Santa Rosa, CA 10/12/2011

After a great night sleep, we were up and down the hall for coffee and cereal and a little TV to catch up on the world. We chatted with Kathy the front desk manager about our trip and later with her boss who rides 150 miles or so each weekend. Delightful gentleman, our age or older, who is an enthusiastic rider of rail trails and canal tow paths in the area. He loved talking about our ride.

Martin drove us to Reagan airport through the miserable DC commute traffic and we got checked in with plenty of time for our trip home via Denver. We enjoyed good foot room to Denver as we were seated in the exit row over the wing. From Denver to SF, it was in the back of the plane which was full. One of my seat mates was 6'6", from Winnipeg en route to Berkeley for a birthday party. The flight was good and we arrived in SF to 80 degree weather and my lovely wife Mary waiting at the curb. We dropped Rudy off and arrived home in good time.

Lots of good memories. Happy to be home safely.

I will post photos in a few days.

Bethesda, MD 10/11/2011

We had a good night at the Ramada and went down to sample the provided breakfast. We had cereal, coffee and juice and shared the breakfast room with about six working types, mostly speaking Spanish. The oranges and apples did not look that good so we took a bagel and cream cheese and headed down the route I had put together from the Internet to get us safely back to our route on our Adventure Cycling Association (ACA) maps. It was generally a pretty good route, much safer than the route to our motel last night on route 140 towards Baltimore. We were mostly counter commute but still had to deal with school buses, which as a rule tend to give us less room than about any other type of vehicle. As we got farther from Baltimore, the hills increased and traffic thinned. We stopped at one point at a fork in the road and a local resident was just walking his daughter out to the curb to wait for her school bus. The bus came and went and we chatted with the dad who works between Baltimore and DC. He is former US Navy submariner as was my older brother Tom who was on a fairly famous sub, the USS Halibut back in the 1960s. We followed his suggested route off my selected route for about a half mile and missed a couple of short steep hills and a section of road with sharp turns and short sight lines. The former sub mariner noted the former owner of his house had had a car through his fence and into his yard more than once. Once away from Baltimore and back on our rural roads, we faced the same problem from previous days of where to get something to eat. Again the restaurants do not open until late morning. We stopped in Gleneig and on a suggestion from a local lady, went to the only place serving any breakfast in the area, Subway. The Subway was operated by a nice bright interesting young man from Nepal who had been in the States 4 years. He pitched Nepal as a great place to hike and ride.

We have enjoyed good weather the last week and a front is coming in tomorrow and by late morning we could feel the change in the air. More leaves were falling along our route and it cooled as we rode. We came to highway 108 north of Olney where our maps indicated there was a restaurant. As we waited for the traffic to clear we observed the front door being unlocked and the "OPEN" sign turned on. Opening time was 11:30 am. We had a nice lunch of pulled pork sandwiches and chatted for sometime with a couple in the parking lot as we were leaving. A few miles later we picked up the Rock Creek Trail which would take us all the way into Bethesda, the planned end to this leg of our journey down the East coast. Our ACA maps suggested we should get local maps of the Rock Creek Trail as it is poorly signed. We did not and figured we could follow the creek down stream. Planned worked reasonably well once we got on the trail. We crossed a major highway not on our maps and found a new trail along the road. Seeking directions to the start of the Rock Creek trail, we stopped one lady on the bike path and, has been the case 9 times out of 10, she had no idea. But she had an excuse as she was from Arizona in town visiting her sister. Down the path a bit and found a sign directing us to the Rock Creek Trail. It was a delightful ride and again evidence of the recent heavy rains was obvious. Down trees, creek bed full of brush, gravel washed over the trail etc. We saw some deer along the trail and as the trail is heavily used, they paid no attention to us at all. We also saw two black squirrels. Most of our squirrels have been grey, some brown and these were our first and only black ones.

We enjoyed our ride on the trail but were not sure where the best place to get off, so as we got close, we got off and approached a police officer in a car. He gave us directions and we rode through some traffic right to Martin and Meg's house where we used the hidden key to enter the house, unpack our bags, take a shower, drink their beer and generally kick back until Martin home from work. We are leaving our bikes and some of our gear at their very nice house until we return in the Spring to continue down the coast to Florida.

