Indiana Tour 2021 Day 2 - Seymour to Shelbyville

 The severe thunderstorms hanging out just to the west of us made it a short day. We took a very direct route instead of the scenic meandering on USBR 35. Instead we got roads with no shoulders and light traffic with many drivers driving way too fast.

It was 49 miles (instead of 62), flat, with a strong tailwind. We spent less than 4 hours pedaling. 

We also spent a lot of time sitting around to avoid getting rained on. And we were very successful at that.

We ate breakfast at Larrison's diner, across the street from our AirBnB. It was raining lightly outside.

After breakfast we hung out in the AirBnB. The weather said the storms would be through by 11. By 10, the forecast changed, and the storms were going to be at 1. Since there was a gap on the radar, we set out for Columbus 20 miles away hoping to get there before the rain started again.

We almost made it, we only had some moderate rain for the last couple miles. So we stopped under a covered entrance to an office building to decide where to eat lunch and wait it out. This little guy was waiting with us.

At the end of the block there was a tasty Italian restaurant, Bucceto's, which had outdoor tables under an overhang where both us and our bikes could wait out the rain and eat lunch.

We watched the radar for an hour and a half, as storm after storm approached from the west, and evaporated before it got to us. So around 2:00 we decided to go for it and ride the 30 miles to Shelbyville, and hope the weather would hold. It did, we never got any more rain the rest of the day.

There was a bike shop in Columbus, where I bought three more inner tubes for Max's bike and a fresh patch kit. My friend Murphy says there will be no more flat tires as a result. Just like he made us not get rained on because Jim bought garbage bags yesterday and put all his stuff in them.

The Bike Gods have now turned their wrath on Jim. The rail on his saddle broke as he was carrying his bike up to our room at the Econo Lodge. It's 25 miles to the next bike shop, which is in Indianapolis. Their web site says they have a nice selection of Brooks saddles. Jim's broken saddle is about 20 years old, it's Bontrager, and the vinyl covering has cracks all over it with foam coming out. I adjusted it so the break in the rail is in the middle  of the seat post clamp. Hopefully this will hold. Otherwise he's gonna be calling an Uber to the bike shop.

Speaking of our Econo Lodge, this one is pretty nice. We have a crazy room with 3 beds. Here is a panoramic view:

This is right off the exit for I-74, which means dining options in walking distance are limited to fast food and a Cracker Barrel and a "Texas Corral" steak place. Given the alternatives, we decided it was steak night.

This turned out to be a good choice.

Yep.

Electrolytes were replenished.

Here is the Strava track.

Indiana Tour 2021 Day 1 - Louisville, KY to Seymour, IN.

 Here we are, ready to set forth.

It's 8:30 in the morning. I've drug Max out of bed. We have not had any breakfast, but at least I am caffeinated from the coffee maker in our hotel room.

We set out across the river, hoping there would be a place we can get food on Sunday morning in Indiana.

This is the magnificent Big Four Bridge over the Ohio River, which was once a railroad bridge, and is now a bike and pedestrian bridge!

At the end of the bridge in Indiana, there is stuff which I am pretty sure is Art.

I mean it must be Art. What else could it be? 

Six miles later, we came upon a Bob, which eventually served us breakfast after about an hour. Even Bob Evans cannot get people to staff a restaurant in these pandemic times. But we all got a nice hearty breakfast. Eventually. And we set forth into the wilds of Indiana. Expectations were low, because it is Sunday morning in very conservative southern Indiana. Max decided to amuse himself by counting churches. (Final tally: 25 in about 50 miles).

Sundays in rural Indiana being what they are, lunch became more and more of a challenge. After 30 miles, all we could come up with was a Subway and a Casey's convenience store in Scottsburg. But at the Casey's, Jim chats up some random woman, who it turns out is from Baltimore, and who tells us there is a pizza place, Marko's, four miles up the road in Austin. Where we can sit and eat pizza in air conditioning like civilized people. It's 90 degrees out.

