[Bent] 5 DAY BIKE TOUR OF PENNSYLVANIA

Tue May 26 09:45:58 EDT 2009

Yup, I live about 2-3 miles from the Grounds for Sculpture and have been  
there several times.   -Steve

In a message dated 5/25/2009 6:49:24 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,  
clay at njsouth.com writes:

Wife and I really enjoyed reading your report!! Thank you so much! You  
must live near Grounds for Sculpture--Great Place!

----- Original Message ----- 
From:  _Sfriedlander2 at aol.com_ (mailto:Sfriedlander2 at aol.com)  
To: _bent at list.marsride.org_ (mailto:bent at list.marsride.org)  ; 
_bentonlife at gmail.com_ (mailto:bentonlife at gmail.com)  ; _jhfields at msn.com_ 
(mailto:jhfields at msn.com)  
Sent: Saturday, May 23, 2009 2:57  PM
Subject: [Bent] 5 DAY BIKE TOUR OF  PENNSYLVANIA

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.

____________________________________
A strong credit score is 700 or above. _See  Yours in Just 2 Easy Steps!_ 
(http://pr.atwola.com/promoclk/100126575x1222585033x1201462753/aol?redir=http:
//www.freecreditreport.com/pm/default.aspx?sc=668072&hmpgID=115&bcd=Maystron
gfooter52309NO115) 

____________________________________
_______________________________________________
Bent mailing  list
Bent at list.marsride.org
http://list.marsride.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/bent

_______________________________________________
Bent  mailing  list
Bent at list.marsride.org
http://list.marsride.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/bent

**************A Good Credit Score is 700 or Above. See yours in just 2 easy 
steps! 
(http://pr.atwola.com/promoclk/100126575x1222377034x1201454326/aol?redir=http://www.freecreditreport.com/pm/default.aspx?sc=668072&hmpgID=62&bcd=
MaystepsfooterNO62)
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://list.marsride.org/pipermail/bent/attachments/20090526/adb2140e/attachment-0001.htm 