Martin arrived and we went to local club for dinner and where we are staying the night. We were joined for dinner by my wife's Aunt Jannie, cousins Mark and Martin and Meg, the delightful spouse of Martin. We enjoyed great company, good food, and ended the day feeling very good.

57 miles for the day and a feeling of accomplishment and that it was a good time and place to stop to let our bodies recover. Rudy's odometer shows we have ridden 1,007 miles since Bar Harbor.

Pikesville, MD 10/10/2011

And then there are those days.

We were up early with plans to grab a bite at the motel and hit the road at first light.

Well, the motel restaurant was not open and no continental breakfast was available, so up the road we went to the first restaurant. It opens at 11. And that was the story of the morning. We grabbed a cup of coffee at High's, the local chain of stop and robs at gas stations. I passed on the hot dogs on the rolling grill and I am guessing the expected crowd never came in after the game on Friday night so the dogs were still there. Asked a guy working on a house about a restaurant; so down the road we went, closed until 11. Ok, people don't eat breakfast on our off the beaten path route. After 30 miles plus and another stop at a Highs for a "breakfast sandwich" we made it to Butler, MD and discovered a little country store that sold everything and had a deli, but was a far cry from Jim Towns in Alexander Valley. We had a roast beef sandwich and sat on the front porch with the honey bees and chatted with Mark, the owner of Misty Farms, just down the road. A steady stream of locals filed through picking up something from the deli as it is apparently the only place for miles. Interesting people including a couple of potential banjo players from Deliverance.

We hit the road and rode through some nice hills with beautiful farms. This is horse country and we saw a couple of riders in fancy riding gear and heard the bugle of the group on the trail of a fox, we assumed. Tally Ho! We saw a couple of white tail deer running through the woods along the route as well as another deer who never quite made it across the road.

Our route crossed a rail trail and we asked the first jogger where it went but she was plugged into her music and never heard us or just ignored us. Another pair of joggers came by and we determined the trail would take us off course to far. They were training for the US Marine Corps Marathon in DC and we chatted about our ride and their jogging.

Our little black caterpillar continues to make great time and we saw him a couple of times on the road today.

We made good time and stopped in Reisterstown for a sit down lunch of chicken Caesar salad and I tried to locate a motel further down the road on our route with no luck. Not a problem as I was thinking Reisterstown, a town of 25,000 might have a motel. How silly of me. We spoke with Tom, employee of Martha's and Mary's where we were eating. Oh, no problem, lots of motels down by US 40 on your route. Name one. No luck. Tom makes inquiry of others in the store and reports back, No, problem, go up 140 the corner by the gas station, turn left one block and you will find a small motel. Great, we follow the instructions and no such motel. I stop in a dress shop and the ladies there said there is no motel for miles. So, our choice is go forward on our route and hope for the best or go off route a few miles toward Baltimore and stop at what we find. We finally opted to head toward Baltimore on Route 140 as I had determined there were hotels on I695 around Baltimore. Solid business for 8 miles, a representative of every type business known to man, but not one motel until we found a Ramada and a Hilton just inside I695. We opted for the Ramada which was next to an Olive Garden. Cheaper motel than last night and the early dinner special at Olive Garden was good and cheap. Route 140 was full of drivers in a big hurry and we were honked at more today than the entire trip.

A good shower, a good meal, thoughts of the nice scenery and good people of the day.

Tomorrow we will be at Martin and Megs in Bethesda. Martin is my wife's cousin and has consented to housing our bikes until the spring when we come back to finish our ride to Florida.
So, one more day of riding and then home again.

54 miles in lovely weather.

Delta, PA , 10/9/2011

We were up and out of the Rodeway Inn a little late. We headed back east on Hwy 30 for about 3 miles before heading south on 896. Traffic was less but 30 was still busy. The weather continues to be very nice and today was the first day I started without legwarmers or my jacket.

