R and J in the USA

June 19, 2024

We spent a night at John and Deb’s horse farm in Cape May Landing, New Jersey. People who open up their properties as Harvest Hosts tend to be nice and friendly. John and Deb were that and more.

Being experienced RVers, they asked us about our van experience, gave us tips, and gave us a tour of their RV. They also offered up what they had to help us with the routine matters of van life. They let us use their spigot to fill up our water tank, and they gave us a tire gauge to check our tire pressure and an air hose to top off our tires as needed. (Being the self-reliant sort with a farm and heavy equipment, they had their own air compressor.)

John was a Navy submariner in the 1970s. After that, he ran his own excavation business. He still maintains equipment to do heavy work on his own property. Deb is a retired literature teacher.

John and Deb run Veteran Equine Therapy Stables, whose mission is “to provide an Equine Therapy Facility to active service members, Veterans and their families to help manage PTSD and to minimize the suicide rate among our military families.”

John and Deb have a flagpole display in front of their barn that includes several historical artifacts. There is a ship anchor that is from a replica of the slave ship Amistad. There is a propellor from a D-Day landing craft. And there are two steel buoys that helped hang a submarine net across the mouth of Delaware Bay during World War II. “They have World War II air in them,” John marveled.