So we go to Marko's. It's mostly a take-out business in a storefront, but they have some tables, and we can sit and eat our pizza. Which is pretty great midwestern pizza, to tell the truth.

While we are eating pizza, and Gilligan's Island comes on the TV. I ask Max if he has ever seen Gilligan's Island. Answer: no, and I don't care to. Me: you could be more culturally literate if you watch Gilligan's Island. Max: No way Dad.

This discussion causes Jim to strike up a conversation with the lady who makes the pizzas. Let's say she is a bit of a country person. She fondly talks about how she loves Hee Haw, which she used to watch with her grandparents. And Jim gets her to admit that she has a copy of every single episode of the Dukes of Hazzard ever made.

As we are riding away, Max observes that there are a lot of Trump signs in this part of the country. I told him that there is probably a lot of overlap between the set of people who have a copy of every episode of the Dukes of Hazzard and people who like Donald Trump. Max: the Venn Diagram is probably a circle. 

I asked Max if he has ever actually seen an episode of them Duke boys. He said no and he doesn't want to. I explained the basic premise of the Dukes of Hazzard, and about the General Lee, with the Confederate flag painted on the roof, and how it is claimed that every single 1969 Dodge Charger was destroyed in the making of the Dukes of Hazzard TV show. And how he should get a better understanding of the mindset of the Trump vote by watching an episode of them Duke boys and pondering what sort of person would find this entertaining. Max is having nothing to do with this.

Only 20 more miles to our end town of Seymour, and Max gets four, count 'em four flat tires. Did I mention it's 90 degrees out? The first flat is some road debris punctures the tire and the tube. I patch the tube, and we continue on. Five miles later, another flat. The patch failed. I put in a new tube. A couple miles more, and another flat. This time it's a piece of wire in the tire. I patch the tube. Five miles more, and the patch fails. I put in Max's last spare tube, which is already patched. This holds for the seven miles left to our AirBnB in Seymour. I think the glue in my patch kit is way too old, and that's why the patches are failing.

Anyway, here is the scenery coming into Seymour. That's Jim coming down the hill.

There is corn and nice old farm houses that nobody seems to live in.

We got into Seymour about 4:30. Hot and sweaty. Max: "I want a shower." I'm pretty sure he has never spoken these words before!

Our AirBnB is really cool. It's a huge loft over an Edward Jones office in an old building in downtown Seymour. 

The coolest part of it is it has a record player and a bunch of records. I made Max learn how vinyl LPs work! 

Me: "Max, they have an album here which was my favorite album when I was your age. I'm going to play it!"
Max: "OK Boomer. You are so old."
Me: <plays the first Boston album>
Jim: <relays story of seeing Boston at Hammerjacks with unknown band Foreigner opening in the 70s>
Max: <dying inside, I'm pretty sure>

And then it is time to figure out where to get dinner on Sunday night in southern Indiana. Our hopes are low. Here is what is in the neighborhood.

A giant abandoned grain elevator and an historic caboose. There are so many great restaurants by this AirBnB, which I why I stayed here instead of the Hampton Inn five miles away next to the Cracker Barrel, but all those great restaurants aren't open on Sunday.

But the Mexican place next to the grain elevator is open.

And they have really, really big margaritas!

So now Fortuna's wheel is on an upward cycle. After a very tasty dinner of Mexican food, with electrolytes replenished, we wander across the street to the CVS to get some suntan lotion. 

OMG, the CVS stores in Indiana sell beer, wine, and liquor. On Sunday. Who would have ever imagined this. Jim immediately buys a six pack for later. And he tells the cashier that he had no idea Indiana was so civilized. The cashier says she has lived in Indiana for 35 years and this is the first time anyone has told her that Indiana is civilized.

Here is the Strava track.

Indiana Tour 2021 Day 0 - Getting There

 My son Max, my bike touring buddy Jim, and I have decided to ride US Bike Route 35 across Indiana. No, I don't know why we want to do this, or anyone else. Anyway, we are riding from Louisville, KY to Chicago, IL, mostly on USBR 35.

