. We spent the next 2 hours driving up and down blocks trying to find something worth seeing. Couldn't find it. Didn't exist. So we packed up the truck and headed to New York.Not a place we need to visit again. Unless you are an avid gambler, give it a pass.
posted by James C. Paton at 4:28 PM
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