Old Bridge NJ: NovoTHOR Red Light Therapy

Red light therapy for Old Bridge, NJ

Straight down Route 9 from Old Bridge to a one-bed NovoTHOR studio in Howell, with honest notes on when that road is worth attempting.

Off-peak drive

28 min

Rush hour

42 min

The way there

Route 9 north

Route 9 the entire way, which sounds simple and is — except that this is the commuter half of Route 9, and it does not forgive a five o'clock departure.

Somewhere between Old Bridge and Marlboro, Route 9 leaves Middlesex County and enters Monmouth, and after that it is the same road the rest of the way to us. That is the entire set of directions: one number, no turns worth writing down. It is not a short trip and we would rather say so plainly than sell it as a hop.

Where in the township you are starting

Old Bridge covers a lot of ground and the names inside it do not always line up with the mail. Laurence Harbor sits up on Raritan Bay. Cheesequake State Park takes a substantial bite out of the northern end. A wide swathe of the township posts as Matawan, which is a different municipality altogether. From the southern edge near the Marlboro line you are on the good side of this drive; from the bay you are decidedly not.

Booking it

One bed, one room, one person at a time. Because it is a longer drive we would rather hold a slot for you than have you arrive to an occupied room, and we book outside the posted hours often enough that it is worth asking. A ten o’clock on a weekday is worth considerably more to you here than a five-thirty.

Neighborhoods and areas within Old Bridge

Browntown

Browntown takes its name from John and Susannah Brown, who were granted a thousand acres here in 1737 and called the place Brownville. The family homestead, put up in 1831, is still standing, and the apple brandy distilled nearby was sold under the Browntown name.

Cheesequake

Cheesequake is the northern corner of Old Bridge, most of it taken up by the 1,610-acre state park of the same name. The park sits where northern hardwood forest gives way to pine barrens, and it runs from Hooks Creek Lake out along the tidal marshes of Cheesequake Creek to Raritan Bay.

Cottrell Corners

Cottrell Corners is the crossing of Old Bridge-Matawan Road and Cottrell Road, named for the Cottrell family, who farmed apples there from before the country existed and distilled the fruit into brandy. Old Bridge's municipal offices and public library are on the same corner.

Redshaw Corner

Redshaw Corner sits toward the southern end of the township, near the crossroads settlements of Texas and Moerls Corner. Redshaw Corners farm stands on Englishtown Road.

Questions from Old Bridge

My mail says Matawan — am I actually in Old Bridge?

Quite possibly. A large part of Old Bridge Township carries a Matawan mailing address, while Matawan Borough itself is a separate and much smaller municipality next door. The drive is the same regardless.

Parkway or Route 9?

Route 9. The Parkway sends you east and then back inland for no gain at all. If Route 9 is genuinely stopped, Route 79 runs roughly parallel from the Matawan area down to Freehold and rejoins it there.

When is Route 9 at its worst on this stretch?

Northbound through the morning and southbound from about four, because this section feeds the Turnpike and the commuter lots. Between ten and two it is a completely different road.

Is it worth driving this far for a single session?

That is genuinely your call, and we would rather you came once and judged it for yourself than booked a run of appointments unseen. It is one bed in one room; there is nothing to tour.