Episode 61 - Lighthouse Challenge of New Jersey

0:00 I'm Vince. Hi everyone, I'm Vince and I'm Emily and you're listening to the lighthouse lowdown It's not playing That slider right slider. No right slider. Yeah I'm gonna do it again Do you want to do it again? You don't like to keep in our technical difficulties. I love to keep them in. Well, welcome to the show everybody episode 61 It's our first time changing out the SD card. So that's right. We had to get back on track and now we're here it's kind of sad that two years plus of recording is Is oh No, it's gonna be a good day is less than a quarter of a terabyte, so I Don't know if anyone knows what that means sad as in like It's a lot of work. Yeah true, and it's not that much data. I guess Like like a piece of confetti like a fingernail of data Well everybody thank you for joining us welcome to episode 61 and And I think this is the most Well timed episode of mine so far. What I recorded for the time of year you're gonna see Do you know what we're talking about yet? No, no

1:32 Look at the screen Lighthouse challenge of New Jersey the 25th anniversary is this year 2024 So it started 99 and we're gonna talk about what the lighthouse challenge of New Jersey is I'm surprised you don't know pretty is that his seat? I don't know which one that is. Okay. That's funny I didn't even think about it, but New Jersey. I don't think is No his seat is over on the west coast. Isn't that Portland Oregon or not Portland, Oregon though? Yeah. Yeah. So No, that's okay. I don't know what lighthouse that is and I will try to figure it out Maybe I'll label it on screen now If I can find it If not sitting here both staring at the screen expectantly everyone's rolling their eyes like I have to go to YouTube now Anyways, so this is episode 61. I think I'm gonna jump right into our buoy though before we go back to the episode I like buoys and my booty is early on So, oh, it's another patent. It's another patent. I love patents excited for that. So No, no, no Okay, first what is the lighthouse challenge?

2:46 So I would like to know I'm gonna read their description from the website which we'll explore today So the lighthouse challenge of New Jersey is an annual event that takes place on the third weekend of October each year Okay, third weekend. We're almost there. The challenge is to visit Hear me. Oh 11 lighthouse sites three life-saving stations and one museum over a two-day weekend We would absolutely make it we could do it. If anybody listened to our Cape Cod episode, we would absolutely make it. Yes The and we'll talk about it. We'd be overnighting. We would be I drew up some maps Oh, this is just in case you're gonna make me those. Here's the problem. You know me. You're gonna make me want to do this Well, we have a whole lighthouse tourism Segment I guess that's gonna be starting as we go on these trips. What are the days October 19?

3:34 The third weekend. Let me pull it up on my little computer spooky That would be the 19th 20th Unfortunately, we are busy this year playing in the trick-or-treat scramble at Minor Park and potentially hosting a party golf Golfing it up golf and party party. I hope so because this is the This is the third year now. I've tried Third time's the charm, right? Yes Yeah, I've tried for three years to be in the scramble and each year something has happened. Something has happened. You've been busy Broken or your leg was broken. Oh, yeah, and then I had to travel And it got pushed back a weekend. Yeah, was that I can't remember in any case So for you will tell everybody the Minor Park is it's a golf course near where we live Trick-or-treat scramble. So every year they do this fun golf tournament Where it's it is competitive, but not really everyone wears like fun outfits and costumes But it's obviously right before Halloween and it's Halloween themed they decorate the course you hit a tee shot off of a Hey, bail, you're sitting on you Hole is a trick or a treat, right? They all have something fun. So we love golf, especially when it's goofy. So That's what we'll be doing this weekend, but you could be participating In the lighthouse challenge of New Jersey 25th year. I'm jealous. So The challenge route covers the Atlantic Coast from Sandy Hook to Cape May

5:08 I should go top to bottom Sandy Hook to Cape May Oh and the Delaware Bay and River Coast from Cape May to Palsboro. Okay, that's a lot. That's that's New Jersey that shape. Okay Rehoboth Beach where you were recently is right across from Cape May So we'll see that on the map. I wanted to take a little Water tour well water tax over to the other side Yeah, but I was there for a very limited amount of time. So I had to pick and choose Yep, which is true for this as well. So yeah the the The thing they say on the site So take the challenge and learn more about these historic treasures of New Jersey A small registration fee enables you to collect a souvenir from each of these Please join us for a fun family weekend and explore our website for more information New Jersey is pretty small, right?

