Philadelphia Freedom

We rode on after allowing ourselves to sleep in till eight.  The mind looks forward to the day ahead while the legs remember the day past.

It is cool in the morning 60 degrees and the day proves to be the best day yet for riding, winds are half with us and half against.  During the day...Mike gets two more flat tires..Score Mike 3.  John 0. 😀

No rain in six days and none in the forecast...We travel 67 miles with 2900 ft of climbing...on schedule. on budget, on Prancer and Vixen!

Our first goal was the Washington Crossing.  There is a famous painting of Washington Crossing the icey Delaware river at Midnight Cristmas Day to surprise and defeat the British at the battle it Trenton.  2400 men and another 800 that didn't make it.  A ten mile march and then a fight..can you you even imagine?  I think I can do this.

We push on to Philadephia, and come within a mile of the train wreck..UGH!  My bad choice leads us thru north Philadelphia and thru a tough looking neighborhood.  I tell Mike not.to get out of.the car and keep the doors locked!  Wait? What?

We see Independence Hall and the building for the Liberty Bell but the lines are too long to go inside...time grows short.

In a rush, my tire gets caught in the train tracks and I'm on the ground in a slow motion fall from my bike.  Although not hurt, the small cuts bleed.  It looks bad but is.of no consequence.  I think my diabetes induced low blood sugars contributed to the fall.

From there we ride to have dinner with Mary Byrne and her family...Mary and Don Byrne are friends from my graduate school days at ND some 38 years ago and she is testament to how taking care of yourself pays dividends in beauty.  Don?  Well not so much.  We pledge to get together in.the fall.

Mike has been doing the photography...but we got internet connection issues...so just a few pics today...more tommorrow

A Burger decides to go to Princeton

Day 5 ends with fun at Princeton and 290 miles down the road.

It began with Bea Burger and Tom and Sheila.  Our stay with them included a dinner with entertainment by a smart blond haired girl.  We hit the town at night

We had breakfast in NYC and stops that included Central Park, Times Square, 1 World Trade, and the 9/11 memorial before a ferry rifled to New Jersey

Once there, we travelled for 12 miles along Henry Hudson bike trail which was enchanting with red birds, lilacs, squirrels, and hawks with 8 foot wingspan.

The toughest part of the day came with the rolling hills, 95 degrees temps and 20 mph headwinds.  We wilted.  Stopping for drinks, ice cream, and shade.

Around 4 pm the temperature drop and we found a rally.  We cruised onto the campus of Princeton University which for a brief period served as the Capital of the USA.

Tomorrow - Philadelphia

I

Recovery - NYC

Warm day on Long Island and we slept in until eight.  We focused on a recovery day.

I needed to recover my phone...we made contact with the local police in Groten, Conn and they recovered my phone from some good Sameritans.  They will forward phone so it is not lost after all!

Mike  and  I talked about communications...hopefully we'll avoid some problems that lead us to odd circumstances.

Leg recovery was solved by catching the train for cheaters that saved us about 50 miles of riding.  We had a 15 mile ride across Queens to meet up with Tom, Sheila, and Bea Burger that are putting us up for the night.

They live  in a fantastic apartment across the East River from Manhatten
Shelia and I shared a bottle of her favorite wine while  the less civilized drank beer over an Italian dinner. Some ate Octopus...I don't know why.

Tomorrow is NYC, a ferry ride to Sandy Hook before a 60 journey to Washington Crossing...more tomorrow

4 states - One Day

Mass -  RI - Conn - NY

The numbers 113 miles and over 4500 feet  of climbing UGH!
5500 Calories burned

Two very tired riders and one ferry trip across the sound.

In the who knew catagory - bike trail from retired train routes
These trials are tree lined that cross rusted tressels, flat and we were lucky to go 25 miles on thru Rhode Island.

From there thru the hills of Conneticut.  I would say wow,, but after the fourth hill  and valley...enough already!

We were only planning about a 80 mile ride but Mike and I had a few communication issues that lead us astray.  He can be so wrong sometimes.  Well, my cell phone died, and then I lost it...all as we struggled to make the ferry across the sound.

