The Wrong Way to Atlantic City

Success Road--NOT the way to AC

I was walking in the field on the south side of Success Road in Colliers Mills this morning, just as the snow was starting. If you've never been there, you should know that Success Road is is dirt and sand. A woman in a sedan with Pennsy plates stopped, rolled down her window and asked me if this road went anywhere.

"Depends on where you're going."

You can take Success for about 5 bumpy miles all the way out to Route 571.It's not a short cut, but you can do it if you have the right vehicle.  She did not have the proper vehicle to do so.

"The Borgata," she said.

"The casino?" I asked.
"Yeah."

For anyone reading this not in the Mid-Atlantic states (and all my Ukrainian bots), the Borgata is one of the few remaining casinos in Atlantic City. Atlantic City is over 60 miles away from where we were.

"You're lost," I said. I am a man of few words when I'm standing in a snowstorm.

Now, a little while before this, I'd been on Brynmore Road in New Egypt (added Killdeer and Brown-headed Cowbird to the year list) watching a florist's delivery van go up and down the road, making K turns in the driveway of Lone Silo Farm. He finally stopped and asked me to help. He was looking for an address that was about 80 numbers away from the address on the nearest mailbox, but his phone said he was already there. I pulled out my phone, looked at the map and sent him down around the curve.

I can understand being a half mile off on Brynmore Road. As I stood there in the snowstorm, I could not imagine how any GPS device could send you up a dirt road in a WMA to get to a major destination in New Jersey.

I told her to turn around, go back out to 539, make a left and take it about 20 miles down to the Parkway. She cursed, but made a U turn and sped off. It occurred to me a moment later that it was probably more like 30 miles down to the Parkway from there, but anyone so oblivious who would, if she wasn't lucky enough to meet a birder, drive up a dirt road thinking it was a route to a fancy casino, would probably not notice an additional 10 miles tacked on to her journey.