Decisions

I took the day off yesterday and had a nice, relaxing day to do mostly nothing. I was driven to the bike shop where I picked up Bree, and did the only biking of the whole day in riding her the two miles back to my aunt's. I got the royal treatment, having all the beer and food I could get my fill of throughout the day, some time to watch some Netflix, and my aunt was even kind enough to buy my groceries when I stocked up on some much needed food for on the go. I was free of all stress. Well, save for the making of one big decision, one that I thought I'd already made; west or east side of the Chesapeake. I had been settled on West, to go see DC. But many cyclists had advised on how nice the East side is. I'm also tired of all the traffic and know that DC will be a zoo. And I found myself extremely annoyed to discover the bridge I planned to cross only allows cyclists on it during the weekends, forcing me to make a 20+ mile detour to another crossing I can take up north and then back if I wanted to go that route tomorrow. I want to see DC considering I have never been, I really do (can't say the same for Baltimore and Richmond). But after a lot of deliberation, I decided I'm taking the East side, out of the traffic, more time with the ocean, a chance to hopefully see Assateague, and my cousin will drive me across the bridge tunnel when I get there. It was a hard choice, but I think one with no right or wrong answer, only my own. It's not a Choose your Own Adventure choice where one kills you and the other advances the story (at least I surely hope not), just a branched path to reach the same place. I'm taking the road less traveled, and doing the Delmarva peninsula.

That decision made yesterday, today was just a matter of biking through Philly to a suburb of Wilmington, Delaware, what would have been a brief excursion into Delaware, but will now be just the start of my time in the state. It was only a 50 mile run, but through Philly and the 90°+ heat, I expected it to take awhile.

To my surprise, Philly went fast. I had relatively good, safe streets to get me to the Schuylkill River Trail, which took me all the way into the city proper. I thought I might want to do some sightseeing...but I really didn't. It was hot as hell, and I've not acclimated to this heat yet. And I've also seen a fair amount of what downtown Philadelphia has to offer last year when I came to visit my aunt then (the unimpressive Liberty Bell, the Thinker, the incredible boardwalk, all that stuff). So, my only sightseeing excursion was to see U-Penn, the last of the eight Ivy Leagues. I hadn't set out to see all of them, but somewhere down the line I realized how many I'd seen, and how easily I could see the remainder, so it became a side quest. And as of today, with my time spent looking around U-Penn, that sidequest is officially complete. If I asked about my college experience, I can say I've had plenty, having been to all eight of the Ivy Leagues, not to mention plenty of other colleges besides.

From there I was on decent roads, largely with good shoulders or bike lanes, taking me to a trail through a wildlife preserve. It was lovely, and very importantly, it had some shade. The conditions of the trail got rough after awhile though, rocky and overgrown, no more shade, only thistles (the Nebraskan in me fearing goats head somewhere in all the overgrowth as there would surely be back home). It was a rattle fest to get through, and I was reminded again that Google and the ECG's routes (as this was part of the Greenway) definitely assume that you are not on a road bike. It spit me out onto a nightmare highway that I had to run across to the other side. But after that, I got onto good old Bike route E, part of the ECG, and I had nice shoulders and sometimes even designated bike lanes.

It was easy going, but also not much to see. Once I entered Delaware I was really impressed by the bike infrastructure, but at the same time, it was through an industrial mess, then with the interstate blocking view of the ocean, and then through some not so nice parts of Wilmington. I found no desire to stop, just to keep pushing ahead through the heat. My host had told me that he wouldn't be home until 7, which meant that I was going to have a long time to sit on his porch, but that porch had shade, and what's more, a cooler full of drinks he had left me (shown to me in a picture via text). So, by 3 I had arrived, done with my day that in retrospect I should have made longer (because tomorrow could then be shorter), but just glad to be our of the heat, even if not actually inside.

Not much longer to wait now for my host, which is good, because three sodas in, I could stand to use the bathroom.