Monday, May 10, 2010

No Philly Cheese Steaks

Day 2 was no where as epic as the first. We headed out at about the same time today, 9:30 and the weather was 45 degress again. Bet I'm going to miss that when we're sweating it out down the road.

My body was feeling it today. Especially right now at 11:30 at night. Staying with a fraternity brother down in Philly. He lives in Port Richmond. We ended up going out to eat at a Brazilian BBQ joint. The food doesn't stop coming til you put up the flag that says stop. Literally there is a marker on the table, one side is red the other green. Til you turn it around they will keep coming to your table with skewers of meat. Not the best value after having a big lunch. Went to a local pizza spot here in Port Richmond. Ben didn't get out of work til 6:30. So we ended up riding around to look for a cafe. To make a long story short, the pizza didn't look that good so I ordered the Monday special. $4.30 for spaghetti with meatballs or sausage. Thinking NY prices I thought this would be a small portion. This thing was enough to feed a family of 3-4.

Even though I didn't eat a Philly cheese steak, I still took it down today. Gonna need the energy though. I am not 18 years old anymore. That's the last time I went on a bike tour. My body was sore today. Going to have to learn some good stretches. That's something I never really done in my life except for in Phys Ed classes.

Thankfully all of our equipment is holding up well. No problems yet with the bikes or our gear. Tomorrow we plan on doing about a 50 mile day. Today was 55 miles. But with all the head winds it felt like double. It is no joke riding a fully loaded bike into direct winds.

Also can't wait to get to the Trans America Bike trail. http://www.adventurecycling.org/routes/transamerica.cfm That is a link to the route we are planning on taking. The next week is going to be spent meandering our way to the trail. We'll probably end up meeting up with it in West Virginia. This will help out big time. It's very time consuming when the trails are not mapped out so well. Especially the past two days. There have been a lot twist and turns. The GPS I spent $500 on sux so far. It really seems to take you out of the way to get to your destination. This has been my experience in the past as well. When I've been in familiar territory and know the best route and the GPS suggest a different route all together.

The highlight of the day was getting here to Philly and being able to watch last nights episode of Breaking Bad. Ben is also a fan and hooked me up with it On Demand. That is the best show on television. Wonder where I'll be next Sunday?

Been getting a lot of text asking if my butt hurts. Not that bad at all. Think I made a great choice on my Brooks saddle and Pearl Izumi bike shorts. Hopefully this remains the case. Yesterday I sweated through every article of clothing I brought with me. It was cold so I layered. Some of the best purchases I made where the Icebreaker wool shirts. The dry super fast and don't have any odor. So today I was swapping between those. Yesterday I wore one of those with a cotton henley over that and my light weight goose down vest. Both of those were soaking wet with sweat. It is so important to have the right gear. Going to need to buy a long sleeve one of those wool shirts and a warmer riding jacket.

That's how this trip is going to go. Sure I've done quite a bit of research before we left, but there will be some trial and error. Also haven't used more than half the stuff I took with me. Thinking about another week from now I should have that all figured out as well. Shed the excess weight and make the cruising easier.

If you take a look at the route and have any family or friends along the way. Please let us know. It would be nice to have some fun friendly destinations. Have a great week and thanks for following along with the long haul.

4 comments:

  1. Nice hearing how the haul is going

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  2. sorry I missed you in Philly! I have family in St Louis and good friends in Colorado so if you find yourself near either, reach out.

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  3. we are going to look up those people who vik knows, I would have told you to visit my cousin Deb in philly but she just had twins--might not b the right time, you could shoot her an e-mail though she lives outside philly but I think the other direction towards cherry hill. let me now if you want her email address.

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