REAL WEEKEND IN JERSEY
Event Centric travel is 180 degrees different than destination travel. Without the event, why bother? Travel Laureate Kevin Joseph heads to Atlantic City this month, his first time back in 25 years
By Kevin Joseph
As I made out for Atlantic City from New York City on a beautiful morning I was excited to see “Thunder on the Boardwalk”…The Atlantic City Air Show. But I was giddy to see Gordon and Christina Bowman-Jones, a couple I had met in March at a huge air show in Melbourne, Australia. GoBoJo (as I love to call Gordon), well, he and I were fast friends upon introduction. I consider him to be one of the most interesting people I’ve ever met. He’s iconic in the world of aviation and he travels the world working as a commentator/announcer for all of the top air shows. His knowledge of military and civilian aircraft and history is staggering and encyclopedic so his billing as “The Voice of Aviation” is well earned.
My anxiousness to catch up with him was ameliorated by the surprisingly nice drive—once past the areas featured in the opening scenes of the Sopranos and onto the express lanes of the Garden State Parkway, it only took about 3 hours. As I drove cleared the arch that greets motorists along the Atlantic City Expressway that reads “Atlantic City – Always Turned On” (that’s their slogan), I thought cynically, “Yeah, we’ll see about that.” But my pondering of the matter was sidetracked almost immediately as I realized two things. 1.) Atlantic City sits on a barrier island. 2.) I don’t have any more cash in the car for another damn toll. I scrounged under the driver’s seat to find 75 cents.
I hadn’t been to AC since I was a kid. It had been 25 years or so since my Dad took my brother and me there for a day at the beach. It was the first time I ever stood up on a surfboard.
I’d like to say that I realized how much it has grown or changed since. But I can’t really recall anything from that visit when I was 10. And you don’t need me to tell you that AC has grown in the past 25 years. It’s something else now—big and sprawling, a cosmopolitan destination filled with every kind of American entertainment and vice imaginable.
One thing has not changed, however. Right off the beach, one block from the glitz and glam…sits reality. Poverty, boarded up buildings and homes, panhandlers and some shady looking characters. Not that this dark underbelly is everywhere, but you notice it here and there. Perhaps some of this is the result of our current economic times, but I seem to remember similar scenes from 25 years ago…and my dad commenting about it. Anyway, if you were to wander into a bad part of this town at the wrong time, well, let’s guess you’re probably shopping for hookers anyway. It probably won’t take you long to find one. This side of the city is easily avoided so don’t take away the impression that it’s “all around you.” I felt as safe there as one would nearly anywhere else.
I arrived just in the nick of time to see the first performers in the air show. The Army’s Golden Knights Paratrooper Team jumped from a big transport plane just as I stepped onto the boardwalk. The hits kept coming…for the next 5 hours! The details are found at www.theborgata.com/airshow/. I didn’t see anyone selling tickets and I didn’t see anyone wearing wristbands. So, there’s another reason to go. It’s a FREE show.
The highlight for me was not the USAF Thunderbirds (although they were amazing). No, for me it was watching a simulated US Coast Guard rescue from 100 yards off the beach. And now I know that if I ever cover an air show with this kind of a performance again, I’m gonna work somebody to get to be the guy they rescue. Somebody’s gotta be the demo man in the water? Why not me? I’m game. What a story for the grandkids, right?
The best thing about air shows like this is that the planes are right there in front of, above, beside and all around you. You can feel the thrust of an F-18 Hornet blowing your hair back from 300 yards. The sound and the power really is extraordinary. In AC, the really fast jets can only fly by at half-speed however. That is because if they were to break the sound barrier (and produce a sonic boom) your ocean side hotel would have no windows left in it. But, trust me, 500 mph passes are still VERY impressive. You can smell the jet fuel at times. And who doesn’t love the smell of jet fuel at the beach?