5:59 Yes, the coastlines not crazy. It's not crazy. It is ambitious. Do you does you do have like? miles I mapped it, you know, I mapped it. You know, I spread sheeted it. I Got all engineer up in there. Yeah, speaking of spreadsheets. This is just a little side note That this kid is a little bit of a That this continues in real life too where I just bought a truck and Vince sent me a spreadsheet to use to track how much gas I put in It's so funny Yep, track your gas track your maintenance and service intervals So it'll tell you based on when you input your gas and the mileage your vehicles at When to change your oil and do your rear differential and rotate your tires all those fun things So that every time you ask me you need to change your oil on my I don't know when was last time you did it I don't know. She has no idea. I have all the history on my cars Oh my gosh, so I've already blown my buoy, but here we are back into it. Okay. Yeah, so To all every time you got it really. Mm-hmm. Okay, cuz I already but just get it started Um to all whom it may concern be it known that I Celadon El Dabol that's I know Name of New London in the state of Connecticut have invented a new and improved mode of making signals by sound which I term fog alarms

7:35 end quotes So this is interesting and this is just the top of the patent So I wanted to I wanted to show it obviously it's the title. It's the patent number And it's dated. Yeah, 1860, which I think is fascinating. Yeah, so this is one of the oldest on United States Lighthouse Society US LHS on their site. This is one of the oldest ones I could find and I picked it because for one I understood it more or less. There's some I don't understand on there be honest with you and two No, it's It seems like it was important. I think all these Patents were important. Otherwise, they wouldn't be documented. Of course, but I Don't know. I've seen some of this technology and other things and I wonder if this is the Founding of the technology or incorporation. You'll see what I mean Like did this fog alarm come before like a fog horn or come before a fog bell?

8:33 No, so they had fog bells There were already fog alarms fog horns and fog bells at this time this is a way to automate and diversify the sound to make different sounds and To project the sound in a better way at least in an improved way. I don't know better improved and I'll tell you well, let's talk about it And then I have a paragraph written on my screen that says what makes the patent unique because every patent has to be Because every patent has to be unique in its use of something We studied patents in school just a little bit So you can't just take like I can't patent something that everyone says or or copyright something everyone says or patent something that people already have They did recently the murer the demure. That's ridiculous the person who came up with it The whole third sound. Yeah, I roll. Yeah, they went to patent or not patent. They went to copyright I guess trademark the money and someone already did it like they took too long and There's someone doing that full-time It's devastating because like the amount of money you can make off of that when it's trending is Insane and they just don't get it. They just don't get to have it because someone else was like Let me just sneak in here and grab it even though they have nothing to do with they have nothing to do it Like how do you prove you don't that's one of the reasons I don't really want us to be on tik-tok as a as a creator Is tick-tok is like the the biggest thing for youth right now?

10:05 And I say that because we're middle-aged according to the people on tick-tok Well, I have it but the point I'm just saying is people they take your sound or they can they can clip your content and Rebranded as their own or put a voiceover Whatever and like on YouTube we can also do that. I allow that on YouTube if people want to take clips from our show They're welcome to do so. Yeah, but I just feel that the YouTube community There's more effort that would go into that versus like let me I'm already on my phone let me just click this and I'm gonna say my opinion now and like Yeah, disagree with the lighthouse lowdown like that trend. That's like kind of dying out now But it's like a split screen where they just sit there They just sit there while another video plays and they act like yeah, I don't sometimes they don't even nod along It's like sometimes I block out their face because I can't handle the ick of watching them Pretend to react to stuff. It's silly. It really it doesn't add anything deep into online trends, but here we are very demure very cutesy So I'm gonna go to another slide and this is the diagram that's shown on There's only a couple pages to the patent but on the diagram area and all of these are labeled with letters And this diagram shows the whole assembly together. So I've gone through the thing on the right the T Yeah stands for trumpet. Okay, so I went ahead and labeled everything Look at you. Why are there so many trumpets?

11:38 Everything is a trip it Okay, our podcast listeners can't see all this funny thing So I labeled the diagram all let's say 20 pieces all with the word trumpet So now I'll go to the real one. I saw two trumpets and I was like You named trumpet wise so now on this one which is actually properly named there are still two trumpets so the big T on the right is a trumpet and then on the bottom it's a Zoomed in view to show a trumpet and a read which makes noise like a buzzing sound to play a trumpet You buzz your lips or a read can play Yeah, sorry for the headphone users out there it's kind of cute it sounded like um, like a like a foghorn well Nice. I can't wait to listen to that back. I'm excited for that So I played trumpet growing up for those folks who care You executed it perfectly. Thank you. My sister would be proud. She's a professor of trumpet So there's a lot to talk about here, but the whole assembly we're looking at on the screen is a mechanism That's put together to do a couple things it compresses air like just ambient air Okay, and into a chamber they called it a I called it compressed air tank on here, but it's like a Air storage box is what they need. They didn't really have like tanks common out at that time at least compressed gas

13:10 Thanks box of metal so I'll talk through the process but compressed air stored and then a gear Rotates see the ratchet and the cam on the left Yeah, and so as those spin they actuate this stem and spring so go that goes back and forth and That opens and closes an air valve which obviously releases compressed air into a tube and then the trumpet okay, so by mechanical means you can be building up air pressure and then By the shape of the cam you can machine and carve and shape different cams It will make different intervals of sound It will make different intervals of sound as it spins Yeah, I see what you're talking about by the speed of the rotation the shape of the cam you can build in articulation Through just a spinning gear which is really neat I went way down. Oh, no rabbit hole and I won't take you all the way but just to the entrance. Okay, so All of this work goes into the machine at point P Which is the shaft of an air pump right in the middle and so the shaft needs to be driven by some mechanical means Could be a boiler could be animals could be by hand But that compresses the air and also spins the mechanism. Okay, so it's like a little bit like clockwork So there's something called an a hot air engine which is like a small tabletop Cylinder that goes back and forth that uses a heat source like oil

