[Bent] Lambertville ride (was 5 DAY BIKE TOUR)

Rich Sadler richsadler at comcast.net
Tue May 26 21:55:10 EDT 2009


I'd lead the Lambertville ride this weekend if anyone beside Clay & me 
is up for it.
Rich Sadler
Clay Mikolasy wrote:
> 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 <mailto:Sfriedlander2 at aol.com>
>     *To:* bent at list.marsride.org <mailto: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 <mailto: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, 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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