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Green Sergeant's bridge is the last covered bridge in New Jersey.

(Jerry McCrea)

I live Down the Shore, and hopefully always will, but I sure miss Hunterdon County.

I’ve lived in Clinton and Alexandria, and have always considered Hunterdon the prettiest county in Jersey — rolling hills, deep woods, open space, great winding country roads.

One of my favorite stretches of road runs from Sergeantsville to Rosemont. It’s Rosemont-Ringoes Road — Route 604 — which manages to pack in its 2-mile length the state’s only true covered bridge, a general store, a church, cemetery, a charcuterie and one of the state’s more eccentric stores.

The covered bridge is the Green Sergeants bridge, which crosses the Wickecheoke Creek. The first bridge here was built in 1750; the current span dates to 1872. Covered bridges are often associated with Pennsylvania and the Midwest, but there once were 75 covered bridges in New Jersey.

The Green Sergeants bridge (the “Ser” in Green Sergeants and Sergeantsville is pronounced as “sir”) is westbound 604 only; eastbound traffic uses a steel span.

Listen to the wooden boards thwack and thump as your car rolls through.

Downtown Sergeantsville, such as it is, consists of the Sergeantsville General Store, the Delaware Township town hall, Bobbi’s Place (a cafe/deli) and the Sergeantsville Inn, each staking out a corner of the intersection of Routes 604 and 519.

Just down the road, in Rosemont, is the Davis Lots of Time Shop. It’s aptly named; the shop is jammed with scores of clocks, plus vintage lamps, jewelry, toys, musical instruments, pots and pans, frames, books and much more — all for sale.

“My grandfather and grandmother collected items over the years,” owner Tim Davis says of the jumble of artifacts and memorabilia.

His grandfather, Edward Davis, moved into town in 1939 and opened the shop in 1961. Tim Davis still repairs clocks, like his grandfather did. Tim lives several doors away, so if the shop is closed when you stop by, just honk your horn or ring the phone number on the note taped to the window.

Ask Davis to show you his collection of “what-is-its” — assorted items the purpose of which you’ll probably never guess.

Within walking distance of the shop is the Rosemont post office, Cane Farm Furniture (makers of country furniture) and the Pass, a charcuterie by day, French-inspired restaurant by night.

Minutes away is the Delaware River and Stockton; continue your Hunterdon journey down Route 29 into Lambertville, or follow it north, to Frenchtown.

But don’t miss the covered bridge in Sergeantsville and the shop in Rosemont, two colorful reminders of another time and place.

Davis Lots of Time Shop

Route 519, Rosemont

(609) 397-0890