14:42 and It's a whole thing I was really interested in it because I studied a little bit of thermodynamics in college and It doesn't seem to make sense, but I figured out what it is It's a sterling cycle engine if anyone's a nerd out there like myself and they've been around for a long time Apparently they're tiny motors less than one horsepower and they were used to like run popcorn machines and spinning Assembly like they were often like kind of fun Z things but the guy who wrote this patent actually called it out He said a hot air engine would be ideal for this purpose. Wow, I think He knows more than I do But I'm not sure if that would have worked because they make so little power But anyways, I think this actual innovation worked I think the hot air engine was likes me saying you got a brand new car and it could use electric motor or a diesel Or a gap like the source of power doesn't matter in the chassis of the thing. So Compresses air spins plays trumpet sound and he was saying that you could have multiple trumpets for different pitches You could direct the sound on where the trumpet is located because it's compressed air and not steam a lot of the Steam whistles and fog horns at the time were run by steam. They would have condensate problems Oh, yeah today we know how to deal with as engineers at the time They hadn't perfected all the manufacturing and processes controls that we have now So steam would often build up condensate in a long tube So if you wanted to have your trumpet or your your horn out somewhere away from your boiler It was a problem. It had to be right at the boiler

16:14 Otherwise, you'd have the condensate would block the line and we get jammed. It would make the sound You had to have someone working on it all the time. So Having having dry air allowed them to put the trumpet anywhere basically and then he showed an alternative on top In case you don't want to try but you can still use a whistle which is shown as that W on top kind of cool, but the So I'm gonna read the things that make this unique What I claim as new and desire to secure by a letter patent is There's four items. Oh one the general method substantially as herein set forth by which air has been Mechanically condensed shall be applied to the Mechanically condensed shall be applied to the sounding of a trumpet or a whistle for the purpose of giving marine signals by sound to the use of the cam see when used for purpose of communicating a series of signals more Intelligible than the mere independent sounds substantially as set forth What is happy saying you can do patterns? Yeah. Yeah, but what is with the way people used to write?

17:25 That that could have been like, you know, he spent forever on this yeah quill Like no, no, there's no need for a henceforth Three the combination of the cam see the stem D and the valve e For the purpose of giving a variety of sounds of a trumpet or whistle for the purposes and in the manner above described He's saying the same thing For the trumpet T in combination with the reservoir are in connecting pipe L when used for the purpose herein set forth Salion L double There are two witnesses listed Anyways, you know if this was used at any lighthouses That will be a great thing for me to know I Feel like it must have been yeah Everything is I feel like everything's There's the steadfast ways that things were done But that doesn't mean that all lighthouses everywhere like the ones with spotlights on them were probably Using the tried and true, you know fog horns and fog whistles and stuff. But yeah Maybe they gave it a shot given the the military Ask nature and history of running lighthouses. I feel like Being creative is not really the thing to do You want to be consistent you want to know the process, you know, yeah, there there was I Actually don't know where I saw this or heard this but there's no excuse for a lighthouse keeper to not be familiar

19:01 with the the way the lighthouse operates Where did I see this might have been in my reading for this episode? Like it is no excuse they were encouraging if there's ever a mechanic that visits Or an engineer that comes to do a project or improvements or whatever the lighthouse keeper was encouraged to ask questions Non-stop, yeah, and they use their own words for that But it was you know, if something goes wrong and you can't fix it or you don't know what's going on You can't raise your hands and go The engineer installed some fancy shaft air pump down there and I just I don't know what the hell that is It just yeah, that doesn't fly The first line of defense for the lighthouse It's every single aspect so they gotta be well versed in everything. I just feel like it's a different attitude than Today like a lot of a lot of things now are just Well, I don't know. That's not my job. Yeah So I hate to say I really don't know where this was used. I do feel it was used because it's pretty intricate But it seems practical the way it's described. So yeah, it's patented. So there must have been some utility. Yeah so Any questions on our buoy for the day? No. All right We're back to the lighthouse challenge of New Jersey. Yes. So this is the 25th year So they must have started in 1999 which kind of blows my mind. I feel like that's ahead of The big wave of lighthouse Tourism around the time where how lighthouses were pretty dilapidated. Maybe that was the point was to bring people to areas that needed some

20:37 Yeah, renovations. I don't have a strong correlation, but there's some like when we talked about And we're gonna see New Jersey, obviously, so we're gonna be in the area but I've seeking light in Atlantic City. Yeah we talked about how it's kind of gone through some booms and busts as far as having funding and Being in good shape at least from the outside. I think that's true of a lot of lighthouses, especially in the US and it follows economic trends So this is y2k was 99. I think that was a smaller impact But then there's 2008 big economic crash and then unfortunately 2019 was kovac kickoff. So yeah, I'm hoping Hope is keeping me alive that everything's on the way up So we just getting interested in lighthouses in the last couple years and starting to talk about them Can be a part of it the money and the means to travel and right see things Yeah, if you don't have if you don't have money to pay the bills, you're not gonna go Tourism activities. Yeah So this is it's cool though. I mean it has it's 25 years is a while to be doing this. So this is a This year's souvenir is a blue and silver booklet. It contains a brief history of each site I want one including how many years it's been in operation as well as a brief history of the challenge itself It's gonna be a fat pamphlet or you get one. It's a little it's just one So this is in a way, it's a lighthouse passport Yeah, so obviously you can take your lighthouse passport from the US LHS to this challenge and you get stamps