So the first part of the puzzle is how to get out there and back with our bikes. Efficiently. I hate flying on planes. Amtrak doesn't go to Louisville. 

But my wife is the most awesome person ever. 

"Hey hon, how about we all drive to Louisville, KY, with our bikes, and then you drive the truck to my sister Kate's in Chicago, and fly home?" Then at the end of our bike tour, we put our bikes in the truck, predeployed to the end of the ride, and drive home.

She agreed to do this! She is the best.

This is somewhat easier than you think, because my sister Amy lives outside Cincinnati, and we can visit her for a night before proceeding on to Louisville.

Amy has made a flower farm in her back yard.

This is amazing and I am humbled. She has a potting shed to get the plant started. The flowers go in holes in the heavy duty ground cover, with irrigation, and hoops to cover them from the cold, and netting so they get support to stand up straight.

She picks the flowers and makes bouquets.

Which she sells at the farmers market in her neighborhood. We got there an hour after it opened and she is almost sold out. In the picture L to R is my Aunt Therese, Amy, my Dad, and Debra. Dad and Therese came up to visit because we were in town. 

I stocked up on some manly organic goat milk soap for the bike tour. I will need this.

So after we checked out Amy's farmers' market, we headed off to Louisville. We picked up Jim at the Covington airport, and introduced him to Cincinnati chili at Skyway for lunch.

We stayed in the fancy AC Hotel in the trendy NuLu neighborhood in Louisville. The AC Hotel is nice, but I would not exactly say it is a solid value proposition. Nonetheless we had fun. We all wondered off in search of food and libations. 

We started at the Akasha Brewery taproom. Jim and I got beers, and then we discovered nobody would bring us food. So we finished our beers and went over to The Grind hamburger restaurant, where they said it would be an hour for food. Max bailed at that point. He had Debra walk him back to the hotel, and buy him a ginormous ice cream sundae for dinner. Debra and I debated later whether this was a good plan the day before we are going to ride our bikes 60 miles. Debra: this is all sugar and a bad idea. Me: No, this is a fat bomb and it is good for lots of miles."

So after Max abandoned us, we had our OK burgers and disappointing craft cocktails at Grind. But while walking back to the hotel, we passed the Taj Whiskey Bar, and decided to stop for a drink.

This was the big win of the evening. Taj mad me a kick ass Old Fashioned, and we parked ourselves at a table on the sidewalk out front and proceeded to drink and people watch all night. Here is the street scene. 

So I totally became very intrigued by the building next door. It looks like Formstone! Could it be Formstone in Kentucky? Is there Formstone beyond Baltimore?

When you look at where it has fallen apart at the bottom of the building, you can see the metal mesh underneath, and it sure does look like Formstone.

Anyway, the guy at the table two pictures back struck up a conversation about my unnatural fascination with the purported Formstone. I explained to him what Formstone is (concrete slathered on a nice brick building, and shaped and colored to look like stone.) He said they call the finish on that building "veneer", and as it happens, he just finished installing such a veneer around the base of a hot tub for one of his clients. So on closer inspection, and after being educated, this is *not* Formstone. It is real stone, applied as a veneer over the brick.

I was sad, but the girl he was with gave me a big hug. She was even drunker than I was. 

Louisville was fun.

Riding Home from New York - Day 5 - Baltimore to Lawyers Hill

 The great Empire State Tour Ride Home from Canada is done. 

I am home with my dog who loves me.

It's just a quick 15 miles from the crash pad to home. I got in before 10, when the heavy rain was supposed to start. I had a couple nice refreshing showers during the ride.

Baltimore has made a wonderful separated cycle track running north-south through the city. It is really sad that the cycle track has become parking for work crews. I'm pretty sure that's not why it is there.

Two different Verizon trucks and another work truck. This is just sad.

