Is anyone still paying attention?
The City of Brotherly Love
Alexa and I have realized that one of the most challenging things about this long-distance bicycle trip is… the maintenance of our blog that relates our story. So, we are going to do our best to catch up.
Where are we? We are in Maine, once again. We have returned for the wedding of Alexa’s step-sister Emily which is this Saturday. This will be a great weekend spent with some of Alexa’s family, and it will also give us a week-long break from our bicycle trip.
We arrived here today after an hour flight from Philadelphia where we have been spending the last couple of days at the home of Alexa’s Aunt Carolyn and Uncle Larry. The last ten days have seen us go through southeastern New York state and then follow the Pennsylvania/New Jersey border down to Philadelphia.
The Shawangunk Mountains in rural New York
We have had a slower pace in the last week and a half, and we have even taken a couple of days off from long rides. We arrived in Philly on Monday, and we will return there this Sunday in order to begin again on Monday.
Our last posting came just after we had entered New York from Connecticut. That night we attempted to stay at a state campground that had closed after Labor Day weekend. We were hoping it would be empty, but instead we found that the entrance was gaurded by a live-in caretaker. We decided on taking the honest route and just asking him if we could stay since there were no other campgrounds within 25 miles (on our route). Well, he wasn’t so excited about our idea, but he did offer to drive us to a different state campground about 12 miles north (off our route), and we accepted. This ended up being somewhat helpful since he gave us a route to avoid the steep hills we had planned to ride over the next day.
That next day, we began our ride after a night of threatening rain by taking the NY state park ranger’s advice and following some empty rural roads to get back to our route. It rained for about five minutes, and I (Anthony) had to fix a flat in my rear tire, but this morning’s ride was really nice. We made it into Rhinebeck, NY that afternoon where we had a nice conversation with a Thai woman who offered to house us if we ever needed a place to stay in Bangkok (not on our route), and then we bought some yarn and relaxed in a coffee shop until going on to our campsite.
Alexa teaching yoga to a class of noncompliant pumpkins
For the next two nights we stayed in M.L. Norrie State Park in NY which was on the Hudson River and close to the tiny village of Staatsburg. It was Sunday, and we were taking the next day off in order to relax after riding every day since leaving Cambridge, MA. We decided to go eat Indian food at a restaurant we passed getting to the park and that was a great meal. The next day, we woke up to rain on our day off. Alexa was up for just riding since there was not much to do in the rain at a campsite, but I subtly insisted that we take the day off and see if it stops raining. It eventually stopped raining just in time for us to be quite hungry. We had to bike back 5 miles to Rhinebeck in order to get to an open store because everything in Staatsburg was closed on Mondays. We spent that day eating and at the library until later in the afternoon where we made the fateful decision to try and see a movie at the small theater in town. This was an unfortunate decision.
Why? The wasn’t going to start until a little after 6:00, and we had to bike around 5 miles back to our campground. We made a foolish decision (based on our own visibility) that we would be fine riding home just after dark. We saw 2 Days in Paris which was entertaining, bur stepped out to a dark night. We put on our bright neon yellow jackets and turned on our rear, blinking red lights, but quickly realized that once we left the street lights of Rhinebeck, we wouldn’t be able to see anything ahead of our bikes. It probably took us an hour to get back to the campsite. Alexa panicked. I tried to unpanic Alexa, but eventually we got back to our site, where we were grateful for our headlamps that we had not brought with us that day. Moral of the story: Don’t ride at night without making sure you can see just as well as be seen. Anyways, it was more dramatic than the movie, and that’s quite a feat.
Next day, we woke up to rain again. We stayed in our tents until it stopped and then rode for about ten miles before stopping for breakfast. During our meal, it started raining… hard. This rain continued for most of the day. We rode in it for about twenty miles, through Poughkeepsie, (pukipsy) NY, taking a 45 minute break under an awning at one point before finally reaching a service station where we saw a beautiful sight, a fellow bicycle tourer. We met Steve.
Respite from the rain with a fellow long-distance bike rider
This was the perfect break we needed. It turned out that we had seen his bike that morning at the campground where we had stayed but he had left without us getting a chance to speak with him. In the afternoon, after also riding through the same rain we had ridden through, he was escaping to the precious dryness of the gas station awning. He, unfortunately, was ending his planned trip to Philadelphia due to the on and off rain of the last few days. We talked for almost two hours and really enjoyed meeting this positive and warm person.
From here, we rode about 5 miles to a hotel, yes… a hotel. We had decided that morning after these few days of rain that we needed to completely dry off. We did laundry, ate a nice dinner, and slept in a nice, dry bed near New Paltz, NY.