We rode through the country side and noted no one was working in the fields today and we met several buggies on the road going to church or a courting or wherever. Some of the big horses we saw yesterday working in the fields were enjoying their day off standing close to the fence along the road and posing for the tourists. We stopped in a little town to confirm directions and spoke with a gentleman shinning up his Harley. He is a retired truck driver and now he "Drives the Amish around". He had a 12 passenger van and said he is busier than he had planned to be in retirement. He gave us a short cut to Hwy 372 and recommended a breakfast place in Quarryville. Both suggestions turned out to be very good. We have seen lots and lots of Harley's in groups out enjoying the nice roads and lovely weather. One group of 25 or so passed us yesterday.

Our route took us up some long steep hills, but preferable to the short steeper hills in Connecticut. We had a nice long down hill down to and over the Susquehanna River on Route 372 and of course a very long up hill up and away from the river. Road was such that we never had a chance to stop for a photo op on the bridge. I noted that there is a lot more water running in the river now than when the Google Street view photos were taken.

We stopped early in Delta, a mile or two from Maryland. The shower in the Peach Bottom Inn is vastly superior to the Rodeway Inn of last night.

Rudy talked to an old guy in the bar (younger than us) about our ride and he stated Rudy was an inspiration to get himself in better shape. More power to him.

We made a couple of calls,wrote a Blog, got something to eat and planned tomorrow's ride. Our trip is winding down.

35 miles today. Pictures will be posted when I get home.

Lancaster, PA 10/8/2011

We picked up our bikes from room 103 and took them down stairs and parked them outside the motel. Returned to our room, 208, and picked up our bags and loaded up the bikes and headed up the much quieter street from last night to Nuddie's, the recommended breakfast place and discovered John and Wayne just finishing up and getting ready to hit the road. John is new to long distance biking and we were amazed at how much stuff he had on his bike. We keep trimming back on what we carry. We had a good breakfast of ham and eggs and hit the road, following Charley from REI suggestion. It was a beautiful morning and the road was good with some nice hills and numerous yard sales along the road. Nice homes, lawns mowed to the edge of the pavement. We took route 23 to 345 and headed south to 82 towards Coatesville. We stopped for some gatoraide and a very busy little corner store and chatted with a lady from the area. We commented about all the traffic and she pointed out it was Columbus Day weekend, great weather, winter is coming and the tourist love all the attractions in the Lancaster area, Amish farms, car shows, out lets, etc. We called for reservations at a Rodeway Inn near Lancaster and got the last room. We pulled into Coatesville and started looking for a place to eat. In one block we went by a Jamaican, Chinese, Mexican and chicken place, none of which looked very good. We stopped at the fire department and asked Craig one of the young firemen on duty about a place to eat and he recommended the Little Chef on down the road toward our planned route of highway 372. I asked about swapping patches and he had none to swap.We got ready to leave and I noticed my back tire was flat. We changed it in front of the Fire Department and I washed my hands in the fire station. There is a very large steel mill in Coatesville and old row houses etc. We stopped in the Little Chef and split a club sandwich with chips. Based on the people we saw in Coatesville, Weight Watchers has not hit town yet but I suspect dialysis clinics are doing great business.

A pleasant ride west on 372 looking for Cherry Hill Road to head back north to our hotel on Hwy 30, the main road in the area. We entered the Amish farm area and began seeing buggies on the road, horse drawn wagons hay balers in the fields. Nice looking farms, laundry hung on very high clothes lines and busy people.

We found our road and headed north past a roadside farm attraction with around 200 cars parked in their parking lot. We love the Amish because many of the roads have an extra wide shoulder reserved for their buggies. We joined the buggies of course and rode to Hwy 30 and turned left toward Lancaster and found the traffic was extremely slow. In the 8 miles or so we rode up 30 to our motel, we passed cars sitting in traffic in every mile. We arrived at our motel and found the worlds oldest Rodeway Inn. We checked in, carried our stuff and bikes up stairs to our room. I took a shower which was the worst on our trip. The water went from scalding hot to cold on its own. There was an Applebee's Restaurant across the parking lot as well as a Texas something restaurant and a Chinese place. The parking lot was full and there were maybe 15 people waiting outside Applebee's with pagers waiting to eat. We walked in, put our name on the list, picked up our pager and noticed two ladies sitting at the bar with an empty seat on either side of them. We went and asked them to move over which they did. We returned our pager and ate at the bar. The ladies were Mary Kay reps and had been sitting there for a long time doing business, eating little, completely unaware of the long line of people waiting to eat. Amanda and Nick the bartenders were in constant motion and yet pleasant young people and we chatted about the crazy traffic and our ride etc.