22:12 But also this has its own sticker system. So Indeed at each stop you'll collect a silver embossed sticker. Whoa to place it on the page of each site Which is that's cool to me. I just it's simple, but it's cool. It's fancy you receive your booklet when you register So you can register at any of the stops funny enough and you'll receive your silver sticker for any given stop at that stop We went so the first one you go to whatever order you go to them in there's I think there's a best order But if you happen to go to one you're gonna do as many as you can. They should all have this material for you. Okay So you collect all the stickers will be given a completion sticker For your book and they'll be entered in the drawing for our three prize baskets. Is it bigger than the normal stickers?

23:01 That's what I want to find any images. I think they actually makes new stickers Okay, that would make sense. You wouldn't want people to just be well, you can't put them off because they're silver embossed Yeah, and they're I don't know. I mean, I'm sure it's pretty straightforward, but I think it's a nice idea Especially for people who don't have Yes, LHS passport system. Yeah, I love this idea still do your own thing and you're entered to win one of the three prize baskets I don't remember if I go over what those are or not. And this is at the end of October is when People kind of stop Closer the season. Yes. Yeah, we're like the technically we're past the end of the season We're like a lot of lighthouses are cut their hours and yeah It's less visiting times but October is when it really hits because it starts to get cold Anywhere coastline or on the lake that's cold Really cold. It's not like Kansas cold in October. We'll still have a party. That's slightly outdoors, right?

23:57 Yeah, I mean, it's the time of year you could go out to Hawaii or you could go to the Bahamas see Toby Smith in his lighthouse There's lots of options just cold time of the year So This is this is an image actually from the lighthouse challenge website So someone I think recently put this together. Well, that's a lot more than I thought it is a lot It's going on and it's a lot of area. So the way that I the Sandhook is up north. I believe These two I saw one of these which one Finns Point Down here Finns Point light. Yeah, the one that's just south of Wilmington. Oh Up here. Yep. It's near the airport for Philadelphia near is a relative term. Well, this Traffic is so crazy. This one which I can't remember which we'll look at it. I can't remember which way I know which one it is the last one Tennecom. Yes Tennecom, I don't know how to pronounce it. I'm guessing it's tennecom, but tennecom tiny come tiny come like I couldn't go to that one, but I did see it from the Philadelphia Airport while I was on one of those Walking treadmill things that oh, yeah faster. Yeah, I saw I remember that far there. It's a skeleton light It looks very similar to Finns Point

25:27 So oh it is Tennecom or tennecom tennecom. I'm just reading it on screen. I'm not reading the actual We don't have to go too deep into some of these I'd like to cover anyway, and we will For the moment I had to make a For the moment I had to make as you saw just on the last screen two maps because there are so many locations I can you can only put in oh Ten of them. I didn't know that. Yeah, I faced that problem a couple times Google Maps you can do better But so I made the assumption I was just kind of playing around maybe somebody can weigh in and see if there's a better way if we were to do This in the future, but I was thinking for flights because we live in Kansas City. We could fly into Philadelphia and fly back But you'd have to start at tennecom Go to the south coast and then up the east coast and then you kind of have like a It's two and a half hours this drive back You're right, it's up. This is the first two maps I'll show the second map but So I had two flights one. I just priced out right now. It's mmm September right now. Are you gonna pitch this on our next vacation?

26:45 Well, it's all series, honey So if we were to go If we were to go round trip to Philadelphia, it's only 299 bucks When you're not going last minute like I did then the price is actually pretty reasonable one month ahead. It's not bad. I mean Philadelphia, I think just has good prices in general. Yeah. Now if you're to end up north in New York area and fly home LaGuardia, I think is the airport I'm looking at Up here Newark, sorry from Newark Then that flight I did a multi-city so into Philadelphia out of New York New York 686 so not the affordable way to go and my problem is that if we flew into New York I would want to see a lot more lighthouses like we do have to go to Montauk and I like that you have liberty I just can't give a mouse a cookie. I Want it all I want it all So Tennecom Finn's point is out west here and you got East Point Cape May This is one of the museum locations. I can't know which one that is There's a life-saving station 30 Ebsikhan so you go out to oh My gosh

