Author: amy

 

We’ve spent the last few days working our way west across Pennsylvania. We left the Delaware, skirted the suburbs, crossed the Schuykill river and today dropped down to the banks of the Susquehanna.

We enjoyed a night in a hotel in the ‘burbs – after a few days of eating lentils and pasta on the camp stove, we were particularly excited to raid the buffet at Whole Foods. We resupplied our larders, picked up more gear at REI, and pigged out at Five Guys before departing the suburbs for Valley Forge National Park.

Since then, we’ve mostly traveled through farmland. The last two days have been in Lancaster County, which is apparently Amish country. It’s been bucolic (in the manner of a high-concept GE television ad): corn fields; a farmhouse with cotton dresses out to dry; even the occasional horse-drawn buggy. Coming from Brooklyn, of course, I wonder why we turn one visible religious minority into a tourist attraction, while another we don’t? But cultural weirdness aside, it’s been very charming, and the riding has been moderately challenging but beautiful. Highlights from the countryside have included: some fantastic farmstand tomatoes and corn, a llama farm, and a cop asking us if we had seen a buggy missing a horse.

We’ve had a few firsts over the last couple days – our first time getting drenched, our first lame day of riding, and our first (and second) flat tire. Each time, it’s felt good to step back and acknowledge that even those these things suck, we’re still learning, and they’ll get easier to deal with. It’s nice that we’re traveling for long enough to actually build those skills. We both already feel stronger on the bike and savvier while camping, and I’m optimistic that we’ll continue to learn.

We spent the last few days riding along the Delaware, crossing back and forth between New Jersey and Pennsylvania. We’ve gone from the woods, to farmland, and now we’re dipping into the suburbs to Philadelphia. The weather’s turned sticky and humid, and everything’s a little bit more lush. It’s starting to feel like we’re somewhere really new and not just on a regular weekend jaunt outside of Brooklyn.

I’m so used to the idea of bike touring that it’s easy for me to forget how odd we look to most people. Bike travel is funny that way – you’re a public spectacle, but that visibility (and vulnerability) also makes other people open up. I’ve had more conversations with strangers in the last week than I think I’ve had in my life, and the vast majority of people have been very kind.

To catalogue some random acts of kindness so far:

• A store owner gave us a very fancy can of salmon
• A couple in a car invited us to glean apples off of their tree
• We ran into a big community BBQ fundraiser for a charity and were invited to stay for free BBQ and music
• A family welcomed us to camp in their yard, as well as to relax, share a beer with them, and socialize

I feel lucky that this trip has given us the opportunity to have experiences like that.

 

We left the city! Mostly symbolically, of course – we just crossed the bridge into New Jersey – but it was still our grand farewell to New York.

It took another full day of heroic effort to actually get ourselves out of the apartment. We were still sweeping up about 4 hours after we had originally planned to leave. But we had a lovely send-off by our neighbor, and joined a friend for what was a beautiful, nearly empty ride up the West Side Bikeway and out of the city.

We’re both just relieved that moving is over and that we made it to a hotel; processing the rest of our feelings about leaving will take a while longer, I think.