May 31, 2017
Day 34: East Stroudsburg, PA to Matamoras, PA
Today's journal is brought to you by Kerry :-)
We awoke to rain this morning, so we took our time before setting out for the day. We had a late breakfast and took our time packing up. Everything was very pleasant until we went to check out. While loading our bike by the front desk, a very loud commotion broke out with lots of profanity. It appears that a woman entered her room to find a maid there, and that her wedding ring was missing. As the maid left the room, the husband noticed the maid handing something to a male employee. We're not exactly sure what happened next but the husband did recover the ring, and he and the employees were really getting into it at the front desk. We were glad when we finally got loaded up and left. Up until this happened, I had told Jeanna that we should write about how nice the motel was and how much we enjoyed it. We really did enjoy our stay, especially our time with the lady who ran the ran the breakfast and dinner buffets, but the incident at checkout left a sour taste.
Just a couple of miles from our hotel we walked on the I-80 pedestrian walkway across the Delaware river. Even though there was a Jersey Barrier between us and the traffic, it was a very uncomfortable walk. It was very loud, the bridge vibrated a lot and it seems that every other vehicle was a semi. We were constantly getting buffeted with the wind blast and were very glad to get off the bridge.
After crossing the bridge, the next several miles were very scenic with steep banks and waterfalls on one side, and the Delaware River on the other. This was definitely not the mental image of NJ I have always had.
During this stretch, we met John, who was riding from NYC to Pittsburg. We had a good roadside chat and he warned us of a steep downhill a little further down the road.
At about mile 15, we hit our 1st steep hill of the day. We made it most of the way up, but did put "4 on the floor" for the last portion. After cresting the hill, we saw what John had warned us about. We started downhill, but I soon stopped and asked Jeanna to get off. Our brakes just didn't have the stopping power for such a steep hill, and I didn't want to risk a crash, so I rode the rest of the way down, stopping twice to cool the brakes, while Jeanna followed behind on foot. I promised her that I would wait at the bottom of the hill and not leave her.
The rest of the ride was uneventful - we did have one more steep climb, but we managed to ride all the way to the top and Jeanna got to ride the whole way down. By this time, the sun had come out and the temperature felt like it was in the mid 70's. It was so nice to see the sun and not be cold!
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The only downside to today's ride was the lack of rest stops. There was not any place to stop for lunch until we got to Matamoras, and by then we were very hungry. A quick stop at the Wendy's next to our motel resolved that and then we checked in to our motel.
Tomorrow we are riding to New Paltz, NY where we will meet our friends John & Aline.
Today's ride: 48 miles (77 km)
Total: 1,542 miles (2,482 km)
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