Cycling through Pennsylvania (Day 3-4)

After spending hours cowering in the New Hope Library, hiding myself from teh downpour, I was able to find a local motel online that was considered to be relatively "cheap." And by "cheap," we're talking $125 a night. But since the rain didn't look like it was going to abate any time soon, I pedaled the 2-3 miles to the Nevermore Hotel and checked myself into the most economical lodgings in a 20-mile radius.



The next day, I got up and cycled from New Hope to Emmaus, having to tackle many hills and valleys along the way -- including two small mountains. It was a little difficult at times since the roads were not well-maintained and there wasn't any effort to lessen the grade. In fact, when I was climbing the first mountain, one sharp turn lead me to what looked like a gigantic wall... but it was just the road continuing up the hillside. The sudden steep slope caught me completely off-guard, and with my lack of momentum, I slowed down to a standstill within a few turns of my pedals. I then had to push the bike up the hill on foot for a few hundred yards until it leveled off enough for me to start pedaling again.

While taking a break in the small valley between the two mini-mountains, I stood on the shoulder of the road studying my maps, when I was startled by a local resident who quietly sidled up beside me and blurted out, "Hey! That's quite a trailer ya got there!" His name was Ray, he was grey, old and recently had a stoke, but he still scared the beejesus out of me when he magically appeared by my side. I then spent the next 15 minutes pinned by Ray's inarticulate conversation about my bike, his old bike, the boy scouts, and his daughter that lived in some town I have never heard before (he pointed towards some distant woodsy mountainside, thinking that by gesturing in a certain direction, it would somehow make me suddenly know the town intimately).

After escaping the friendship of Ray, I went up and over the second mountain, racing against nightfall. I hit the peak just as dusk was settling in and zoomed down the far side along the narrow, crooked road at a breakneck speed. I rode the brakes most of the way down, especially around the hairpin turns, as my bike and trailer rattled wildly. The way my heavily-packed trailer bounced around with a clatter, I thought it was actually going to overtake me a few times. As night fell, I reached the bottom of the hill and found a small bridge to camp under just outside of Emmaus, PA.

The next day, the rain came pouring down again just as I got my tent packed into my bag. I cycled around 9-10 miles through the sheets of rain, finally reaching a Perkins restaurant just south of Allentown. I went inside for a breakfast and got about 5 different people come up to me and joke, "Heh! Not a great day to be biking, is it?"

So instead to continuing to bike in the rain and continuing to get jokey remarks about biking in the rain, I went to the next door Howard Johnson's to get a room for the night. The rate was $109 plus tax, but I was able to talk the manager down to $85.

I'm hoping this precipitation ends sometime soon. Meanwhile, it's CNN, TBS and HBO for the day.