Back to Day 12

We started the day a little off route because the hotel is a little off route, because most of the hotels are off route. It seems the ACA maps cater more to campers than to hotel wimps. Dana’s actually thinking of writing into them, suggesting that they map out route alternatives for hotels and B&Bs.

So anyway, we looked at the map and thought, we’re already on rte. 23, and the ACA route goes back onto rte.23, how hard could this be? We were supposed to be on a bike path, and it looked like we could get onto said bike path in Valley Forge National Park. So we went into the park and rode around for a while in the parking lot, but we couldn’t find the bike trail.

Dana finally found a park ranger who explained that the only way to get on the bike trail is via 422 – the bridge that caused yesterday’s kerfuffle – and he suggested that we ride back across the Schuylkill, then back again, just to get on the bike trail.

Not gonna happen.

So we headed back to rte. 23, found a trail in the park, and did the Valley Forge bike trail thing. Here is a nice touristy picture.

Then we continued onto rte, 23, back on track, until Dana realized that we should have turned off it almost immediately after getting on it, but he was so busy rejoicing in having navigated out of the park that he missed the cue. We stopped at a Quickie Mart to figure it out – I bought more Gatorade, and Dana ate a cherry pie in a box that he’s been hoarding for about a week. After snack time, we did a little maneuvering and got back on our route, which was much quieter and prettier than rte. 23, but also a lot more hilly. Surprise! The farm in this picture, which looked much better than it does here, came into view just as we came up over a hill. It was breathtaking, like it should be a picture in a kids’ book on the page “F is for Farm”.

We’ve also seen some wonderful birds in this area. Orioles and flickers are everywhere, and today we saw a pileated woodpecker. We even rode through an official Audubon sanctioned bird town.

After about 10 more miles of beautiful farmland and hilly scenic wonder, we got onto Pughtown Road, which eventually brought us, not to Pughtown, but to Bucktown. We learned this because we stopped for lunch in A.J.’s Pizzeria, and asked how you pronounce the town name, and a nice lady said Bucktown. Then she explained that it’s really Pottstown, but sort of Bucktown, and Pughtown is over there somewhere. We still don’t really know how to pronounce Pughtown.

We had a delicious slice of Brazillian World Cup pizza, which had so many toppings that one slice was a complete meal. We hung out in A.J.’s for a while, and the owner took our picture for his Facebook page. Then we got back onto rte. 23 for a little while, and turned off onto St. Peter’s Rd.

Just to be clear, that entire time – from the hotel to the parking lot circles to the touristy stuff to the scenic wonder – it was lightly raining. As we headed towards St. Peter’s, it started raining harder.

I just knew, looking at the map, that St. Peter’s would be on top of a hill. But it was the most beautiful little town, perched on a cliffside. From there, we kept climbing for about 15 more miles, through French Creek state park, and finally into Plowville, where we sort of stopped climbing. And it sort of stopped raining.

When the rain let up, we decided to change our gloves because they were getting slippery, and I’m pretty sure I was getting a rash from all the trapped moisture. And that’s when Dana realized that his second pair of bike gloves are actually my gloves, and he doesn’t have extra gloves. I however, have 3 pairs. Lucky me. While we were stopped, we ate some Raisinettes that Dana’s been hoarding.

We stopped for dinner in Bowmansville, where I had a beer and we both had sandwiches. We weren’t sure we’d find dinner near our hotel, and we figured eating early is better than not eating at all. I broke a rule and had a beer with 6 miles left on the ride. We sat at the bar talking to a really nice guy about biking, kids, jobs, aging, etc. Dana is getting into bar sitting!

When we left the bar, it was raining quite hard. Outside the bar we met 2 guys who are riding from New Jersey to Portland, Oregon. They are from France, only one of them speaks English, and they have no maps. We shared our maps with them and wished them well. They were looking for a place to camp tonight, and I’m thinking they are probably getting very wet right now.

We just got into Amish country between Bowmansville and our cheap motel in Reamstown. We passed some beautiful farms, like this one. Ducks are cute, even in the rain.

The last 2 mile to the hotel were on a sort-of highway, the sky was becoming ominously dark, and the rain was getting worse. As I sit here, I can hear it pelting the roof, which really makes us appreciate a cheap motel room. If the weather is OK tomorrow – and by OK I mean no lightning – we will ride 30 miles to Mt. Joy. They have a bike shop there, and Dana can buy gloves.

On to Day 14

Back to Day 11

Allow me to begin today’s post simply by stating I LOVE THE BARK-O-LOUNGER!

OK, enough about that. We started the day out of New Hope in the rain. It was cold, there was a headwind, and the first 10 miles were basically uphill. Nonetheless, we saw some beautiful countryside. Many of the homes here are built with fieldstone – the old farmhouses are my personal favorite, but the newer stone houses are wonderful, too.

Then there are the old brick houses, and the old barns. I keep seeing houses I want to buy, which of course is silly. But today we saw a 75 acre farm for sale, and we both found that interesting. I’m thinking Amy can live there with us, and we can build a great big cat playground. Just imagine – 75 acres of cats!

Dana noticed something interesting about the local bike arrows today. It seems that most of the arrows here are made of some sort of tape, not like the permanent painted ones we have at home. OK, perhaps only interesting to bikers, but let’s face it, we have a lot of time to notice things like that.

We had our first butt and food break at Sal’s pizza in Warrington, PA. It was incredible pizza! The cheese pizza tasted exactly like the Brooklyn pizza I grew up with. We each had 2 slices. Note: I realize that being from Brooklyn does not make me a pizza expert. It’s just nice to find pizza that tastes like childhood – wherever that childhood happened to be.

