June 7, 2019
Day 44 Mount Holly, NJ
Further adventures
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The word for the day is CLOSED - bridges closed and B&B closed.
The day got off to a great start. It didn't take too long to get out into the country after leaving Millville. We saw lots of agriculture again. This time, it was vegetable crops - cabbage, broccoli, beets, squash and one field of carrots. I've posted enough farm pictures, so no more today. I have more interesting things to show you.
We stopped at the Express Mart in Vineland for our first break because we would have another twenty miles before the next convenience store. The owner of the store was so impressed with our journey that he tried to give us food and more drinks. We thanked him but declined. It is so nice to meet people who want to do something for us. We would need that later in the day.
We rode on through the pine barrens on mostly low traffic roads.
Less than 1.5 miles before our next break (and 18 miles since our last one), when came upon a sign saying "DETOUR - road closed ahead". Kerry never lets a little thing like that prevent him form forging ahead, so on we went. We hoped the road closure would be more than 1.5 miles away. That was not to be. Maybe a mile up the road we came to this:
There was a woman mowing her grass just before the barricade. Kerry asked her if we get get through on a bike and she said yes. Notice how close together the concrete barricades are.
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At the far end of the closure, the barricade was even tighter, but there was a path around the end that we pushed the bike on easily.
After getting past this obstacle, a rest break less than a mile away was very welcome. However, after getting a giant drink at the Wawa, we found out they had NO RESTROOMS. That was bad news for me. We threw away most of the drink and left. Across the street was a sign company - called "The Sign Company". We stopped in and the man at the counter kindly let us use their restroom. He and the other employees ended up in the parking lot checking out the bike and hearing about our trip.
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So, comfortably ready to ride, we went on to Medford. We had some miles of heavy traffic on shoulder-less roads. It wasn't terrible, but I have to say that in New Jersey one does encounter a lot of "Jersey drivers". We recovered with a really good lunch at Riviera Pizza and had only 13 miles left to reach our B&B for the night.
First, we had to deal with another closed bridge. This one was easy. The sidewalk was open and Kerry just walked the bike across.
Our biggest obstacle of the day was about to confront us. Apparently, the B&B where I had called and made a reservation only two months ago had closed. There was no one there, the place was a dirty mess where could see inside and the phone number was disconnected. The little town of Pemberton is not prosperous, to put it kindly. We couldn't find an open business that had WiFi so we could use our computer to find a hotel and directions. We asked a couple of people on the street about other lodgings, but that got us nowhere. We ended up at the police station, where we met the very helpful Officer Sorce. He gave us information and directions to a Holiday Inn several miles away - and also welcome advice about where not to stay.
About a mile from the police station, we were afraid we had missed a turn, so we pulled into an Enterprise Car Rental to confirm our route. The woman there didn't know much about the area, but we were able to call the Holiday Inn to make a reservation and learned that it - and all the other hotels in their area - were full because of a big lacrosse tournament nearby. (We were now very glad we stopped to confirm our route!) We finally found a place with a vacancy 12 miles south of where we were (remember, we're headed NORTH). We figured it was the best we could do, so we made a reservation and started back. Two miles down the road, we came to ANOTHER "detour - bridge out" sign. This was too much. Kerry spotted an old motel nearby and pulled in. Although it doesn't look like much from the outside, they had a vacancy and, because it would save us from back-tracking 10 more miles, we decided it would do. After checking in, I called the other motel and cancelled the reservation I had made 30 minutes previously without a problem.
The room, while not fancy, is clean. We ordered Chinese for dinner and are now settled in for the night, so all's well that ends well.
Today will be one we remember!
Today's ride: 60 miles (97 km)
Total: 1,708 miles (2,749 km)
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