Anthony, not a pumpkin
Now, some of our journal entries from a day of rest in Philadelphia:
Alexa…….. With the tent hanging over the shower and all doors, we fell asleep with the positive weather report from the Weather Channel ringing in our ears. The next day we slept in, we couldn’t draw ourselves out of the cozy bed until 8 o’clock, then we rode most of the day in perfect, sunny, chilly weather, stopping for pizza at lunchtime, fighting a smallish headwind, and arriving at the Oakland Valley Campground with a gorgeous site all to ourselves next to the sound of the running river with a dinner of Indian food and tofu.
Anthony…. the next day we rode for about 15 miles or so to the outskirts of Port Jervis, NY. There, we ate a large breakfast and bought some groceries for the day. It was fortunate that we bought some food because we quickly entered the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area where there was very little traffic, beautiful scenery, and almost no commercial business.
The secluded Rails to Trails path along the Delaware River
The only store was closed for the week because the bridge to PA was under repair at the time. We refilled our water bottles at a home (thanks to a man washing his truck), and after saying goodbye to some very interested and curious NJ road workers, we kept going through the NJ wilderness. It was here that we came to one of the steepest hills yet on our trip. The route was changing from one valley to a parallel valley via a large hill. We both walked up this hill and then descended the other side very quickly. Very soon, we began riding next to the Delaware River and entered the Worthington State Forest (NJ).
It was Thursday, and we found a beautiful campsite next to the river in a fairly empty campground. We had a chile and cheese dinner with pita bread and went to bed quietly.
Sunset on the Delaware
The next morning, we woke up really late (about 9) and took our time getting up and ready. Friday was another planned day off. We then discovered that an animal (likely a raccoon, probably not a black bear) had stolen our last piece of pita bread that was hanging from the hook next to the picnic table. The sneaky rodent had stolen what was supposed to be our morning snack that would tide us over till breakfast. We were both hungry, but first we had to register at the campsite since the office was closed when we arrived the day before. When we went to the ofice, we were told that we had to switch campsites because the one we had chosen was reserved for Friday night. We were getting hungrier, but we returned to the site and packed up our stuff, rolled up the tent with half our stuff still in it (and poking a hole in the bottom with a knitting needle left in the tent), and strapped the tent to Alexa’s bike and rode down the driveway to our new, mosquito ridden site. By now, we were very hungry, so we started biking the four miles to the nearest town.
Moving the tent, in a lazy fashion
In order to get to the town, we had to cross the river via I-80, on a sidewalk. That was somewhat loud, and nerveracking, and quickly disturbed our calm, camping demeanors. When we crossed, I (Anthony) proposed going left in pursuit of a diner that was reportedly (by the campground) located a few miles down the road. After a few descents, Alexa was mad. There was no diner, and we were riding away from all potential food. Finally, we turned around and rode back to the town of Delaware Water Gap where we found the phantom diner and ate a massive breakfast, including chocolate chip pancakes.
At the end of breakfast, the staff informed us that our only options for acquiring food were a Wal-Mart four miles away or the service station a hundred yards away. We went to the service station and stocked up on snacks and instant pasta. Then we headed back to the campsite to enjoy our day off with some hiking.
The hiking was great. We hiked along a section of the Appalachian Trail along pond that was secluded up in the New Jersey hills/mountains.
Just trying to fit in on the trail
Then we encountered a snake on the descent that hissed loudly at us as it hid under some low-growing ferns. It woke us up and forced us to run down the path a little ways. That was an angry snake. At the end of the hike, we decided to make our dinner away from our buggy campsite, and then we went to bed.
The next morning we woke up fairly early and left the campground after seeing a large bald eagle high up in a pine tree.
Alexa….. Not knowing if we would find a site at the next campground, we set out for he day and rode one of the most peaceful days yet. Just following the Delaware River all day long, we saw very few cars or people. Stopping for a late afternoon picnic lunch, the cashier at the local natural foods store remarked at how peaceful we seemed. At first, I just thought - I don’t know about peaceful, tired and hungry may be more like it- but thinking about it a bit later, I realized that it was true. I didn’t think when she said, “it must be so relaxing,” that she could be right, but just riding all day with the river on one side and trees on the other, with no steep hills, was indeed peaceful. The last 8 miles of the trip followed the rails to trails on packed gravel, leading us into a beautiful state park on the Delaware River with plenty of sites for us to choose from.