You also get a sense of what a huge operation our armed forces are in times of war and in times of peace. And what amazing feats of engineering these aircraft are. The announcers give you all the specs on these aircraft and 
they also give you a great amount of appreciation for all of the men and women serving in the armed forces that operate and care for these extraordinary machines. It all makes one feel quite grateful for and proud of what is great about America, and, perhaps, a bit inspired by it all.
Finally, the shock and awe some of these attack planes and helicopters must represent to their targets in real-war scenarios has to be just awesome. I mean, here I am, sitting on a beach with a daiquiri in one hand and a cell phone in the other and these things are buzzing all around me, unarmed and "in a show" and I’m thinking, "Man, that thing is scary as hell!" It's in these moments that you can imagine being a bad guy and target of one of these war birds with nothing to protect yourself other than an old machine gun and the sense of soon being reduced to a wet spot at the bottom of a sizable crater.
A word of advice if you do plan to check out this air show next year: bring a beach umbrella.
You’ll need it on a sunny day like we had. And get there early to set up near show center, the epicenter of the fly-arounds.
Even though the show was 5 hours long, it went by in a flash. But in the process I made some new local friends who were happy to show me around a bit before dinner. They took me to The Chelsea, a ‘60s kitsch beach-front hotel with a vibe and a roof-top pool that recently underwent a $100 million dollar renovation. Right on the boardwalk, just down the beach from the center of all the action, travelers who are just not that into gambling prefer it.
A few drinks and a few laughs later, I realized I was running late for dinner with GoBoJo. So, I took leave of my new friends and headed over to The Borgata where we were all staying and where the dinner bell was ringing. Driving from one end of town to the other was like time travel. The juxtaposition of old and new was palpable: The Chelsea was right on the old, historic boardwalk, and despite the renovation and all the "cool cats" lounging poolside you could feel its age and its place in Old Atlantic City. AC pre-dates Vegas, Branson and all of the other American gaming destinations by decades. And that soul is coveted and cultivated by the locals. As well is should be.
Arriving at the Borgata is like stepping into the belly of the beast. All glass, all 21st Century, this is the big show. Clearly, it is the hot spot in AC right now. Off the strip, it’s a bit of a destination, but my view from the 25th floor spanned the strip, the beach and the marshes that separate the island from the mainland. The casino, restaurants and rooms are first rate and brand new.
Gordon GoBoJo is one of those people others love to listen to. Wise and intriguing with a delightful Australian accent, thousands of flight hours to his name, six children and more stories than Aesop has fables, GoBoJo never runs out of stories. We talked about Paris, next June. Or perhaps Dubai in November. Time will tell where the winds of fortune will put us together again. He and his wife Christina had an early flight to Cozumel, so we took leave of one another and I wandered out to meet up with my new local friends (now my tour guides) for a few drinks out on the boardwalk.
We met at the Hilton and walked North on the boardwalk and on the beach for a while hitting a few beach bars along the way. Low tide revealed a much bigger beach than the day had. And the darkness of night shifted one’s focus from the beach, ocean and the blasts of supersonic jets to the flashing lights of the hotels, restaurants and bars along the boardwalk. The smaller, older structures seemed to glow with the confidence and joy of a proud grandfather. The bigger and newer structures seemed to flash and pose like a teenager wanting for attention.
My tour guides had offered me a kayaking tour of the bay for Thursday, should I opt to stick around. By bedtime, I figured, “why not?” I was already dreaming about a bucket of blue crabs for dinner on Thursday. I wish I could tell you a tale of a brave and athletic excursion. But those aspirin could not remove the crown I had been given as the “King of Joviality” the night before. So, honestly, we just putzed around and really didn’t get that far into the marshes, which I later discovered (from the car on the way to dinner) to be quite beautiful and full of Osprey. After a bit more sun than was necessary I returned to the Borgata for glorious nap where I dreamed of that bucket of crabs I was gonna murder as soon as this headache was gone. I finished off my stay by driving out into the wilds of South Jersey for a fix at a restaurant called, what else, Crabby’s. It was not a place you’d easily find on your own. A cross between family seafood shack and biker bar, it was authentic and low key.
