Today was a lot of fun. We rode from Hillsborough, NJ to Philadelphia, PA, a total distance of 85 miles. The ride was beautiful today, from start to finish and the weather once again cooperated, giving us a perfectly sunny 75 degree day.
The second we crossed into Pennsylvania, it was amazingly beautiful, and the hills and forests were perfect. Right after we made into Pennsylvania, we took pictures under the "Welcome to Pennsylvania" sign, saw a stationary but functioning steam train engine, and found a crazy castle with huge vultures that were pretty angry that we had disturbed with their homes. Conor fell down a hill when we were trying to start from a stop, and fell right into a thorn-bush, so he had to ride the rest of the ride with bloody fingers and calves. At our lunch stop, and really the only time we stopped for more than five minutes, we all ate our peanut-butter and jelly sandwiches and crossed the street to watch some Pennsylvanian 8-year-olds play little league baseball, and we got to witness an inside-the-park grand slam, which was pretty awesome. I also hit my top speed ever of 38.3 mph down one of the Pennsylvania mountains.
When we got to the Schuykill Trail, my uncle Kevin and Chris met me and we rode the rest of the trail into Philadelphia with him(about 10 miles). Our riding group of me, Matt C, Tim, Conor, and David (Matt was calling us Team 2)made it into our destination, the UPenn Chabat house first, proving once again that, going fast and following directions always beats going really fast and ignoring directions(Team 1). We arrived at about 3:30 in Philly only to find that we were not only 45 minutes ahead of our van, but the rabbi wouldn't be in Philly to let us into the house for another hour and a half! We were all exhausted, the ride ended up being 85 miles in around 6 hours. Eventually we found another rabbi to let us in and Kevin, Chris and I went out to dinner while the rest of the guys went to a Whole Foods place to stock up. The rest of the team straggled in, apparently they had a few more flats and crashes, and Caroline broke her handlebars, so she had to be picked up, but she was alright. I also tallied my first crash, but it was just me trying to ride up a curb at very low speeds onto grass, so it wasn't at all painful.
At night, Brad, Sae-bin, Conor, David, Matt C and I went looking for some decent Philly Cheesesteaks, and found the best cheeseteak of my life at Abner's Cheesesteaks. After that, Matt, David and I went to this gelato(light ice cream) place that was delicious, and had really crazy flavors, like Avacado and Strawberry Tequila. Finally, we came back to the house, did my chore for the day(dish-washing) and went to bed to prepare for the next days ride. Tomorrow we will be riding about 40 miles into Newmark, Delaware. Hopefully the weather stays nice! Check my Flickr for all the pics, this server won't post my pics for some reason!! http://www.flickr.com/photos/8300819@N03/
States Traveled through: 3(NY,NJ,PA)
Distance today: 85 mi
Total Distance traveled: 152 mi
Interesting Animals Seen: 1 skunk, 1 groundhog/beaver?