[Bent] 5 DAY BIKE TOUR OF PENNSYLVANIA

Tue May 26 17:31:24 EDT 2009

Here is the official website http://www.groundsforsculpture.org/
Here is my own view of it  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7c_eTnFYsJ8
Sculptor J Seward Johnson is one of the J & J heirs. He has a lot of pieces located in various places. For example, if you've ever been to Haines Point in DC, you may have seen his Awakening, a metal giant arising out of the ground (it's since been moved a few miles away). Wife and I stayed at the St Gregory in DC and were surprised to see in their lobby Marilyn Monroe in her famous pose with the skirt over the subway grate from the movie Some Like It Hot. Traveling around the streets of western Central Jersey, esp Hamilton Twp near Trenton, one will often see his life-size, realistic bronze figures, sitting or standing in a park or on a sidewalk. If you go to DC on Amtrak you can see from the train at least one large piece (an Indian Warrior on horseback) near the small local station there. Anyway, the old Trenton Fairgrounds is now Grounds for Sculpture. There are pieces by many sculptors, and a marvelous water-feature garden, but my favorites are some famous paintings by Manet, Renoir and more, that have been duplicated in life-sized sculptures by Johnson and are in a beautiful, landscaped setting. It's a must-see.
Many apologies for temporarily hi-jacking a cycling site with all of this, I'll try to confine myself more to cycling in the future, but when I saw that Steve lived in Hamilton Twp, the idea for a Ride to see some of the pieces, ending at the Grounds, came to me...hope someone else might find that interesting. I think October'd be a good time for that.
In the meantime, Lambertville anyone?
Clay

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: jeff fields 
  To: NY/NJ/CT/PA Metro Area Recumbent Society (MARS) 
  Sent: Tuesday, May 26, 2009 4:51 PM
  Subject: Re: [Bent] 5 DAY BIKE TOUR OF PENNSYLVANIA

  Okay, I have heard enough about the Grounds for Sculpture without knowing anything about it or its location.  Can you guys tell me an address or an intersection and town so I can check into it further!?  Maybe a website to check it out?

  Thanks,

  Jeff Fields
    ----- Original Message ----- 
    From: Clay Mikolasy 
    To: NY/NJ/CT/PA Metro Area Recumbent Society (MARS) 
    Sent: Tuesday, May 26, 2009 3:26 PM
    Subject: Re: [Bent] 5 DAY BIKE TOUR OF PENNSYLVANIA

    I have an idea for an early-mid October ride (Grounds for Sculpture is particularly beautiful at that time of year, and the water garden should still be running--it gets shut down when the frost begins), if sculptor J Seward Johnson still has sculptures placed all around Hamilton Township and probably elsewhere (used to be some in Princeton). How about a sculpture ride, traveling from one piece to another and ending up at Grounds for Sculpture for a visit? 
    And one other: I'd like to do a Lambertville-Frenchtown-Milford trip sometime soon.
    Clay
      ----- Original Message ----- 
      From: Sfriedlander2 at aol.com 
      To: bent at list.marsride.org 
      Sent: Tuesday, May 26, 2009 9:45 AM
      Subject: Re: [Bent] 5 DAY BIKE TOUR OF PENNSYLVANIA

      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 
          To: bent at list.marsride.org ; bentonlife at gmail.com ; 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, 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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