Philly

For the most part, I have tried to plan my journey avoiding major cities. Nashville and Boston were the obvious exceptions because I was meeting people in both. Truth be told, I never went through downtown Nashville. I was out on the west side the whole time. Philadelphia turned out to be unavoidable. To go north from Delaware is basically to go through Philadelphia. Yes, I could have gone miles out of my way to avoid it, but I had the Adventure Cycling maps and had a bike route into and out of town. Generally speaking, it was a really nice day. The route wasn’t perfect, with plenty of traffic and some rough stretches of road without much shoulder. Lots of stop and go all day, so the pace was slower than I’ve been accustomed to for the past week. The weather wasn’t perfect. It was bright and sunny, but there was a bit of a hurting breeze. And the hills were back, with a bit over 3000’ of elevation gain. But none of that really bothered me today. There was plenty to see, including the “Rocky” steps at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, a nice 15-mile trail out of town, the SRT (Schuylkill River Trail). The hills were actually OK too. It was a nice change of pace. I met 4 separate people who stopped me to talk about my trip. Actually, the first guy just rode up next to me on the SRT and started asking me questions. Then he gave me a good restaurant tip for lunch. The next guy was about 5 miles from the finish. He was on a motorcycle and pulled up next to me and started talking. I had my AirPods in so I couldn’t hear him at first and thought he was telling me there was something wrong with my bike that I hadn’t noticed. Nope. He stopped his motorcycle and we stood there in the middle of the road talking. He has a similar bike and packs and is all ready to go, but just hasn’t done it yet. There was very little traffic on the road and when a car came up, he would just wave them by and kept talking. Finally, as I was checking into my hotel, a couple walked out of the hotel and started asking me the same sorts of questions. They were also doing some riding and had gone up the road that I’ll be riding tomorrow. I did have to walk my bike today, though. The bridge from New Hope, PA to Lambertville, NJ is a steel deck bridge over the Delaware River. Bikes are prohibited and must be walked on the pedestrian walkway across the bridge. So I actually entered NJ on foot today.

Rocky steps at the Art Museum

Beautiful day on the river. This one is for my daughter, the rower, and all her friends. There were many boathouses lined up along the Schuylkill River just north of downtown Philadelphia

The famous Pennsylvania wine country. Actually, more like the wine acre.

Entering New Jersey on foot

Still rowing at 7:30 in the evening. Perfect time for it.