Day 4

Beautiful tree-covered roads along the Delaware in PA
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So our prayers went un-answered and  my legs still felt like concrete in the morning. Fortunately after churning my legs on my pedals for a few miles they atleast started to feel like wet concrete.

I had the best road of my ride this morning after I crossed from New Jersey to Pennsylvania going over the Delaware. (Think "Washington Crossing the Delaware" except I'm on a bike and the white wig is a bike helmet. and I'm on a Bridge instead of a boat. and I don't have a posse of soldiers. all the prestige and captain morgan stance were there though.) Anyways the road was completely shaded by trees and dip and dived and zigged and zagged through the forest which always makes for fun bike riding. Although I wasn't always sure that I wasn't going to fly off the road in the middle of a zig right after a dive. This road even came with a picturesque finish with one of those tunnels of branches that arch over the road. (In fact I think it was so picturesque that my mom stopped to take a picture of it.)

...all the prestige and Captain Morgan stance were there...

These back roads are great for riding. No shoulder - no lines of any kind and very little traffic. Unfortunately there are very few road signs, and the ones that exist are often twisted around pointing in the wrong direction and the trees above prevent the GPS from working. Miraculously, we didn't.
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At the end of this road I found myself in the middle of Straight Edge Pennsylvania where all the lawns come in either well kept fareway and putting green style. (I'm pretty sure that if you forget to mow your lawn you get evicted from the township, because the farther out of town you get the longer the lawns get.) It literally felt like the town was wound so tight that I was going to snap just riding through it.  The last twenty miles of my ride got interesting as the roads got busier, the shoulders got smaller, and the traffic lights got closer togethor. (By the way if I had a list of things I hate with a passion traffic lights would now be on it. I'm trying to bike a hundred miles here and these damn red lights keep telling me to stop every time I get up some momentum going down a hill. It's hard enough starting and stopping on a long bike ride without a computerized flashing light telling me I can't ride out the hills.) Then rush hour hit at 2:30, the shoulders dissapeared, and every stop light had me hitting the breaks.  If you ever have the chance to visit East York Pennsylvania just call over a few friends, start all your cars in the garage, close the door, and watch a slide show of Harley-Davidoson and COca-Cola factories. It's the entire East York experience without even leaving the comfort of your own home.(We'll be trying to leave early tomorrow.)

Day 4 - Complete. Here is photo proof. Very busy roads in East York, PA.
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On the brighter side of things my legs still work, and I'm past the point where if they were going to stop working they should've done it already.

436 down,

Ryan S.

Todays stats:

Mileage-104

Avg. Speed- 17.1 (Hills and stoplights didn't help any)

Max. Temp.- 97

Humidity- 98 percent

Winds- In my face