D3 NE Gritty Grind

You could likely just read the reviews on Expedia (which I didn’t), but I’ll save you the trouble – don’t stay at the Baymont in Newark, DE. It wasn’t terrible, but when you check in and the clerk says they can’t serve breakfast because they are short staffed, it’s best to turn and walk. Short staffed means everything is “short”.

The good thing about Newark DE, not NJ, is that my dad used to sort of work there when he was in the army. There was a Chrysler factory there and they built tanks. He was stationed at the Aberdeen Proving Grounds and built flame throwers for some of the tanks. That was the world back in the day. Today, Newark, except for Baymont, is a lovely town with a beautiful university.

Today we road threw a city. A city that basically extended from Newark to our present location in Bristol, PA about 67 miles. It was impressive that a city could be that big. In fact, we will likely be in “it” all day tomorrow. The city had different names along the way but they were all connected.

In Newark we passed the building where people make money off our using a card and provide no other meaningful service to the world. From the looks of the Chase campus, they are making a lot of money from me and others.

Eventually we got to the part of the city, they call Wilmington. It was big but amazingly not busy. We literally went right through downtown without hardly any moving cars. Nice for us, but sort of weird for a city.

What is constantly interesting as we cross through these cities is that they have the same pattern. We start in a housing high dense area that is generally ugly. Then as we move through the big buildings and another housing dense section, we break out into a green, housing low density area. Interesting…

After leaving Wilmington – well you never really leave any of the cities – we continued along relatively busy roads, but with good shoulder, until we entered Pennsylvania. We were on a designated “bike route”. When we stopped at a diner (obeying our no chains for food rule) we found out what it means in PA to be a designated bike route. The Fedex guys out front, telling us the diner was good, said a designated bike route in PA meant a stretch or road prone to bicycle theft. We locked our bikes and kept our eyes on them while we ate the “best breakfast in town” Or at least that is what the sign promised. And of course a philly steak and cheese sandwich.

Riding through the section of the city called Philly – for about 25 miles – we did get to witness a new Guinness World Record. It isn’t official yet, but one guy honkedfor about 3.5 minutes non-stop. It was impressive. Fortunately, it was at someone else. In fact, from the all the honking we heard, many people were working on breaking the record. It is also apparent that everyone in Philly either uses the horn to say “hello” or “go to hello” – not sure. We might have also set a world record for the number of stop lights passed through or stopped at on a bike in a day.

Impressively, despite the constant road rage toward one another, we were very well treated by pretty much every driver – seriously! They would carefully pull around us and wait for us at lights. They never honked at us once, and since the designated bike route was nothing more than signs, in many places, that was nice. Not having much of a lane, or no lane at times, not so nice. Admittedly, even for Gumby it was a little scary.

There was one place that there was trail along the waterfront and it was quite pretty. We enjoyed for a couple miles but pretty soon we were back on the road with the cars. Sadly, the mile of trail and waterfront was bookended by miles of a dirty, messy city. Gloria wasn’t really enjoying it, but she’s a trooper. I found it quite an adventure, not just dodging the cars, but being in the middle of a world so unfamiliar to me.

I tried to change 66 miles of city riding for her by miraculously having the last mile on a beautiful canal trail. Not sure she bought it, but since she barely knows which state, much less which city, we are presently located in, it’s not likely she will leave me.

To see the ride through Philly, but please don’t share with our parents. We are old. They are old. They still worry….