Totals from the tour: 2 weeks, 650 miles. Really fun.

Here is the Strava Track.

Riding Home from New York - Day 4 - Delta PA to Baltimore

 I'm at the crash pad.

I'll ride the rest of the way to our main home tomorrow morning when it's cooler. I got here at 10:30, right when the heat was setting in. I left at 7:00 AM, it was only 37 miles. It was an nice ride.

I discovered this morning that my 18 year old Ortleib panniers have reached the end of the road. It seems that they are destructable.

That's a huge gash up the side of the pannier. I can't believe nothing fell out yesterday. I rearranged things so this pannier only has clothes in it, which are in stuff sacks. I made it fine, and I probably have some duct tape or a bungee around here somewhere to hold it together for tomorrow's short ride.

The Peach Tree Inn, my wonderful cheap motel from last night is only two miles from the Maryland line.

The route was very simple. Ride to Jarrettsville on 165, and cut over to the Jarrettsville Pike to Loch Raven, then ride home on Charles Street like usual. I've never ridden Jarretsville Pike, and it is not a great road for bike riding. No shoulders and heavy traffic. It is not relaxing, but it is direct and not all that hilly.

I went past the Ladew Topiary Gardens, which I have never visited, although it is often recommended. But I'm not stopping today, when doing so means I would be riding more in the extreme heat. (Currently 94 degrees, feels like 105, and I am in the nice cool basement of the crash pad and I already went to Eddie's and bought all the food and beer I need.)

Here's Loch Raven, from halfway across the bridge.

It's going to rain tonight and break the heat wave, and then rain most of tomorrow, but I think there is a window in the morning when I can ride home.

Here is the Strava Track.

Riding Home from New York - Day 3 - West Conshohocken, PA to Delta PA

 It's so incredibly hot. Unbelievable. Even if you leave early, it's crazy hot by 10, and I still had to spend hours in the heat. Climbing hill after hill. Climbing out of the Susquehanna River valley.

This was for sure the hardest day of the trip.

I have no appetite in this heat. All I had was a cup of coffee and a half an English muffin before I left, and a few quarts of Gatorade during the ride and a handful of peanuts.

I tried the strategy from yesterday about getting going early and riding flat, direct, roads. I got 15 miles of really nice rail trail (the Chester River Trail) to start the day, but it ended in disappointment.

And a half mile of backtracking. A sign saying the trail dead ends in a half mile would be helpful.

The last half of today's route was very direct - straight to the bridge over the Susquehanna at Holtville, but it's also very hilly. And rural, so few opportunities for a cooldown break. (Special thanks to the Atglen PA Public Library, you guys are so nice.) At the end, there is a monster descent to the river, and then a monster climb to get out, followed by another shorter but steeper climb to get through a small valley for a Susquehanna tributary.

This is looking back after I crossed the bridge.

The reason for having such a long, brutal day today is it puts me at the only motel for miles around, and sets up and easy 40 mile day tomorrow.

And what a motel it is. The Peach Bottom Inn. The bicycle tourist's dream. It is basic and cheap. The room is $60, and includes nothing I don't need. 

And it is attached to a bar and restaurant. The restaurant is outstanding! Totally creative menu. I had a seafood pot pie, and since I was still hungry for some reason, a calamari appetizer served with an amazing creamy pepperoncini dipping sauce. So much more interesting than the usual marinara. This place is great.

http://peachbottominn.com/

(I've found that even if I have no appetite at all while riding, if I sit, cool down, hydrate, and rest for a couple hours, my appetite returns with a vengeance.)

Also, even this motel room is very, very cheap, and has absolutely no frills, it still has some features in common with fancy expensive hotels in New York City.

Here is the Strava Track. So hot. So hilly.

Riding Home from New York - Day 2 - Martinsville, NJ to West Conshohockenton, PA

 It's so hot. It's ridiculously hot. I had to go a bit over 70 miles. Temps in 90s, heat index over 100.

