Thursday, July 9, 2009

Goodbye Pennsylvania















7/7/09 ~ We left Sean's without the pleasure of saying goodbye. He didn't come home from band practise which had occurred that previous night so if your reading this Sean we just want to say a big thankyou for all the hospitality you showed us. Your floor was a particularly comfortable floor to sleep on.
This morning's ride was particularly peaceful as we rode through the beautiful hills of eastern Pennsylvania. Otherwise the ride was particularly uneventful and we found ourselves in Stroudsburg for lunch. We stopped at the local Mickey D's and had the usual. After lunch, the clouds looked particularly ominous and we decided to wait and see what happened. Sure enough, it dumped rain for 20 minutes and we stayed inside keeping ourselves dry. Soon the sun was out and we were on our way.
We rode through a particularly busy section of 209 right before the Delaware Water Gap and there we had an incident. As we were riding down the shoulder, a car coming the other direction was waiting to turn across traffic into a local mall. Sure enough, it saw us and cut us off right at the last second. It was so abrupt that Seth crashed into Dietrich and spilled to the rode, disheveled but not hurt. Dietrich sped off after the car and confronted the lady in the mall. Boy was it a confrontation. The lady was confident that she did nothing wrong and was livid that we were calling her out on her poor driving. We told her she was in the wrong and asked for an apology which she grudgingly gave us. We left her with the words that we had ridden from San Diego California and had not seen worse driving. I could tell she was surprised as we rode off.
Riding along the Delaware river was absolutely beautiful. The river was like a mirror in some places and the rode was peaceful. We had intentions of riding through New Jersey but when we crossed the river, the foul smell of the state drove us back across the bridge and towards New York.
In Port Jervis, we stopped at the local McDonalds to figure out where we were going to stay. After calling some churches and even random people in the phone book, we got ahold of the Paulys who were old friends of the Lindes. They said they lived right outside Port Jervis and just like that we had a place to stay.
Greg and Teresa Pauly were both extremely welcoming to us and they both cooked an incredible meal of steak, chicken, salmon, rice, broccoli, and assorted vegetables. It was more than we could have asked for and was absolutely delicous. We are blessed. Afterwards, we got to watch alittle of the Tour de France and see some fellow bike riders riding only slightly faster than us.
Later, Greg and Teresa took us to another house up the mountain where they had arranged for us to stay that night. It was empty and they were house sitting for the owners. It was fabulous. We got showered and got to sleep in very comfortable beds. We would like to thank the Paulys for how kind and hospitable they were. We have fond memories of the beautiful state of New York.

2 comments:

  1. New Jersey does not smell thaaaat bad!! you didnt even give it a fair chance.. =)

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  2. I wonder what that lady is writing on her blog. I believe you, though; she must have been clueless, not realizing how fast and fit you all are. Dietrich, you're my hero...glad it wasn't an armed mountain man. Blessings to you for enough safety on that day & on future days.

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