We reached the other side, in NY, at about 6 pm with 30 miles to go.
We cruised in to the hotel, hungry, tired, and amazed were we started and finished.  We celebrated with a 20 piece at Mc Donalds

Hey, this one coming from Providence RI
The numbers 75 miles today and 3750 calories burned

Cities included Hanover and Pembrooke along with Plymouth, Mass

The day was cold to start in the mid fifties.  Breafast at the hotel was at 8 am and a chat with Mike and Rabbi Ben. The Rabbi was working late at his synagoge and stayed at the hotel instead of driving home and back  the next day.  There is always a confident calmness when talking to religious leders and Ben was no exception.

25 miles to Plymouth to see The Rock.  Mike got a flat!  Ha! Ha!  These bike guys love to help someone in distress but when they get a flat it is really unfair

In the who knew catagory:  Cranberies
Lots of cranberry farms in Conniticut...but hey...no cranberry trees?
No cranberry bushes?

Cranberries are grown in boggs...close to the ground.  Went it comes time for harvest...they thrash the plants and flood the boggs and the canberries float to the top and are skimed off...sounds wild...but Mike swears its twuuue

We passed a guy with a front yard filled with colorful wind mobiles
A swan on a lake and 50 or more small 3oz whiskey bottles left over from a very cold winter

Tommorrow is a big ride day with a ferry ride across the sound on to Long Island.

And.........they'roff Nice day in Boston

Mike and and I are off!  We left Boston and about 1pm today. Mike arrived at 9 and got working on the bike, finnishing just I arrived.  "That was fortunate"  he said.  He has no idea how honed that skill to a work of art.  "Sorry I couldnn't be here to help more" Kath friend Pat was true to form offering us food and comforts.  With all the packages of stuff arrving at her house, she said it was like Christmas...she said, all she needed was a bike!

We did have to stop at a bike store to gets some fenders, Mike has to completely check out all the items, layout, employees and supervisors as if he's going to buy the place,  Pat had given us a tip of the lilac garden and fair which is a Mothers day annual event a short distance from her house..we rode thru the fragraces and colors which is a reminder that spring has finnally come back to Boston

Twenty seven miles today, stopping in the Best Western in Rockland.  We were tired and  hungrly for pizza...fixed that. Almost all the ride was work to get out of Boston witth lots of stop and go and lots of traffic.  Ugh!  I had forgotten how heavy the bike handles when loaded down with gear, but it was mostly flat and Mike does good with the directions.  He is much more cautious than I in traffic. He can be a real turtle

Tommorow brings Plymouth Rock, Cape Cod, and Providence RI with a riding distance expected to be 67 miles

 

Just to give you a little idea of the logistics involved.  A good friend of my sister Kath, Pat Rissmeyer, lives in Boston and has agreed to let us use her home as a staging area for our trip out of Boston on May 8th.  We will have two bikes and lots of stuff waiting for us once we arrive.

Mike is going to arrive early and start the assembly.  My advice for anyone who tries this, do it with a bike mechanic, they do everything is one fourth the time it would take you or I.  And, bonus, in the end, everything works.

At the end of the ride, on June 1st...Mike will ship his bike from Savannah and take a flight back to Idaho.  I will be catching a train from Savannah, with my bike, to Rocky Mount, NC.  That's the closest stop to Virginia Beach which is my second destination, really.  I'm planning on riding with Kath in the VB area from June 5th thru the 15th.  To pull that one off, I'll have to travel two days by bike and arrive in VB with no clothes other than my biking gear.  So today, I'm send clothes to VB.

I recently purchased a Kindle Fire 7 HD and a Beeboard to type on so that I can take pictures, get email, reach the internet and do my blogging in a really small lightweight package.  We'll see how that works out.

Finally, I got all the diabetes stuff to pack and make sure I have supplies.  Maybe it doesn't sound like much but being away for a month and a half one the road can be a bit intimidating for all the contingencies.

Well, things are proceeding....here is a pic of me with an other diabetic, a red rider at the recent Tour De Cure.  West Coast now, sunshine, blue skies, nothing but blue skies, not a cloud

Oh yeah, did I say I had to buy rain gear?