On the way back to

On the way back to New York, looking out the bus window, I saw two things I’d never noticed before. The first thing gave me a chill as we reached the top of the Delaware Memorial Bridge. An unmistakable nuclear cooling tower sat on the horizon looking like a cartoon. It seemed impossibly huge and far away, though it was probably quite close. This might have been the Hope Creek plant, or maybe Salem (pictured). I almost wish I hadn’t seen it. The second thing I almost missed as we crossed a bridge over a small creek on New Jersey Turnpike. I stared for a moment before I realized what it was – an old brown riverboat, intact but bare as a skeleton and lying at an unnatural tilt – and in that moment it was gone.