The only way to do this is to get going as early as I can, and get as many miles in as possible before the heat sets in.

So I was on the road stuffed with coffee and cake at 7. I missed saying goodbye to Elliott, who was up at 4:00 for his job!

It was all about getting flat roads that are a straight shot to where you want to go. Traffic be damned. It was Millstone River Road 12 miles to Princeton, then the Princeton Turnpike another 12 miles to Trenton, and I'm in Pennsylvania before 10 and it's not hot yet.

Things get complicated in PA. The direct, flat route is this bike trail, which is a former canal towpath. Note canal next to it.

I had to Nope right off of that after a couple miles. It was too slow going. And it was getting hot. So I just rode clear to Philadelphia 20 miles on the shoulder of US13. Flat, smooth, direct. Today was not a day for worrying about traffic, or how ugly the scenery is, or taking pictures. 

My plan was to take cooldown breaks, but it turns out that most restaurants north of Philly are still takeout only, and all the convenience stores have removed their seating! So all I had to "eat" was the occasional bottle of Gatorade. Not so many opportunities for cooldown breaks.

In Philly, my route left US 13 and went onto Kensington Avenue, which is under an elevated commuter railway. This was a big win because of shade, until you get closer to the center city where it becomes a giant homeless camp. I rode all the way across North Philly on Allegheny Avenue until I hit the Schuylkill River, where there is a terrific rail trail most of the rest of the way to my friends Jim and Mary's, in West Coshohonkton, where they put me up for the night.

Like Lyn, Jim and Mary live on top of a mountain, with a super steep hill to get there. And again, I had to push my bike up. I got in around 3:30, and was roasted alive. All those miles were fueled by a few bottles of Gatorade, some coffee cake, and a cup of coffee. Also my belly fat reserves, to be strictly honest here.

But we went out to dinner down the hill from there house at a fantastic restaurant, the Gypsy Saloon. I stuffed myself massively with guacamole, and lobster mac and cheese. I am pretty sure that will restore the belly fat reserves.

Here is the Strava Track.

Riding Home from New York - Day 1 - Staten Island Ferry to Martinsville, NJ

 Back when Debra and I were dating, she lived in Brooklyn for awhile, and I would drive up to visit her. I'd take the Jersey Turnpike, and go over the Goethels Bridge, then over the Verrazano Narrows Bridge. Sometimes I'd stop off and visit my friend Bob, who lived in Port Richmond.

The Goethels Bridge used to be a rickety old horror show with super heavy traffic at all times. Since it was obviously about to fall down, they tore it down and built a new one.

With a bike lane.

You know what that means.

Today's ride starts with a lovely ride on the Staten Island Ferry. On Sunday morning there were three other people on bikes, and about a dozen passengers total. No social distancing concerns today.

I'm riding along the waterfront on Richmond Terrace, which is the same gritty mess that it's always been, except now it has a bike lane! With people riding bikes! So nice! But wait OMG WTF THAT DIDN'T USED TO BE THERE!

It's the biggest crane I've ever seen in my life. I spent the rest of the ride wondering what on earth you would do with such a crane. When I finished for the day, Wikipedia informs me that this is the Left Coast Lifter, also lately known as "I Lift NY", and it's on a barge and they use it to do stuff like build the new Tappan Zee Bridge. The boom is 328 feet long and it can lift 1699 tons. Zoom in on the picture to check out the teeny-tiny catwalks to get a sense of how unbelievably huge this thing is.

Then I went by Bob's old house (actually his mother's) to find that it is not there any more. 

My first dog, Nipper, was born in that house. I am sad now.

You think I don't like change? Fine. Get off my lawn.

Anyway, continuing on around on Richmond Terrace, the next sight is the renovated Bayonne Bridge, which has bike lanes now! Both the Bayonne Bridge and the Goethels Bridge are part of the East Coast Greenway.

I could actually see people riding bikes way up on that bridge.