Leaving the Borgata and out of town on the AC Expressway, I passed that sign again; “Always Turned On”. Yeah, maybe it is, although I think maybe it’s better said like this: Atlantic City – Rocking since Vegas was just a pile of rocks! For someone like me, AC offers so much more than Vegas. I don’t really enjoy gaming, so, taking that off the table for either town and comparing the rest each has to offer, AC has the advantage. Also, I’d rather be in AC and at the beach in the summer than cooking in that the damn desert. They say Vegas is a dry heat. I say "Yeah, so is an oven."
Also, AC has an old soul. Vegas goes back, what, 60 years? And everything that was there at first has been demolished and something bigger, newer and grander has replaced it. Grandpa has been buried. It belongs to the grand kids now. And the kids these daaaaaaaayyyyyyyys. The Historic Boardwalk of AC goes back to the 1800’s. The Steel Pier is legendary. Bruce Springsteen and Bon Jovi come from the Jersey Shore. Who comes from Vegas? Sigfried and Roy? Puhlease. Put down the sequined pleather jumpsuit! Step away from the white tiger!
AC has miles and miles of really nice beaches, which attract and deliver for elderly beach combers and svelt young surfers alike. Vegas and hectares and hectares of hot, raw desert. What good is that? And it is NOT 120 degrees in June, July and August in AC. The island offers millions of acres of beautiful estuaries and salt marshes for crabbing, fishing, birding and kayaking. I’m quite sure you can charter boats for bay, river and ocean fishing of all kinds. And the surfing can be pretty good, actually. Just to the north is a huge wildlife refuge which would have been interesting to explore, I’m 
sure.
Vegas may have more big name shows and big name entertainment than AC (and I’m sure you can surf in chlorinated wave simulator in Nevada) but, hey, Englebert Humperdink is playing Trump Plaza on Oct. 10th. (OK, I admit it. I could not go without mentioning Englebert Humperdink or Trump in this account. It’s a given. And to find a way to put them both in the same sentence? Oh, victory is mine.)
But I digress. My point is this: Do you need “ALL Vegas has to offer”? It’s overkill. American overindulgence. You can’t take it all in. And it comes with oppressive heat half of the year. So, I don't know, the excess in the middle of a barren desert seems to mock logic a bit. Also, for East Coasters, it’s a long way to travel. And while a plaster of Paris Eiffel Tower and a fake New York City skyline, may be impressive to a kid who has never been out of Idaho (and who now probably thinks that there is actually a roller coaster in midtown Manhattan), it will not impress a seasoned traveler who has actually been to NYC or Paris.
Overall, Atlantic City offers weekend warriors like myself a better combination of heritage, sport, nature, culture and entertainment than does Vegas. That is certainly true in the summer, and possibly year round. The event (Air Show) made it much more fun, I think, which is why, whenever possible, I build my travel around a great event like this. And if you must play the slots, they have plenty of those there too. So Loss Vegas? Ayyyyyy, Fuggeddaboutet!
Travel Laureate Kevin Joseph will next be attending and covering The Fall Polo Classic, in Washington, DC on Saturday, Septemer 19th. India and The United States field teams on the National Mall.
See http://www.AmericasPoloCup.com and
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qx9Jsq6lLnw&feature=PlayList&p=99C5CC1824870AF2&index=0&playnext=1
MENTIONED:
The Atlantic City Air Show
http://www.theborgata.com/airshow/
Gordon Bowman-Jones – The Voice of Aviation
http://www.gobojo.com/
Atlantic City Convention & Visitors Authority
http://www.atlanticcitynj.com/
Atlantic City Chamber of Commerce
http://www.atlanticcitychamber.com/
The Borgata
http://www.theborgata.com/
The Chelsea
http://www.thechelsea-ac.com/
