Bath, Pennsylvania to Warwick, New York

August 13, 1981

Reunited

I woke up at 7:00 AM and met Chief Diehl at a local cafe, where we had breakfast. He promised to inform me of Paul's whereabouts, if and when he was located. I left Bath around 8:30 AM, heading for the Delaware River and New Jersey. Along the way, I kept asking people if they had seen another cyclist. As the morning wore on, some people said they had seen another biker who was 15-30 minutes ahead of me. There was hope and I pedaled with renewed vigor.

Photo of the Delaware Water Gap (DWG), where the Delaware River separates Pennsylvania from New Jersey. The New York state border is very close by, as well.

The Delaware River, near Portland, PA. This is where I crossed. The DWG is up river a bit and can be seen in this photo.

Paul, crossed the Delaware by himself. As I did, he got a passing motorist to get the photo.

My first photo of entering New Jersey, before I was able to flag down a motorist to get the photo below.

Welcome to the Garden State, New Jersey. Photo taken by a passing motorist, whose car is parked ahead.

I crossed into The Garden State, without finding Paul but reports from people along the way came with more vivid descriptions of the cyclist ahead. I was 99% sure it was Paul. About 2 miles from Blairstown, I saw him ahead and really turned on the juice to catch him. When I caught up, we stopped and were both hugely relieved. Then we laughed a lot about the while thing. People passing by must've thought we were nuts... or maybe they heard the reports and were amused. It was all good.

Paul had taken a turn, off of PA-309. He kept on going, thinking I was ahead. He spent the night in Nazareth (PA), at a church. He had spoken with his parents, who had spoken with mine. So, he knew which direction we were headed. He figured I was still ahead and was pedaling hard himself. It's a wonder I even caught up with him.

It was shortly after the Noon hour when we met back up, so of course, it was time to eat. We took a break in the town park and consumed some nourishment. Then we headed on to Newton, New Jersey. Along the way were more cornfields and mountains in the distance.

At Vernon, a skiing area called Great Gorge was converted into a Summertime amusement park. There were quite a few people there, including some very beautiful women. We took a break there for a little while and then continued on.

The scene at the amusement park in the Great Gorge skiing area, Vernon, New Jersey.

At about 5:30 PM, we crossed the border into New York State. When we got to Warwick, Paul went into the supermarket to get some supplies while I stayed outside and watched the bikes. A fellow named Eddie, who was 50-ish, came up and started asking questions about our bikes and what we were doing. He and I ended up having a good conversation that turned to his life and how he got here. He had been a bus driver in the city before he retired from that job. He moved here, to get out of the rat race and was much happier now. I enjoyed talking with Eddie and especially liked his heavy New York accent, which I hadn't heard in quite a while.

We had to stealth camp in the town park. There were signs indicating that the park closed at night and nobody was allowed in after dark. Unlike parks in the Midwest and West, this park had no restrooms, no running water, no picnic tables, nor many other amenities. We quietly camped under some trees and were not discovered or disturbed. We are now in the East, where things are generally not the same as they were out West. So, we have to be more careful about where we try to camp. This day ended well and we were thankful for that.

Today's ride: 75 miles (121 km)
Total: 4,923 miles (7,923 km)

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