Yes! The opportunity presented itself to do a postal jaunt. First note that I hadn't done a run since Covid. Yes, I have gotten one or two postmarks when I could, but no road rally. That all changed on Thursday October 5th.

I hadn't really announced it, but I retired as of September 1st. Not really comfortable with this just yet as I turned 65 recently and I thought I'd work forever. Also I thought I retired twice during Covid, but was coaxed back to do consulting gigs, then one turned into a job. I already had one consulting inquiry, so time will tell. In the meantime I'm working through the Honey-Do list, sleeping late and playing with my hobbies.

My daughter took full advantage of my new status, asking my wife and I to babysit our newest granddaughter on October 4th, and to stay over at their home in New Jersey for the next day. My wife helped with little Olivia (she's 7 months old and smiles all the time) She's granddaughter number 4 and let's just say Papa loves his little girls!

I had an eye on Ocean County for a long time. There are several CPUs I don't have in my collection. These aren't postmarks you will run into in your mail, the only way to get them is to go there. So I worked up a wish list of 12 possible postmarks for Thursday, October 5th. Surprisingly my wife encouraged me to get out of their collective hair for the day! So off we went.

I didn't get going early, I left the house about 10am. I did get up by 8am but I had coffee, and played with the baby a bit (I did mention she's adorable?). My first stop was the Howell post office on Route 9, just a short trip from my daughter's house in Freehold. I was there by 10:15. It's kinda funny the postmarks I'm missing in towns I spend time in. My sister lived in Howell for 35 years and I don't have the postmark? We fixed that.

The lady in front of me tied up the clerk for a bit. She mailed several pieces requiring assistance, then presented a hundred dollar bill. The clerk was a pretty young lady, who reached into her own purse to cash the hundred! My turn. I presented a few of my cards and asked for postmarks. She wasn't sure if she could do that, so I presented my golden ticket (the postal regulation about hand back covers for collectors) and that cleared it up. She was very nice. I'm back in the car by 10:45.



I tend to plan my routes by going to the farthest post office and working my way back to my home base, aka "my daughter's house". I pop "Long Beach Branch of Beach Haven, NJ" into WAZE and it comes up with 45 minutes travel time. Um, let's try that again. I try "Lanoka Harbor, NJ" and it's only 30 minutes away (in retrospect I should have done the 45 minutes!) so I head there.



I landed at the Lanoka Harbor post office by 11:35. No big issue at Lanoka Harbor! The clerk was an older lady who was very happy to cancel my covers.



My next stop was Silverton Pharmacy CPU of Toms River, NJ. I arrived by 12:15. This was the first CPU of the trip and wasn't disappointing! They had a full postal counter with a full time clerk. She was happy to cancel my cards with a smile. And it's really nice when a CPU postmark includes the business name! Not the norm! My original plan was to find a McDonalds for an Egg McMuffin in the morning and maybe something more exciting for lunch, but I was too excited and into the groove. I never stopped for food!



I then had three stops in Bricktown, NJ. Us old times call it "Bricktown" but like a rockstar that suddenly changes their name, the town decided it wanted to be "The Town Known As Brick" around 1978. I had the earlier Bricktown cancels, but needed the current moniker as well as a branch and CPU. Onward!

My first stop was the Osborneville Branch of Brick. Osborneville was originally established as a post office in 1879, and became a branch of Bricktown in 1960. I found the office in the center of a strip mall by 12:45, and there were two friendly clerks inside. Easily got my covers postmarked, then I noticed something... the cancel just said Brick! No identification of Osborneville at all. I asked the clerks and they were dumbfounded. They never thought anything of it. Somehow a section of the town had lost it's postal identity!



I moved on to find the main post office in Brick. WAZE said it was a 5 minute ride, and I arrived by 12:50. The clerks were jovial and accommodating, and wanted to chat for a bit. I got my cancels and asked if they had postal cards for sale. Sure thing. I bought 20 more cards, a newer version with a Mallard Duck on them. I used those on the subsequent stops.



I moved on to my second CPU of the day. This one was the Briarhill Pharmacy and I was there by 1:10pm. There was a dedicated postal counter, but the lottery machine was right next to it. The lady in front of me bought stamps and some Megamillions tickets. I took that as an omen and did the same! I've never bought lottery tickets at the postal counter. The nice young lady cancelled my duck cards. This postmark just said "CPU" and didn't have any business identity. I was on my way!

I headed to what the USPS site called the Point Pleasant Boro post office. I arrived there by 1:20pm and found it was merely the main post office for Point Pleasant. The clerks weren't sure why the site called it "Boro". With Point Pleasant being a shore town with tourist trade, I have many examples of that postmark.



From there, on the same road, I went for the Bayhead Branch of Point Pleasant. I arrived by 1:30pm. I broke one of my rules... I didn't check the smaller offices for their hours. I arrived right after they shut down for lunch! I found I'd have to hang out for an hour, so I moved on. I did come back later in the day to acquire the postmark. Mission accomplished!

I moved to the town of Lakewood, New Jersey. I needed the two CPUs. Lakewood is a Hasidic Jewish community, and I noted that their schedule showed they were closed on Saturday for the sabbath. My first stop was at CPU Mail Mart at 218 Clifton Avenue. This was downtown so once WAZE told me "You've arrived!" I had to park around the corner and walk in. I was met by a vacant storefront. I inquired at the store next door and the young lady told me it was there, but moved. She gave me directions to where she thought it was. That gave me a half hour walking tour of the downtown, while interesting, didn't give me any results. I later found out they were at at another location, a trip for another day!

My second stop was at CPU Newsmart at 1700 Madison Avenue. I found it, but discovered it was closed for the Jewish holiday of Sukkos, not to reopen until Monday October 9th. Again, I will head there another day. Fortunately both of these CPUs aren't that far from my relatives homes.

I spent a lot of time seeking out the two Lakewood CPUs, then decided to head back to Bayhead. I got there at 3pm. This was a small office and had no customers. The clerk cancelled my cards without question. At this point I was on a roll. I looked at my list and there was one more stop!



I headed to Neptune City. I landed in their lot by 3:30pm. The young Asian women clerk questioned my intent to acquire cancels. That's when I realized I didn't have my Golden Ticket! I probably left it at Howell since nobody had given me any resistance all day, I never missed it! I explained to her that my intent was golden and showed her all the cancels I had collected that day. She was okay then and cancelled my two cards. That's when I noticed for the second time that day that we had a post office with no identity. The cancel said "Neptune", the parent office but no mention of the branch. Duly noted and in my album that way!

And that was the day! I set out to hit 12 offices and at least touched base at 11 of them. My daily results were... 2 Lakewood CPUs closed. 2 branch offices without unique cancels and 1(Point Pleasant Boro) misnamed. 2 CPUs successful! 4 post offices successful! 6 new cancels for the collection. 1 aborted mission. A good days work!

As of today I have 1021 of 2222 possible towns and varieties for a completion of 45%. I am surprisingly complete for current post offices. I have the following counties complete: Atlantic, Cape May, Hunterdon, Mercer & Sussex. Several are almost complete. Warren, Middlesex and Salem counties need one more cancel. Monmouth County needs only 2! The North Jersey counties need considerable work though!

This is both good and bad... good is the sense of accomplishment but bad is that it's coming to an end. Eventually I won't have any offices to chase.

So all in all it was good day. The sun was shining and I met my goals. My daughter wants us to come back this week to babysit. I already have a list of 6 nearby offices I should visit!