Hi all!

Just wanted to share my trip...

First of all a big thank you to Sambo-Chris...you're info helped me a ton-THANKS!!!!

Just got back from Jersey last night and I had a blast! We spent a lot of the time in NYC so we didn't get to see everything we wanted in Jersey. We did however go to Asbury Park because The Stone Pony and The Fastlane bars were two very important stops for me. The Stone Pony was great! We were the only three in the bar (because we went around 4 in the afternoon) and we sat and talked with two guys that worked there for almost three hours! They told us all kinds of stories about Jon and Richie and what they're like and how they have to remind Richie that he's married everytime he visits because he apparantly has a lot of "history" with servers that work at the bar! lol The Fastlane was closed so we just took a few pics out front. The surrounding boardwalk area was depressing. It was like a ghost town...it's a shame but there is talk of some re-building to start soon. Anything to keep the Stone Pony up and running!
From there we went to Jon's current house. We took the scenic tour through Seabright and Rumson and man, the houses are amazing through there. It looks like a great place to live. I have seen so many pictures of Jon's gate that we recognized it immediately (we almost rolled the car!) and seeing the big american flag draped over the front of the house confirmed it! We didn't want to intrude but we did want to snap a few pics so we decided to pull into the neighbours driveway where there was a great view. Go figure guess who came home...(not Jon-I wish!) but the neighbour. We told him what we were doing although it was obvious he had seen this sorta thing 1000 times and he kinda rolled his eyes and laughed. He told us we were more than welcome to take some pics as long as we respected both properties ...he was a very nice man, especially realizing how many times he has to put up with that sort of thing! So after we took the pics we stopped into Jon's driveway one more time. Suddenly we hear this beep and I swear all three of us just froze and our hearts skipped a beat (we have heard that Jon answers the intercom very frequently)...then a women's voice came through the intercom asking if she could help us. Whoops! Last thing we wanted was to intrude so we quickly apologized and explained that we just wanted to take a quick picture. She was nice enough about it and didn't really say much more than ok...bye. Anyways, that was our experiece at Jon's house. Nothing like the stories I have heard about fans meeting him there but still, seeing the house was enough for me.
Now we had planned on Woodbridge and Sayreville stops but the unexpected three hour stop at the Stone Pony didn't allow for us to make those last stops. I really wanted to see Richie's old place and even the one he still owns but that just means that we will have to go back. Hopefully on the next tour so we can get a concert stop in there too.
Anyways, thanks again for all the help I received to help make my trip so memorable...I would love to hear of all NJ trips from anyone who has the time to tell them!