It was an early night and we were making plane reservations for our flight home and the blog never got written until the next day.

A good day in Amish country. 56 miles.

Phoenixville, PA 10/7/2011

Up and out the door in a very cool morning. We had our bill adjusted as the restaurant at the Ramada had been rented out for a fashion show. We were unable to get on as models so had to walk in the dark for dinner. We had a bowl of cereal at Ramada, toasted a bagel to go and grabbed some cream cheese and hit the road, up the hill. We were off our route for a few miles and joined our route coming into Conshohocken, PA, a suburb of Philadelphia. We had so many turns on our route I began to develop an unusual craving for cheese. We made it through the maze, past some very nice homes on Valley Road, Kansas Avenue and Tennis Avenue.

It is horse county, big beautiful homes and past the curiously named Almshouse Road.

We began to get hungry and saw a sign in an industrial area advertising catering, and now open for breakfast, but not a clue as to where they were located. We asked a guy passing by and he gave us the directions, "behind the blue building". We rode behind the blue building and had a nice breakfast and chatted with another couple about our ride and how he ruptured his Achilles tendon. He was moving his children's basket ball net over a soft lawn during the rainy September.

We stopped in REI in Conshocken and Rudy bought new cleats and I replaced my flashing red light which had disappeared off the back of my bike. We were also seeking local knowledge about bike friendly roads to cut some distance off our Adventure Cycling Route which takes us north of Lancaster before heading south into Maryland. We got some tips from Charley, one of the mechanics and some assistance from Holly, both good employees of REI. Shortly after leaving REI we picked up the Schuykill River Trail and road up the trail to the Valley Forge National Historic Park. A beautiful day, lots of people hiking and biking and visiting the various areas in the park. We exited the park and entered Phoenixville looking for a place to stay. Stopped in the first place, a sports bar. A few people were in the parking lot standing around a 1931 Ford, and by their body language they were expecting it to explode. We went into the bar and spoke to the bar tender, a truly grouchy individual. He recommended Prima Motel down the road behind the pizza parlor. We called and Gary said, yeah, we got rooms. As we were leaving one of the guys who had been at the 1931Ford came in to claim his Guinness . The owner had came in the bar looking for a phone book to call a mechanic and the fellow had answered, You found one, and abandoned his Guinness to help the stranded motorist. As he talked to us, with his lady friend in the back ground saying it was time to go, I realized that I had been mistaken when I first observed the people around the Ford in the parking lot. They were not afraid the car was going to explode, they were standing back while their volunteer mechanic was checking out the car and wondering I a sure about his ability. We exited and headed down street, a very unbikefriendly street in search of Prima and discovered every corner had a pizza parlor on it. We found the right one and I walked into the Prima Motel hallway, it could not be classified a lobby, and was immediately reminded of some places in the Tenderloin in San Francisco that rent rooms by the week. The cigarette smell was intense and I backed out and told Rudy, No Way. I called the Majestic Hotel again (I had got an answering machine earlier) and got a nice lady who said they had non smoking room available. We rode down Bridge Street and checked in to a nice room, next door to two other bikers, whom we met later. We did some laundry in the tub and then went down stairs to the very nice Italian restaurant in the basement of the hotel. Many of the patrons were wearing Phllies Jerseys, including a family of four, the children being about 5 and 7 years old and a sweet grandmother type at the next table. A ball game was on in the next room above the guitar player. I asked one of the employees what the inning and the score was and he replied, who cares, it is not the Phillies.

When we checked into the Majestic, Nicole told us we were lucky as tonight was First Friday and things would be happening later. Sure enough, they blocked off two blocks of the street in front of the hotel. There were vendors set up, live music of a variety of types and quality, in several places and fire trucks from four different departments in the middle of the street. I spoke with three of the departments about swapping patches and nothing panned out. They were there to kick off fire prevention week.

We got back to the hotel and chatted with our biking neighbors, John and Wayne, who are doing the same route as we are but a week or two at a time. They started this bit in Poughkeepsie and will end in Richmond. They were traveling much faster than we are and we wished them well and returned to our room. I was to tired to do the blog and went to bed.