28:15 Atlantic City, thank you and then up the coast Oh, you just went by a bunch of golf courses. I know I looked at some of them. Don't worry Barnagat it's cool spot and then Squan Beach life-saving station. So there's a couple life-saving stations and as as the the entry said It's not I can't find my mouse It's not what is it 15 something like that? There's like but there's like 13 actual places to stop okay, because some of them are including both a museum or a life-saving station and Also twin lights. Is that Navey sink? It sure is Okay, this this would be I would be so all over this the seagirt twin lights And then I wonder if this is the fastest route. It must be this little interchange Back to Philadelphia. So this this takes you in like a full rectangle all of the whole border really and this Before I sound too stupid. Is that accurate? Yeah, I think so. I think this is right Look for the tiny border lines. See I think it's at the river. Oh, yes, you're right Okay, sorry, sorry everybody I'm from the middle of here anyways This is like a two-hour drive just get back to the airport. So if you and again, that's not a big deal But if you're trying to do it in a week days

29:48 It's three days two days like you can't go unless it's Opening time on Saturday. The challenge is between those hours. It's let's see if I can see it. It's a lot of gas Sites are open from 8 a.m. To 6 p.m. Both days of the weekend. Okay, Saturday Sunday 8 a.m. To 6 p.m Okay, so you don't even really have a chance. No, you do people do it. No, I'm just saying like it's 6 p.m I would think they would just stay open until like 9. I don't know. I'm giving I'm giving people too much leeway They got a drive. So the full Drive the full for two days the full driving time is 9 hours and 19 minutes 401 miles that's the loop that I did. Okay, so now but you don't have to get back to the airport Yes, that that extra there's two hours in there. That's just But could save it till Monday to Neekom is at the airport. Basically, it's across the river. Yeah, so it's not basically It's like 45 minutes across the river 30 minutes Oh my gosh Traffic's crazy. Well, I'm not from traffic. Yes, not to pay it across a bridge. I know you looked into it No, I didn't look into it. I did it. Oh my gosh I'm sorry. I'm gonna pull up their website. Oh, it's for reference. I can't read that lighthouse challenge and jay.com So you can can do this. It's a pretty good website and I'm zoomed way out

31:22 So this is the thing that I read earlier and two goes So 11 lighthouse sites three life-saving stations one museum over the two-day weekend. I Think I'm just gonna show through this I have some things to read but these are all FAQs I have up a real map. That's what I was referencing The sites this is I didn't spend as much time as I could have on here because it's just all the research Like this would get us started on any of our episodes Yeah, so like I covered Epsi can lighthouse and this is a video I've already seen and it's got a nice description Brief history. I assume this is the type of thing you would see inside of the booklet, right?

32:04 Just a little bit of coverage on each stop YouTube videos which connects with with me pretty well And there's one that's not included in this that I'm shocked by what we'll get to it later Oh my hours and directions for all these sites Also, I gotta say Downloadable directions really well done. This is a very good Hours or keep going up Going keep going Okay, it says please note if you arrive at five minutes to eight for a night climb, you won't have enough time Oh, but you know what I'm saying like it says 6 p.m. Or you can do a night climb 6 to 8 p.m. So You actually do have a chance until 8 p.m. Well night climb sites, which is not all of them Yeah, I'm just saying so those that are open at night climbs, which is not all of them Just trying to give a little bit of hope out there for people slow drivers Yes family fun I Read this and it really made me smile like how to do it with kids and survive from a mom and they talked about like Counting the steps give them a camera like a disposable camera As you pull up to any lighthouse like have them run the map and like see if they can spot it It sounds like so much fun. Yeah keep them occupied kids would really like this board. They would get in a car for that long Yeah, it's a lot of it's two days insane drive but it's just like one of them said have snacks for every stop

33:38 Oh like themed snacks. Well, it's just snacks. I would be all over themed snacks So you think you'd like to be a lighthouse keeper here's some of the rules they talked about kind of interesting. There's a bunch more 74 It's just some that they highlighted They have this booklet which is a coloring book for kids Every lighthouse on here and in museum as well. So this is Epsi can which I don't know if you recognize that's beautifully done They all have a little animal in front. So like there's some with a fox. There's some with a yeah little rabbit Barnagat light museum just it's it's really light-hearted And it's fun for I assume I don't have kids fun for kids and I feel like this would be something you could do as a family Yeah Dolphin on that one. So would do it and they would like it I don't know who did this but whoever did did a great job and it's available for free online. That's cool some horseshoe crabs So you eat and stay now i'm traveling. Let's go stay overnight. So i'll be honest with you I gotta be honest. I looked at just a couple I just clicked. Okay. I thought you were gonna say all of them No, no, no, just a couple that would be like you. I think the stay overnight is chosen by My voice is gone. I think the hotels and um A lot of them are motels and whatnot. They're not the fanciest which I wouldn't expect of course But a lot of them look Kind of like the quality of place that we stayed in when we went to cape con

35:13 Which was an affordable option for going to a cool place. Yeah, so I think that's probably true We probably have good relationships with the in-cap we like probably have good relationships with the innkeepers um and hotel owners, I mean so Depending on how you travel depending on your budget depending on what you're doing that that is what it is Okay, that's a good thing to have as a resource now. I looked at the eateries and I was excited A lot of these places look so good chubby pickle off the hook The chubby pickle the fishery navisink fishery salty whale shore pour coffee any descriptive word followed by an animal is Someplace I want to go sailing cow the sailing cow was worth visiting The filling station the blue pig So these are fun, but a lot of them look really good. And again, they're not i'm sure there's nicer options on here Uh a lot of them that I clicked through because I love restaurants. It's what I do when I travel is I eat like a crazy man We ate like crazy They are they look really good and local so Ocean city lots of good suggestions. Yeah, so whoever again whoever put this together kudos to you. It's really well done Then I don't know I didn't go to this site, but it's a good one. It's resources Uh, we last list down here is our united states lighthouse society up in washington There's a national lighthouse museum. I clicked on this and learned I did not know that it opened

