One State Down, 10 to Go!

Day 01: Long Beach Island, NJ to Philadelphia, PA


It seems like there is never enough time to finish what you need to get done! The night before we were supposed to depart we stayed up finishing our kickstarter profile, packing, organizing, cleaning, etc. and the next thing we knew, it was 2am. Our friend Ann was coming by the house at 4am to pick us up and drive us to the shore before she had to go to work. So we went to bed, slept for an hour, and then got up and drove to Long Beach Island, NJ.

We arrived at the beach and immediately laid out our sleeping bags and took a 2 hour nap beneath the rising sun. Then we woke up, got a friendly surfer to snap a picture of our rear tires in the ocean, and headed out for the 65 mile ride back to Philadelphia.

The ride was beautiful and the weather was even BETTER (70 degrees, sunny, and a light wind). We traveled (on a slight incline most of the way) through farms, woods, and small towns, one of which had been established in the late 1600’s. Since we got such a late start and we were SO tired from our lack of sleep, we took more than a few breaks. We started losing sunlight when we finally reached Camden…

Words of wisdom 1: when the sun goes down, get out of Camden AS FAST AS YOU CAN!!!

We tried to do that by crossing the Ben Franklin Bridge pedestrian/bike path.

Words of wisdom 2: The pedestrian/bike path on the Ben Franklin Bridge closes at 8:00pm

…we arrived at the Ben Franklin Bridge at 8:15pm

So instead of coasting down the bridge toward the setting sun, we had to carry our bikes down 2 flights of stairs and take the PATCO line into Philadelphia. We were not happy.

As we took the elevator up from the subway and the doors opened, we were greeted by chaos. The combination of the PIFA (Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts) Street Fair and the 30,000+ people getting pumped for the Broad Street Run seemed to be all out on the streets while we were trying to bike across the city. It was like trying to bike down Bourbon Street during Mardi Gras!

We finally made it home at almost 10pm, so we ordered food and passed out (I might have actually passed out in mid bite).

Because we had so many loose ends to tie up before we officially departed Philadelphia, and we were running on fumes yesterday, we decided to take the day off and start the trip off right. So tomorrow, we head to Quarryville, PA with a good night sleep and a new haircut for Kevin!!