51 miles of very pleasant riding.

New Hope, Pennsylvania 10/6/2011

We had decided to sleep in but of course were up at our regular time, about 6 am. It is not light until after 7am and we do not ride in the dark. We came down stairs and Adam, the manager, told us two other cyclist had checked in last night. Rudy asked, "Young couple, the guy pulling BOB trailer?" Yep, it was the couple we had seen go by the Fly Shop outside of Union, CT on 9/29. They stayed in the B&B we had been trying to call all afternoon and were present when the operator of the B&B returned our call, so they were aware that we were on the road somewhere. Anyway, Drew and Shira started in Bar Harbor and are on their way to Key West. It was nice to meet with them and discuss the things that happen along the road, and the road itself. They made it through the closed bridges and roads as we did. We exchanged blog addresses and were on our way. Check their blog at billydontlosemynumber.blogspot.com. They told us they were going to stop for a few days at Shira's home, near Lambertville.

We had a good day of riding, nice weather, little climbing, quiet backroads for the most part, nice people to give directions along the way when we had questions about the right route.

We stopped in Frenchtown, NJ for lunch and there was a group of 8 people out for a days ride seated near us. We chatted with Macon and Bob. Bob has done some long trips, some on a motorcycle and some on bicycle. He retired after 35 years in the cut flower business. Like the Rose of Sharon Flower shop we visited several days ago, he got most of his flowers from South America. Travel time was 2 1/2 days from time the flowers were cut until they were in his store. Bob suggested we ride down the Pennsylvania side of the Delaware to Stockton instead of the New Jersey side as our maps listed. Go with the local knowledge and hope for the best. The Pennsylvania side was pretty but Bob forgot to mention there are no shoulders on much of the ride. It was not a problem as traffic was light.

We continue to see lots of evidence of the damage caused by the hurricane and heavy rains during the last month. Road damage, lots of trees uprooted and in Belvidere virtually every house we walked by on our way to dinner at John the Greeks was pumping water out of their basement.

When we reached the bridge at Stockton, NJ we crossed the Delaware River again thinking we might find a cheaper place to stay for the night. I had chatted with a pretty blonde at an inn on the Pennsylvania end of the bridge who told me her midweek special rate was $105. We stopped in the parking lot of the Stockton Inn and spoke with a lady just coming out of the inn after attending a music concert (classical guitar). She was very friendly and interested in our ride. She pulled out her IPhone and interviewed us on camera! As other ladies came out from the inn, she introduced us to them. We asked about sleeping on her couch but determined she lived to far off our route. We said goodbye and bypassed Lisa's where Bob in Frenchtown had told to be sure and stop for a cookie. How good the cookies are, we will never know. One of the concert ladies said the cookies had too much sugar.

We headed south on Highway 29, with heavy traffic and no shoulder, so as soon as we could we moved to the tow path along the Delaware Canal right along side the Delaware River. What a change, much more relaxed and quieter, for a mile or so until the path quality went bad after crossing a road. Then we noticed the good path continued a bit to the east. We chatted with a couple of young people employed by the local water district who were riding the canal tow path checking for damage from the storms. The canal is a major water supply source for the local area. They also suggested a Ramada Inn on Highway 202 out of New Hope.

Back on the trail and we arrived in Lambertville to find Shira's mother, Penny, her sister in law Karen, with lovely 11 week old Julie and family friend Deb awaiting the arrival of Drew and Shira. They had nice welcoming signs so we had our photos taken with the signs. Nice people and Penny invited us to dinner and, although it sounded great we declined, wanting to stay close to our route. They had spoken with Drew and Shira who were in Frenchtown, so they were not far up the road. We crossed the Delaware again for at least the 9th time and headed west. On the bridge, a couple stopped Rudy and said they had seen us having lunch Frenchtown and commented that we were making good time. The bridge had lots of foot traffic as everyone was out enjoying the beautiful sunny day.

Checked into the Ramada and walked down the road to Giuseppe's for a good dinner.

A better day than yesterday. 51 miles. Check out the photo post and Along the road post now and then. I might post photos tonight or tomorrow, it is getting late.