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
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?
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?
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
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?
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
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?
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?
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?
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
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
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
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?
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
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
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
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?
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?
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
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?
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
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
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
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?
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
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
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
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?
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?
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?
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?
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?
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.