D4 NE Water World

It was one of those storms that sitting in your kitchen, sipping cocoa, you stare out the window and say simply – wow! That is one really powerful storm. We were sitting, but without cocoa and on the wrong side of the window. There was very little left dry by the time we arrived at the hotel in Lindon, NJ. Every possible hook and hanger had to be used.

The day started well enough. We left the Motel 6 and jumped right onto the Delaware canal trail. It isn’t in Delaware, but in the Northeast where road signs say North and you’re going East, you sort of get used to things not making sense. In any case, the canal trail was wonderful and it went for over 40 miles of mostly nice gravel. We found chestnuts, walnuts, more herons than I’ve seen in a year in Pueblo, and turtles on every log. Unfortunately, despite pleasing Gloria with wonderful trail, she decided to play supergirl. I finally got her out of the city, onto a paved trail, and she runs off the edge of the trail and swerves onto the trail but without her bike. Gratefully, it was scrapes and bruises. Sadly, the day didn’t get better although the trail and scenery were wonderful.

As we rode along the canal trail,10 – 20 feet above the waterline, seeing logs jammed up in the trees above our heads, we realized that “flash flood” warnings meant serious water in this area. Water running down a dry canyon riverbed in the west could kill you, but this was water that could float a barge. Through much of the day it drizzled off and on so we were deluded into believing rain was not too worrisome. At about mile 45, we left the trail and began riding up a hill past Rutgers University. Earlier in the day we had stopped for breakfast (11 am) at a nice restaurant. I honestly felt like we were completely out of place – almost foreign. Later I realized we were out of our element: Princeton was just down the road. It was a like a university tour.

Anyway, back to Rutgers. We were at a stop light and all of a sudden it was like a bucket of water had been thrown on us – except the buckets kept coming. We still had over 20 miles to go and now we were on the roads – sometimes with shoulders. Rush hour was also beginning so we were in for loads of fun. After maybe 5 seconds, trying to stay dry was irrelevant. We just pedalled on and tried to not get lost. Eventually the sun was setting to add to the fun. But the most fun, was when Gloria didn’t catch up with me and I knew what was likely wrong. Yup, all the water and electric bikes and batteries don’t go well together. Nothing I could do on the road to fix it, so Gloria muscled on for about 6 miles (don’t tell her because I kept telling her it was 3 miles) and eventually we reached the hotel and began battery repair and drying.