36:45 Not long ago, but it looks really cool. So we might talk about that That's pretty close to the statue of liberty, isn't it? Yeah, I wanted to go there Well, it's statin island is not um, pull it up. I gotta see This is statin island And the statue of liberty is over here, but it's at the tip right? This is statue liberty. I know the the um Um lighthouse museums at the tip st. George area. Oh my gosh. You got it Wow, that's crazy. How did you know that because we went to we flew we had that eight hour layover in new york And I was trying to find What I wanted to do the most and it was this museum. Oh my gosh, but we couldn't make it happen I just knew it. Well, I watched a couple things one of the queens. I don't know which one visited there So there's a big press thing covering it Um, but they have one of the queens they have a lighthouse full of lighthouses like models. Are these harbor?

37:44 Lights brand or something I don't know. I want to go so bad. Yeah, it looks really cool You believe people just live near here and they can just go anytime they want They don't know how lucky they are at work today just to contrast that I was telling my co-workers about how to milk a cow How to that all cows have horns? more or less and How do the options to dehorn a cow and look at all the lights how much milk cows make so it's crazy And we know different things I don't know anything about cows and I also live here well So anyways, this looks really neat. I don't even know what i'm looking at. Staten island a ferry. So let's go back Okay. Yeah, we got it's a very good. There's other cape may ocean ocean city tourism Um new jersey lighthouse society didn't know that's in nevis ink um, so They do a good job whoever put this together I really I don't know It must be an organization called the lighthouse challenge of new jersey. Maybe it's through new jersey lighthouse society. I'm really not sure Yeah, but it's a very good website some of the things simple easy to follow I don't really want to the symbols good. I just we're already seeing it. What do I want to look at while I do some talking?

39:00 So one of the things they said backed by popular demand are secret stamps This year there will be a secret stamp at three of the stops at the challenge What do you mean? It will be unique to the 2024 challenge and only available during the challenge weekend Make sure you ask the stops on the challenge if they have one of the secret stamps I love it. What what stamp like this is? I don't know never seen one They're very elusive if anybody out there has an image of a secret stamp from Doesn't matter where yeah Secret let us know and it's nice because people would make a beeline for that specific location if they knew that they had a secret stamp All right, most valuable lighthouse doing the challenge in order to mvl Most valuable lighthouse, right?

40:00 So there's a bunch of faq Frequently asked questions that are on here I'm going to read some of them, but if you want to you can reach out to lhchallenge nj At gmail.com if you have any questions So when is the challenge we talked about it's the third full week of october. Uh, how do I register? How do you think you register? um carrier pigeon smoke signal Telegram telegraph and light characteristics. No, um, there is no pre-registration. Okay Trick question you register at the site where you start and you can start at any of the sites It takes a few minutes. They ask for your home state and how many are in your party?

40:46 And then of course they'll collect your registration fee Of course, I think it's oh, what does it cost is the next question? I was gonna say I think it's five bucks It's five bucks. The cost is five dollars to register Spectacular for that you get your souvenir holder the booklet Um, the special stamps is here for the 25th challenge. There's no other cost unless you decide to climb the lighthouses Some of them charge a fee Uh, it said children 11 and under are free To climb with an adult. So that's a good way to Just put it together. Yeah safe and safe and sound and a lot of times they just take donations and People are generous if they've made it that far. Yeah, I also tend to buy at least one thing from each gift shop Everywhere we go If it's a pin or a patch or a book I always buy a t-shirt Oh, I just got reminded There was a cool t-shirt there's a cool t-shirt with um the gay head fresnel lens on it and they had it on display in the Gay head lighthouse. No. No the marlowe's vineyard. Oh, yeah museum and I asked where they were keeping the shirts so I could buy one and they were out and I said can I buy it off the Mannequin and she said no Why not? I don't know I was like really?

42:09 I didn't know you asked that I did I wanted it I can't I can't believe they said no me too I thought for sure I could have it What color was it? It's gray You love gray shirts Anyway, sorry for the tangent. No, but but it is a good way to get money going it's not an exclusive club where you don't have to pay a bunch of money up front, but just by Having people there they usually end up spending some money and that's just good news for the lighthouse I mean we we talk about it all the time, but we just called in we were some of the guests on The 40th anniversary of the us LHS lighthouse extravaganza virtual really well done Jeremy de Etremont runs it. He did a great job. So What I was thinking about it remember how in cape cod especially we climbed lighthouses We climbed lighthouses. Yes, and it was kind of hard for me as a full-size person to get the tiny holes Yeah, so one of the questions do I have to climb every lighthouse to complete the challenge? No, not Be on the ground. You just have to visit the site Yeah, so it's good for you if you manage to do it is what they say exclamation point um, but you certainly don't have to climb them and I think that can make it a lot faster So like maybe if you're just gonna spend a couple minutes at each place and it's a road trip Yeah, that's probably the fast way to do it. So I would hate that pick a favorite It doesn't have to be like, okay, let's go. Let's go. Let's go Yeah, you don't have to run through it. But it is I mean the board challenge is right. It's it's a lot