After lunch, we continued on to Conshohoken, via the town of Ambler. I only mention Ambler because, as we were coming into town, Dana said “turn left on Beth’s Hill Rd”. So of course I knew that would be the correct way to go, because it had Hill in the name. But then we got to Reiff’s Mill Rd, and I asked if maybe that was our road, so we stopped and Dana squinted at the map, then I squinted at the map, and then we figured “sure, if it rhymes, it’s close enough”. And it was the right road.

The biggest moment of the day came when we entered Conshohoken, which is the end of ACA Map 2, and a major hub on the ACA map network. I mean, we were so excited we could hardly wait for Conshohoken. And then we got there, and Dana said “this is it”.

I must say, I was somewhat disappointed. I was expecting a parade, or at least balloons or something, but no. Nothing. So we went to Zoe’s Cafe and had soup, which was very tasty (and I know my soup!), but I would have preferred a parade. From there we got onto the Schuylkill River bike trail, which was really nice and traffic free. We knew that we were approaching a problem area – Debra and Camilla had warned us that the ACA route crosses the Schuylkill on Rte. 422, but that bridge is closed, so we should cross on Rte. 202 in Norristown. But once we were on the trail, we had no idea where Norristown was, nor where 202 was. So we stopped and asked a passing cyclist for help.

And we met Jerome, who was very nice, and told us we should ride the trail to 422, but we told him what Debra and Camilla had said, but Jerome’s biking buddy had told him the bridge was fixed, and we just didn’t know what to do. So we rode with Jerome for a while, and told him about our adventure. Turns out he’s planning to ride the DC to Bar Harbor portion of the ride in August. Note: If any of you want to do half of this route, and you don’t love hills, that REALLY isn’t your best choice.

So after much consideration, we decided to part with Jerome in Norrisville and find the 202 bridge. But we found the wrong 202 bridge, the scary highway one, so we read more maps and backtracked through Norristown, and found the 202 walking bridge across the Schuylkilll River.

At this point we were off the ACA route, so we had to plan our own route, which was simply to ride on rte. 23 to our hotel. But rte. 23 was kind of nasty in some sections, and I ended up walking some of it. It turns out that, with the perfect combination of hills, messy or missing shoulders, fast cars, cursing drivers, frustration, and fatigue, I will always choose walking.

We got to our hotel – Spring Hill Suites – and they were so impressed with what we are doing that they took our picture for their Facebook page. More local fame. Cool. We are in King of Prussia, which reminds us of another Crayola fact. Turns out they retired Prussian Blue in 1959 because, according to school teachers, kids no longer knew where Prussia was.

We had a lovely Mediterranian dinner in the restaurant across the parking lot, and now we are sitting at the hotel bar, wearing tomorrow’s biking clothes, doing laundry. In 15 minutes, every single article of clothing we have will be clean and fluffy dry. Life is good.

Tomorrow we are riding 50 miles to Reamstown. Hopefully life will be good tomorrow, too.

On to Day 13

Back to Day 10

11 AM

In a deli in Milford, NJ, eating bagels and drinking soda. There’s no guilt in soda on this trip. And soda hasn’t tasted this good to me in years.

The ACA route had us going down the NJ side of the Delaware today, but various people have given us other advice. So last night as we ate (and drank) at the bar at the River Grille in Easton, someone suggested staying on the PA side, riding the tow path. Which sounded like a great idea, until someone else commented that the tow path is not paved. Someone else had suggested riding rte. 611, but most people felt that was tempting death. So this morning we crossed back over the river, back into Phillipsburg, NJ. Note that we are actually cross 2 rivers here – the Delaware and the Lehigh.

We met 2 cyclists who gave us directions around a big hill going into Carpentersville, and we chatted with them for a while. One them has done 2 cross-country bike tours, more miles per day and camping every night, of course. After that encounter, Dana and I  had a long discussions about whether we are doing a wimp ride.

Note: We have to keep talking. If we don’t talk for more than about a minute, the headsets timeout and we we have to start them up again. Even I can’t talk enough to keep these things happy! Dana wants to read the manual and figure out how to fix that, but we’re both too tired every night to remember.

Multiple choice question: What is the definition of a 2400 mile wimp ride to Key West?

1. Staying in hotels instead of camping
2. Riding  less than 70 miles everyday
3. Walking up every hill in Connecticut
4. Eating in nice restaurants along the way.
5. All of the above.

Answer: None of the above. Just do it. If you get demoralized because other people do it better, or faster, or with more pain, then you will never do anything.

So anyway, we were riding from Holland, NJ to Milford, NJ, and three women passed us going the opposite direction. “You must be the Key West people!”, they yelled as we went by.

Wow! Local fame. Cool.

8 PM

Today was the easiest day yet – riding along the Delaware was basically flat. Rode through Frenchtown, NJ – a really nice, picturesque town.Kept going another 15 miles to Lambertville, stopped for ice cream. There is always ice cream.

Rode across the Delaware for the last time 😦 into New Hope, PA. Both Lamertville and New Hope have lovely antique shops and cafes and art galleries, but we were too tired and lazy to really stop. Got a room at a motel with a pool. My cousin Andrea came to visit with her 2 boys, Zachary and William. The kids enjoyed the pool, especially when Dana got in and played with them. They think he’s just awesome, and that I’m kind of boring. I tried explaining that I’m actually their real cousin, but they still like him better.

The five of us went out for Thai food in Lambertville. Andrea drove us there and back. After being on bikes for so long, cars seem very fast. On a sad note, now that we have left the Delaware, the ride is going to get hilly again for another 240 miles or so. On a good note, the Bark-O-Lounger feels pretty good.

On to Day 12