[Bent] 5 DAY BIKE TOUR OF PENNSYLVANIA

Sat May 23 14:57:30 EDT 2009

Here's a brief report on the 255 mile, 5 day tour of Pa. I did last  week.

The idea for this tour started when I signed up for a weekend Amish  
country ride with Country Roads Bicycle Tours _http://www.crbyt.com/index.html_ 
(http://www.crbyt.com/index.html) , a  small outfit with whom I have done two 
other tours in the past. The tour  included two nights at a motel in 
Strasburg, a quaint little town located in  the midst of Amish country, a few miles 
southeast of Lancaster, Pa. Naturally,  I figured it would be more fun and 
adventurous to leave the car at home and  get to Strasburg and back on my 
trusty old "Lightning P38" recumbent (with its  F40 nose cone in front for a 
little extra speed).

The main issue in planning the route was how to get through or around the  
Philadelphia area. Fortunately, there's a Philadelphia regional bike map  
that covers southeastern Pa. (and also a big chunk of NJ), with roads  
color-coded to show which ones are best and which are the worst. The Pa.  
Department of Transportation has also mapped out various bike routes that  
criss-cross the state. One of them, namely "Pa. Bike Route E", goes from  Trenton 
through central Philly to Delaware and is part of the East Coast  Greenway Route 
from Maine to Florida.

I left my home in Hamilton Square, NJ (near Trenton) last Thursday  morning 
and headed for downtown Philadelphia, following Route E for a  substantial 
part of the way. Most of the streets along Route E have bike  lanes, but 
much of the route is on major streets and highways that also  have a lot of 
traffic, as I discovered on a trip I did last year.  Accordingly, I used the 
bike map to locate alternate streets with less  traffic for parts of the 38 
mile route.

Once in Philly, I checked out Jay's recumbent shop on the north side of  
town (Their selection of bents in stock turned out to be somewhat  limited.), 
then used one of those coupons you get at freeway rest areas  to book a room 
at the Holiday Inn for $89. The hotel is in a great location -  right in 
the middle of Philly's historic district, a block from  Independence Mall. (I 
suspect the $89 rate is probably not available on  weekends.) After lunch at 
a nearby deli, I had the rest of the day to do a few  things in Philly. I 
checked out the museum of Jewish history located a few  steps from the hotel 
-- an interesting place, but really just a preview of the  "real" museum 
that is currently under construction next door. The $150 million  edifice is 
being built on the mall and is scheduled to open in November  2010.

The next day's ride was 62 miles to Strasburg, mainly along  secondary 
roads that run parallel to Route 30, the main highway between Philly  and 
Lancaster: Haverford Ave, Haverford Rd, Conestoga Rd, King Rd, Boot Rd,  Rt. 30B, 
Valley Rd, etc. After stopping for lunch in the small town of  Coatesville, 
I entered Lancaster County, where I suddenly found myself  immersed in a 
bucolic landscape with horse-drawn plows working in the fields,  women in long 
dark dresses working in their yards, and thousands of cows  grazing on the 
hillsides. It felt good to arrive in Amish country!

After checking into the motel in Strasburg, I noticed a broken spoke on  my 
front wheel and wondered how long it had been that way. Luckily, I was able 
 to get the spoke replaced at a local bike shop that stayed open late on  
Fridays, then met the other riders on the tour, a congenial group of 10  
people, with ages ranging from 11 to 70.  

On Saturday we rode a few miles to visit the "Amish Village" and a few  
more miles to Intercourse for lunch consisting of pretzels stuffed with  either 
sausage or pizza ingredients. The afternoon was spent zig-zagging along  
back roads amidst the Amish farm country east of Lancaster, hoping that it  
wouldn't rain (which it didn't). Since this was supposed to be a "rest day"  
for me and the skies looked threatening, I opted for the shorter ride of 27  
miles rather than the 46 mile ride. 

Sunday's ride took us into the more rural and hilly landscape southwest  of 
Strasburg for a nice change of scenery. The entire group opted for the  
shorter ride of only 15.5 miles, which seemed a lot longer because of the  
hills, wind, and frequent turns. After a gourmet farewell luncheon at a quaint  
old Strasburg Inn, it was time to begin the trek home. I pedaled  east 
toward West Chester, a nice town about half way toward Philadelphia,  where I 
used another discount coupon to get a room at a Microtel Inn at the  edge of 
town. After a shower and brief rest, I got back on the bike and rode  into the 
center of town for a good meal and a quick tour of the town with its  many 
stately old brick houses and college campus. 

The trip back was not without a few challenges. In addition to being more  
hilly, I encountered two "bridge out" signs along the route - one on  Sunday 
and another on Monday. To make matters worse, the Philly regional bike  map 
I was using to navigate had mislabeled 2 of the roads along my route,  
causing me to make a wrong turn at one of them. These pitfalls resulted  in 
about 3 to 4 extra miles each day, for a total of 37.5 miles Sunday  afternoon 
and another 67 miles on Monday. Monday's ride was particularly  challenging, 
following an intricate route through Conshohocken and the  suburban area 
north of Philly, then back through Trenton. The many hills often  had stop 
signs or red lights near the bottom that served to kill my  momentum. But the 
various detours along the way took me to some  lovely secluded back roads and 
past some magnificent stone mansions, so I  can't really complain. All in 
all, it was a really fun  experience.

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