43:44 It is challenging so you can you could start you know how to do the challenge is what i'm reading right now There's a infinite number of different spots out there that you could go to each one of the other sites So you could do the downtime everything we talked about the time and the locations There are 14 stops since one stop has two lighthouse sites Which one oh um, but You can we'll find it in a minute Uh, you can start to finish any of the sites. So you plan your own route Maybe it will be in contention. There's several trips that are already on the list for our lighthouse tourism exploits.

44:25 I don't know of them. The Pacific Northwest has two of them at least. In October? Oh, I don't know if we can afford to do. Listen, flights are cheap. We're gonna be driving. We can sleep in the car. If anyone wants to sponsor us here at the lighthouse lowdown, we are young. Help us do this. That'd be great. We have no sponsors at this time. We don't make money from this podcast. I have no prospects. I am 29. We do this for the fun. I'm not even 29 yet. No, you're not, but you are tomorrow. Everyone say happy birthday, Vince. Happy, happy birthday. Stop.

45:05 Anyways, what happens if you complete the challenge? Your last stop, let them know that you've completed the challenge. Oh, God, that would suck. If they close and they're walking by you, fight them. Actually tackle them to the ground. Don't do that. They'll check to see your stickers for visiting all the sites. And then you'll receive a completion sticker and your name will be entered into a drawing for a prize basket filled with lighthouse goodies. There are three prizes with the grand prize worth more than $500. Nice. So question that I don't know if you'll know the answer to.

45:46 This pamphlet, does it have a spot for the sticker that's the exact shape of the sticker? I don't know. Because that would drive me crazy. I was imagining that you're covering part of the image or part of the text with your sticker. Oh, okay. But it's up to you. Yeah. I don't know. I envisioned like a grid board of empty sticker spots and then you put the sticker in the spot. Let's get it. They described each page as having an image in the history of the lighthouse you're visiting. So how many steps, the years? I bet there's a little blank space at the bottom that's you put the sticker. I don't know for certain.

46:26 If you lost your pamphlet. You'd have to re-register. No, like what if you're like driving and you're like, where's our pamphlet? Oh my gosh. You'd have to re-register. You'd lose your stickers. You'd have to call every lighthouse, get them to say, yeah, he was here. Do you remember me? He was tall. Yeah, true. Blonde and tall. But a grand prize of worth more than $500. That's pretty hefty. It's pretty good. It's gotta be a state, a lighthouse, right? What else are they gonna? I don't know. It's like a pair of Bose headphones. Like they're not gonna, you know. Yeah, true. It would have to be nautical related, I would think. I don't know, maybe it's the ocean. Oh. So. Wait.

47:06 Does it say how many people usually participate? Nope, didn't say. I don't know. I wanna know how likely I am to win these prizes. What's the percentage that I win? Yeah, you could have good odds, honestly. So if you Google the lighthouse challenge of New Jersey, there's their site. Here's a what is it? Oh, there's a video someone made. Oh, ooh. What is of the lighthouse doomsday list? Oh. Oh no. Lighthouse digest. I wanna get that now that we've moved. It's a list of endangered lighthouses compiled by the lighthouse digest. That's sad. That is sad. We're like ooh, what's the lighthouse doomsday list? And then we're like, oh.

47:47 So we're off track here, but. Sorry, I really got us off. That might be a pamphlet book. Wait, wait. Scroll down. I think I saw right there. Whoa. Collection coin album. Oh, okay, this is not the same. Well, it might've been, it was the 20th anniversary. So that's in 2000. Oh, pressed penny version. I can't even. Bro. Okay, we're going to Facebook, everyone. Hold on. 2019. Oh, that was cool. That's so cool. Penny collector. For those of you listening, it's a pressed penny, the coin collection book that they did for the 20th anniversary.

48:29 So instead of stickers, you press a coin at the location and get the coin. Really cool. Awesome. And they still have it on Facebook as their, maybe it's year specific. Let's see. No, as the Lighthouse Challenge of New Jersey, they were proud of that one. Yeah. Cool. This is a, so I hate to say it, because it never, I never find a good Facebook page. We need to do the challenge just for the. Just for the swag. Merch. So for those of you that are being dragged along just by listening, I'm sorry, we're exploring the Facebook page of Lighthouse Challenge of New Jersey and looking at their pictures. Looks like a lot of volunteers. Can you go back? It says, my husband and I did this for the first time this year and had an awesome time.

49:11 We were cheered on by several people as we were on a motorcycle, even in the rain. They invited a motorcycle group. That's awesome. Well, it's on my bucket list. That's cool. I'm a big fan of this. Easy, easy bucket list item. I was happy to find it. So back in our slides now, we're looking at the map again. What lighthouse is in this area that they did not include? And why? I don't know the answer to why yet. I gotta be honest with you. You have any thoughts? We have covered it. In fact, I covered it, which cuts it down some. You ready for a hint? Yes, please. The name of a cow breed.