The next morning it was hard to leave the warmth of our warm sleeping bags, but we rode through the chilly morning again on the rails to trails until we got to a small town where we had an argument about stopping for breakfast that lasted all day. We didn’t speak till the afternoon where we stopped at a gas station market and an older man, picking up on our tension, approached us, asking if we had money troubles, while handing me a 20 dollar bill. I (Alexa) tried to explain that we didn’t, but he just said, “It’s Sunday, and it’s my birthday; I got to give it to somebody.” We later had tuna fish sandwiches in honor of him.
Anthony….. We had the sandwiches at a little pizza/sandwich shop west of Norristown, PA. They told us that we shouldn’t stay in Norristown, which had been our plan, but rather we should try to stay in one of the “many” hotels in Conshohocken, PA. When we arrived in Conshohocken, we realized there were only a couple of choices, a Marriott ($160) and a Marriott Residence. A few seconds later, a woman stopped and askes us about all our baggage. Alexa began explaining our trip to her and her husband and they were very excited about our trip, and their own participation in an MS ride coming up. They offered us luck on finding a hotel, and then rode on down the Schuykill trail towards Philadelphia. We continued our search for another hotel by asking the woman at a small shop but finally decided to go see about the Marriott Residence, and possibly go back to a hotel closer to Norristown. Just as we crossed the railroad tracks towards the Marriott, we saw the couple yelling for us as they were riding back down the trial they had just left on.
It was here when our luck continued to get better. They had returned to offer us their extra bedroom in their house for the night. We immediately accepted and then rode back down the trail several miles to their van. They were fantastic. They were extremely friendly and open to us and they packed their van with the 4 bikes and 4 people, and we drove the 30-45 minutes to their home 50 miles northwest of Philadelphia in Boyertown, PA. Ironically, we were further from Philly than we had been that morning, but Lonnie and Deb spoiled us to the greatest extent. They cooked a marvelous dinner of salmon, broccoli, homegrown beets, salad, and ice cream, and we talked for several hours.
There was another comical moment during our dinner when we heard the dog chewing loudly in the adjoining room. Corey, the dog, had partially destroyed Alexa’s biking shoes, beyond repair. The shoes were such a small thing compared to the overwhelming generosity of our new friends.
Corey, the dog, joining us for dinner
We slept comfortably in a warm, soft bed, and woke up to a concoction of supplements in liquid form and a breakfast of blueberry pancakes.
Our new friends, Deb and Lonnie outside of Philadelphia
A few hours later, they returned us to Norristown where we took the train into Philadelphia, or rather Merion Station, PA, and the home of Aunt Carolyn and Uncle Larry. They made us a fantastic dinner and were so great to welcome us into their home.
Alexa….. on tuesday, we had a wonderful day in Philadelphia.
Logan Square, Philadelphia
We had no goal, no destination, no need to do or see anything specific, so the day unfolded perfectly, and with a certain spaciousness that created a lighthearted feeling. We took the train into downtown Philly, bought lunch at Trader Joe’s and ate at a beautiful fountain in the center of the city. We followed signs and decided that we didn’t want to spend a beautiful day in a museum, but would rather explore the old city.
We went to the Carpenter’s Hall, an old building that was the site of one of the Constitutional Conventions, where we asked a museum guide what he would recommend as the highlights of the city. He mapped out our whole day, as well as giving us background history about it all. We explored Benjamin Franklin’s homesite, saw his original septic system (!), and carriage way. There wasn’t a reconstruction of his house because they didn’t have enough written about it to be sure what it looked like which surprised both of us. But it was neat to look into the past through the artifacts that were still there. I (Alexa) loved to imagine the men and women in their colonial coats and dresses walking through the streets, Benjamin courting his soon-to-be wife Deborah, working in the printing press, and hanging out in the tavern.
We visited Christ’s Church where George and Martha Washington, the Franklins, and many signers of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution attended services. We arrived at the same time as a teacher’s association from Pittsburgh so we heard the full description from a museum guide.
We then walked down Elfreth’s Alley, the oldest continuous residential street in America. Of course, people are still living there today, and we wondered how people could stand having so many tourists walking up and down their street, taking pictures, and looking into their windows.
Elfreth’s Alley, Philadelphia
We then decided it was time for some coffee, and after viewing Ben Franklin’s gravesite, we spent an hour or so sipping our espresso drinks, knitting, writing, eating chocolate, and taking photos in a cool cafe on Market Street.
Downtime
We got back to Carolyn and Larry’s , walked the dogs, and a had a wonderful Italian dinner, sitting outside on a warm, autumn night. It was a wonderful day.
Aunt Carolyn and Uncle Larry with a lot of Italian food
