Wytheville VA Tourism presents WE’RE OUTTA HERE a weekend destinationkeeping you on the backroads

Innat Sugar Hill

5704 SOMERS POINT ROAD, MAYS LANDING, NJ 08330 609-625-2226 • www.innatsugarhill.com

Deep in the southern part of New Jersey you will nd the Great Egg River that traverses along and through the Pine Barrens of New Jersey – the largest in the nation and the third longest river that lives entirely in the state of New Jersey – the Raritan and Passaic being the longer.

The New Jersey Pine Barrens, also known as the Pinelands or simply the Pines, is the largest remaining example of the Atlantic coastal pine barrens ecosystem, stretching across more than seven counties of the Garden State.

Great Egg Harbor (and thus the river) got its name from Dutch explorer Cornelius Jacobsen May. In 1614, May came upon the inlet to the Great Egg Harbor River. The meadows were so covered with shorebird and waterfowl eggs that he called it “Eyren Haven” (Egg Harbor). Today, the National Park Service considers it one of the top 10 places in North America for birding. Cape May is named for him.

But it was Captain George May who founded the town of Mays Landing in 1740. The jury is still out if one was the ancestor of the other.

The town, with its location that was as beautiful as it was commercially viable, thrived.

The addition of the railroad helped… for seven short weeks.

On August 11, 1880, over 1,000 members of St. Anne’s Church in Philadelphia were returning from a day-long trip to the shore when an oncoming locomotive rear-ended the train. The collision, which occurred over the Great Egg Harbor River, led to several casualties. Many of the

Today May’s Landing is a neat little town.

We visited during September’s MotoAmerica races held a short ride to the west in Millville and spent a few evenings at the Inn at Sugar Hill.

The inn sits atop a high bluff overlooking the Egg Harbor River. It was early in its life that the prized commodities of sugar, molasses and rum, arriving from the Far East by sailing ships, were stored in the safety of the high and dry thick-walled foundation of the Inn awaiting shipment to Philadelphia. This prompted the locals to begin referring to this part of town as Sugar Hill, a name still used to this day.

It was during the early 1800’s that Mays Landing became a thriving waterfront town with George Wheaton building over 100 sailing vessels just across from the Inn. In the 1850’s the Inn was expanded, doubling its size to accommodate visiting Washington and Trenton dignitaries by then owner, Senator William Moore. Mr. Moore owned a eet of more than 50 sailing vessels engaged in commerce along the entire eastern seaboard. As a state senator, he was praised for spearheading legislation that standardized the widely abused harbor tax set by the many seaside harbor states which had many sea captains staying out at sea during rough weather, putting sailors and cargo as risk.

The early 1900’s saw the Abbotts take ownership of the “villa”, as postcards were now calling the house. They owned the general store in town where you could buy anything from a pound of our to a model T Ford. Local folklore had circulated the story that the privateers from an earlier time had buried treasure on “Sugar Hill”. Mr. Abbott would wake up many Sunday mornings to nd his rolling manicured lawn peppered with holes dug by treasure seeking tavern patrons under the cover of darkness. Local papers of the day even ran the story with Mr. Abbott assuring the public that there is no buried treasure on Sugar Hill.

The real treasure here is the location.

The Inn at Sugar Hill has six rooms and we took the third oor Pennington Room – named for Captain John Pennington – one of the captains whose import of sugar and molasses gave the inn and the hill its name. This room had lofted ceiling, a wonderfully restored replace mantle and a very comfortable queen bed. This room worked perfectly for this race weekend and also offered a nice view of the river. The other rooms were equally accommodating.

During the summer months the inn has a tent outside at the river’s edge for cocktails, food, & live music. During the cooler months they offer inside dining at Izzy’s Steak & Seafood House.

But, as luck had it, both were closed during that slide from summer into fall, but the town offered plenty of dining options – we particularly enjoyed a Saturday night at Crabby’s with our friends Dave and Alma – with whom we rarely get to spend enough time.

The new innkeeper, Wendy Fabietti, took over the place in 2021 and together with her husband Vic and Executive Chef Israel Rodriguez are busy bringing this ne inn back to the splendor it deserves.

If traveling through this part of New Jersey and looking for a place that offers one of the best sunsets along the water then stop by the Inn at Sugar Hill and tell them Backroads sent you. ,

Catching Upand Revisiting

Many, many years ago, almost 20, we were watching the 6-season television show Lost. It kept us captivated – honestly, we came into it at Season 2 but easily binge-watched, caught up, and were happy to see that it had an end game – even though that end game was very, very disappointing.

Similarly, and almost on the heels of Lost’s demise, was The Walking Dead television series. Always one to want to see what people think the end of the world looks like, we started watching this from the get-go. Like Lost, we were disheartened with the path it was taking and we, similarly, parted ways.

Hearing that there was going to be a Final Episode, we decided to give it another go and catch up. With 9 out of 11 seasons under our belts, it was not too dif cult to do this, even though each season missed had 24 episodes. But, heading into the time of year when darkness comes early, we hunkered down and slotted out two episodes a night to try and get ‘er done in a timely manner.

‘Okay, Shira, where are you going with this?’ you are saying. ‘I have better things to do with my time than read about your boob tube habits.’

The other night, while watching Eugene and his new ‘friend’ Stephanie conversing, not only did we nd out that her real name is Shira (well, not the real Stephanie, and not even the real Stephanie is named Stephanie – oh, forget it…) but that she and Eugene both went to the Inside Scoop ice cream shop (wherever that may have been in ctional Walking Dead Land) but both enjoyed their super fabulous Black Raspberry ice cream.

You can just imagine the jaw-dropping effect this scene had on us. How in the world did this get into the Walking Dead? We know that Norman Reedus, AKA Daryl, is a motorcycle enthusiast, having had his own motorcycle show, and that he was known to park his motorcycle in Manhattan when in residence. Perhaps he had picked up a copy of Backroads there, was also an ice cream af cionado, and suggested the writers include these two facts in an episode. Ah, one can only imagine and hope.

Anyways, it made me reminisce and return my thoughts to the Inside Scoop ice cream shop that I did visit, much closer to home than Walking Dead Land, in Coopersburg, PA. I took a look at their Facebook page and, lo and behold, they, too, are Walking Dead watchers and posted the clip we had just seen on their page. I thought it justice, since I linked it to my own page, that I revisit their wonderful shop in this issue.

The building housing Inside Scoop has been in use since 1950 as a butcher shop and lawn mower repair, not at the same time. After Ronnie, the lawn mower guy, retired Penny and Tony Caciolo decided to take up residence in offering the community an ice cream and coffee shop. With a 45 acre sports facility behind the building, it seemed like a win-win situation. After a big of governmental entanglement, all was put through and the Inside Scoop moved on to being.

In the words of Penny and Tony, ‘The Inside Scoop was born. The philosophy of giving a superior product at a fair price in a friendly, fun atmosphere that helps you forget the worries of the world and escape into your ice cream or coffee, was nally a reality. The memories that the 2 owners (Penny and Tony) had of growing up together in Emmaus and visiting the local ice cream shop on dates when they were 15 seemed to be almost impossible to create in this busy day and age. But it appeared that this impossible task was becoming a reality.’ on Page 32