June 1, 2008
Day 20: Marietta, PA to Phoenixville, PA
78.17 miles, 5:41:53 Ride Time, 13.72 Average Speed, 42.64 Maximum Speed
This was a great day - one of the best so far, with perfect weather, perfect scenery, a tailwind, a few hills to keep things interesting, and some cool people at the end of it.
I was out of the Blue Note by 8:00; it was sunny and mild - no need for the arm warmers today. It was a quick ride to Mt. Joy (pop. 6,765), where the traffic briefly picked up in the direction I was going. What was that all about on a Sunday morning? In a few miles I had my answer: A huge church, so big that there were two men directing traffic into the parking lot. Once past that, I saw few cars for the rest of the morning.
For the next few hours, I rode past extremely neat homes and farms. This was one of the longest, most attractive stretches of countryside I've seen - virtually unmarred by any shabbiness. I passed by hundreds of small flower and vegetable gardens. This wasn't the fussed-over professional landscaping that I've seen so often in the cookie-cutter subdivisions of McMansions; it appeared to be the work of regular people, who all happened to maintain their property at the same high level. You usually don't see that in the country - normally there are always a few people who seem to collect old appliances and cars on blocks in their weed-choked yards. I didn't see that this morning.
I got to Reamstown (pop. 3,498) around 11:30, but the likely lunch places seemed so busy that I just stopped at a gas station for snacks. I believe this was the place where I first noticed the absence of Little Debbie; instead there were "TastyKakes", a poor, poor substitute indeed.
Outside the gas station were several Amish (I assume) teenagers who had ridden to the store on bikes. They all had crude, heavy-looking boxes on the bikes that contained fishing poles, baseball gloves, a bat, etc. I wanted to take a picture (and give it a smart-ass caption like "Amish Panniers"), but I didn't want to offend them. I've heard that they are touchy about tourists photographing them (and I suppose I can't blame them).
The scenery became less perfect for a while around Reamstown, and I had to pass the super-noisy Maple Grove Raceway. There was drag racing going on, and I could hear the cars (and the announcer on the PA system) for a couple of miles.
Things got nice again around Plowville, and the area around French Creek State Park. Hilly, but very nice and shady. Embarrassingly, around this time the Amish kids from before passed me as I climbed a small hill. Hey - it's not like their fishing poles weighed as much as all the crap I'm carrying around. And haven't I been riding for the last 20 days?
I was able to get into the outskirts of Phoenixville (pop. 14,788) easily - Adventure Cycling did a good job on this route. From there I called Brian, my host for the night, and got directions to his place, where I met his fiancee Liz, and his mother.
They very kindly asked me to have dinner with them (it was great), and Brian and I enjoyed some good conversation about touring. He does the more adventurous style: Make your own route, stealth camp (at least some of the time), etc. He tours on a recumbent, and his was the first one I got a good look at (also the first one I sat on, but I didn't have the nerve to try to ride it).
Brian and Liz have a St. Bernard, Bella, who they rescued from a puppy mill, and she was very friendly and well-behaved, especially impressive given the abusive treatment by her former owner. Interestingly, on this trip I have been around several friendly dogs. On my last big trip in 2006, most of my interactions with dogs involved me yelling or spraying them with pepper spray, while they tried to bite me or cause me to wreck. Definitely an improvement.
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Today's ride: 78 miles (126 km)
Total: 1,489 miles (2,396 km)
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