And then you cut over to the ever busy Forest Ave, which now has a bike lane, so NBD, and you get to the incredibly fabulous new Goethels Bridge.

I love it so much. It is just amazing. You don't even hardly have to climb much to go across.

And it has a great view of Manhattan.

That's all the pictures, because it started to get really, really hot and humid and my brain started melting too much for me to operate the camera. Luckily, I only had to go forty miles for the day to get to my destination, which was my friend Lyn's house. It's 10 miles to the western New Jersey end of the bridge from the ferry terminal, so I had 30 miles to go through central New Jersey.

I had some trepidations about this, since my only real experience of this part of Jersey is what you can see from the turnpike. Will I be gassed by fumes from the refineries? Will I be run over by a container truck? Will I catch fire?

Turns out none of those things happened, and it's a really nice ride through small railroad commuter towns. I followed the ECG map as far as I could. Low traffic, nice shoulders, really easy riding.

Until I got to Lyn's. She lives in a valley between two mountain ridges. The road choices over the ridge are really steep. I picked Washington Ave. It was shortest.

Lyn's 18 year old son Elliott lives with her. He rides his bike a lot, all over.

Elliott: What road did you take to get over the mountain?
me: Washington Avenue.
Elliott: <laughing> I've never ridden up that one.
me: Me neither.

I couldn't make it. I ended up pushing the bike up the hill during the really steep parts.

Here is the Strava Track.

Taking a Day Off in NYC

Our Empire State Tour is complete, and we have a day to spend doing stuff in New York City before Debra and Max drive home, and I start riding home.

Debra planned a day jam-packed with activities, like a tour of Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty, and a visit to the top of the Empire State Building.

On the other hand, at dinner the night before, our friend Wendy said she had an old bike that's been in her closet for 8 or 10 years, and she wanted to start riding it again.

I offered to go over to her place and check out this bike, and do any easy maintenance it needed, and tell her what she needed to get for it to make it rideable. Because what is more fun, doing tourist stuff or tinkering with bikes? 

Max and Debra did all the tourist stuff. They had a great time. I did my laundry, got a corned beef sandwich from the deli downstairs, and headed over to Joe and Wendy's. Which was a great opportunity to see of you can actually get around the city on a bike now. They live on 14th Street on the East Side.

So I headed around the island on the bike trail that runs along the waterfront. Here is a nice row of warehouses near South Street Seaport.

I headed inland at the Williamsburg Bridge, up to one of my favorite bars from back in the day, King Tut's Wah Wah Hut. 

The Wah Wah Hut hasn't existed in about 25 years, and there is a different bar there now. It was playing "Swinging Party" by the Replacements when I rode by, which made me happy, and got me thinking. The Wah Wah Hut had amazingly eclectic music, a mix of then-current (circa 1990) alternative (e. g. Replacements) and stuff going back to country from the 50s and 60s and jazz from the 40s. I realized that when we were in the Wah Wah Hut 30 years ago, the Patsy Cline songs they were playing were as old then as the Replacements song playing as I rode by is now. I feel really old.

A bit later, I got to Joe and Wendy's building, and checked out the bike.

First thing, it's in great shape, there is nothing whatsoever wrong with it besides flat tires, and it's ready to ride. It's a Raleigh Capri 12 speed, probably mid-80s. It has 27" wheels. It horizontal dropouts in back, so it could be easily converted to a single speed. It's steel, and pretty heavy. It has flat handlebars and thumb shifters. It's a nice vintage bike. Wendy told me later she took it to the neighborhood bike shop to borrow their floor pump, and they were all condescending to her because of the bike. Sorry bike shop guys, this is a perfect city bike.

I decided to ride back to the hotel on regular old city streets, instead of following the bike trail along the waterfront. Turns out, this was super easy. Almost every street has a bike lane now. You can ride anywhere no problem.

And at one point I felt especially right at home! There was a Black kid riding down Broadway on a dirt bike. Just like Baltimore. I couldn't believe it.

Here's the Strava Track.