49:51 Oh, Hereford. Hereford Inlet. Hereford Inlet lighthouse. Why not? I don't know. Obviously, if you wanna go learn about that, episode 57, July of 2024. Are they doing a renovation right now? It looks in great shape in the images that we saw. I couldn't remember if you mentioned at the end that they were in the middle of some kind of restoration. Maybe, I mean, that's so often. Yeah, sure. Maybe it's a different ownership. Maybe it's not public. I actually can't remember and I just covered it in July. It's hard. We cover a lot of stuff. So I'm gonna go listen to it on podcast. That's why I record all this is because I can't remember anything. But so Hereford Inlet lighthouse, which I remember being fascinating.

50:33 This is one of the images from that episode where the ground had all washed away. So they had to move the whole keeper house, which we've heard before, but it's always crazy. A tale as old as time. So there's some sources. And this was the lighthouse lowdown. What questions do you have? No questions, but this is definitely something I wanna be doing. You're the one who put it on my radar. So you gotta suffer the consequences. I hate to say like New Jersey. I don't know of anything there. Now I do. But like it's far away from my world. I haven't spent a lot of time in that part of the country. If you said, hey, let's go to New Jersey. I have no idea what we do. But now I know.

51:14 Now I know what we do. Now I know exactly what we do only October third week. The third week. And of course you can go to these lighthouses when they're in season other times. It's just not gonna have the stamps and stickers. The challenge is the allure of the whole thing. I would like to do this. I think it's fun that it's a weekend. I mean think about from our case where people are gonna get used to me talking about lighthouse tourism. I think it's a big thing. It's very exciting to me for personal reasons. And it's also important for what we're talking about. Which is preserving and being excited about lighthouses. But for us and others who may fly in and see an event like this, we don't have a lot of time off for vacation.

52:00 But hey, it's two days. If we can get one more day, or if we're really just drinking Red Bull, we can take no days off. And just fly there and fly back. Just backpack it. You know what I mean, small bag. We're not spending time on the beach and all that. But it is October. So maybe the thing that you'd wanna do is a road trip. Maybe that's the best October weather. You wouldn't be passing by all the beach and be like, oh I wish I was laying out there. Cause you wouldn't be. Right. But yeah, some of the other trips that are just really tempting to me is up to the Pacific Northwest is really in my mind most.

52:43 To the north coast of Washington. And then if we could poke across to Victoria, we'd go international. Yeah. Victoria Island. I had some family history up there. And then we looked at Oregon, the coast. What is the Cape Disappointment? Columbia River. So the Columbia River Bar in that whole area has a bunch of lighthouses and shipwrecks and life saving museums. And it's also just really pretty. Those are two over there. Florida has some that I've looked at. Maine is a really big one that we've looked at. Love to go to Maine. Yeah. Talked to Jeremy about going up his way. So there is a lot.

53:23 Bahamas, there's several in the Bahamas we've talked about. Overseas stuff. There's lots of overseas stuff. Across the pond. Lots of ponds. Spain has a lot of good lighthouses. Yeah. I'm gonna butcher it. Camino de Ferros, something like that. Was one of my episodes. It's the hiking trail. Yeah. Of lighthouses that ends at Finisterra. This is the end of the earth. So very cool. Now I'm off track. But the point is, I love lighthouse tourism. This seems like a really fun trip. Good for them for putting it together and doing such a great website. And I think it looks like other people have done it and had a great time. So. Yeah.

54:04 My pleasure to cover it. It's on the list. Thank you. Thank you all for listening. Find us anywhere that you podcast. Reach out to us on our website. Leave us a voicemail. Send us a message. I run the YouTube very poorly. So if you wanna go make comments there, like, subscribe, that's all good news. The only other thing that I wanna say is that we are working on hats. I can officially say we've started that. Now that summer is over entirely, I'm working on ball caps. So maybe in the springtime, you'll see ball caps either for sale or. Or we'll hand them out. We'll hand them out. It's not a good idea about patches.

54:45 Yeah. Lighthouse specific patches to go on it, like a Velcro, like on the hat. Yeah, I'm trying to brainstorm if anybody's up and up on that. Like a hat that we could have or maybe two different cuts, men and women's typical styles, but have a logo of ours either off to the side or on the back or something. And then it'd be really fun like to meet the people that are donating their time and helping us to see these lighthouses and tell them about our podcast because I can't help myself, but also give them a hat that would have both the lighthouse lowdown as a call out, but also where they're working, where they're volunteering a project they're on for the main feature of that hat.

55:32 I just think it'd be fun. Entertain interchangeable patches on the same hat. Yeah. So like if you care about lots of lighthouses, you can have lots of patches. That's right. There's lots of like military style hats that do that. I have a couple of those. All right. Anything else you wanna say before we say goodbye? No. Well, thank you all for joining and we'll see you next time on the lighthouse lowdown. Goodbye. Moving up.