More for the Mind

Today was a planned zero day — more for the mind, and less for the knee. Although taking it easy mileage wise is certainly helpful, being on my feet in a museum for 5 hours isn’t the best treatment for a cranky knee.

I did manage to bike a paltry 7 miles today, but it was to the Whitney Museum of American Art, Target, and REI. And a day for the mind, is a day for the soul. 

In short I spent the morning and early afternoon at the 82nd Whitney Biennial. I hadn’t been here since 2019 right before the pandemic descended, and a planned 2020 visit never happened, and we havent been to New York City since January of 2020 — the lapse just happened. It was a great visit.

I had to get a new micro SD card for the insta360 (I’ll be editing the footage after the ride, sometime in June). I also had to get light resupplies at Target, and visited the second largest REI I’ve been to, after the Seattle flagship, in SoHo. It was large, it was packed, and it was three stories tall. It looked like a straight line wind went through there, the place was hectic.

I took a total of four individual Citibike rides — I purchased a 24 hour pass — and rode one crazy electric bike (a rocket powered cadence sensor affair) and three analog bikes (with variable speed hub drivetrains). All heavy tanks, with crazy loose steering and wonky breaks, but that’s the fun and adventure of it all. It’s great to see so many New Yorkers and tourists on Citibikes and their own bikes tooling all around the city. 

The food delivery bicyclists — that’s another story, and another animal altogether. Keep your distance and your head on a pivot — they come at you from every angle — and fast!

Now, I’ve got to deal with the weather moving in Saturday and Sunday — wall to wall rain in torrents and steady drizzles — with high temperatures in the 50’s. As miserable as that potentially sounds it’s much preferred than 98 degree days that truly enervate your body and soul.

The plan is to go to into Connecticut tomorrow — Stamford; New Haven on Sunday; the Simsbury / Hartford area Monday; Mansfield, CT on Tuesday; and into home turf — Massachusetts on Wednesday. I’d love to be home by Wednesday, and the use it as home base to cover some of the mileage into Southern Maine via bike and return trains for a few days. 

That’s is, say I bike from Jamaica Plain (home) to Exeter, New Hampshire one day — I return by Amtrak Downeaster home, take it the next morning back to Exeter bike to Portland, Maine, then train back home and repeat until I reach the end of the Downeaster line in Brunswick, ME. After which I’d just bike to Lubec / Calais, ME without returning home. That’s what I’m contemplating. Maybe even catching up to some Spinners still out on the trail.

Day 22:
Start: New York City, NY
Finish: New York City, NY
Miles: 0 (7.2 non trail miles around NYC)

We’ll see… technically once I reach Putnam, CT I will have covered all the mileage on the Atlantic Coast Route / East Coast Greenway Trail which I started last year, but the idea of ending in Maine is appealing — a fitting topper!

What I’m Reading:

Birds don’t care that the land is ugly,
decorated with handsome cattle
and advertisements for elk jerky
under an awning.

— Ange Mlinko / “Bolivar”

The Disappearing Trail

So, some of my hopes for this morning were dashed: 1. To take the combination of the East Coast Greenway and the 9-11 Trail into New York City. Which included, 2. A ferry ride from Jersey City, NJ to NYC, at the Battery Park ferry landing, and 3. hopefully a sunny blue-sky day. 

It was a promising start under overcast skies, and early on the ECG and 9-11 Trail were well marked and I traversed a number of residential neighborhoods on the first half of the planned 27 mile ride. 

But somewhere in the outskirts of Newark things began to go wonky. A little bit of rain never hurt anyone, and so it began. Then the slaughterhouse smells — there’s an actual livestock processing plant in this area of Newark — and the smells weren’t the most pleasant.

Then the 9-11 Trail continued through some desolate, trash and glass strewn wasteland beneath a knot of half a dozen major highways intersecting at one of those massive cloverleaf interchanges between the Jersey Turnpike and NYC.

It seemed the type of place bodies might be dumped by nefarious types. And there were some large black garbage bags all about one area. I jest, but it was the sort of area that fills one with dread. And I wasn’t off route, according to both Ride with GPS and cycle.travel I was on the 9-11 Trail.

I think it’s still in need of finishing touches.

So I hightailed it back back to Newark Penn Station and jumped on a New Jersey Transit train the two stops into NYC.

I was quickly greeted by a deluge — New York City in the rain is pretty cool, but the food delivery guys using the bike lanes are absolutely insane drivers — veritable kamikazes launching themselves at traffic wily-nily. Keep your distance if you’re biking thru, give them leeway.

I arrived at the hotel so early that I waited a couple of hours in the lobby to get into my room. 

But I was happy to sit out the torrential downpour. I secured a ticket to the Yankees v Blue Jays at 7:05 tonight, so one of my hopes for today remains alive.

The other is to see an experimental film somewhere like Anthology Archives, but the only screening of a rare experimental film before the game is at MOMA, and so I catch Teo Hernandez’s Maya (1978), before heading out to Yankee Stadium. 

I’m going to the Whitney tomorrow so I’ll get my fix of postmodern art at the Whitney Biennial 2026.

So it was half bike tour / half vacation and all fun today — except the desolate garbage netherlands near the Jersey Turnpike. I could have lived without that. 

Day 21:
Start: Clark, NJ
Finish: New York City, NY
Miles: 20.07

I had a great time at Yankee Stadium and the rain stayed away as forecast.  I happened to come on cap promotional giveaway night. And saw a decent game.

Alas, the Yankees lost 2-0 to the Blue Jays — here’s Paul Goldschmidt making the last out of the game.

I’m trying to sort out some creative way of riding out of NYC on Saturday — which is forecast to be soaker of a day with highs in the 50’s. Oy!

What I’m Reading:

The Museum of Modern Art isn’t hungry
Each wall is perfection
Leger says hello to Picasso
Matisse defines red and green
The paintings are testaments to an achieved order of delight
There are no hot dogs here
No sad sacks

— Jack Galef / “The Museum of Modern Art Isn’t Hungry”

… and the cranky knee

Today ended the way it began — icing down my cranky knee —although, admittedly, it was less cranky this morning before I biked 49.12 miles on it. But the knee abides.

My choice of routing for today was twofold: 1. to stay out of the 92 degree sunny weather as long as possible, and 2. the least taxing ride toward New York City. 

My only scheduling oversight was scheduling the longer of the two rides on the first day back for my cranky knee. Tomorrow’s ride to my lodgings in Manhattan is only 26 miles, that’s the distance I should have gone today and left the longer for tomorrow. But the ice and ibuprofen will get the job done.

Today I routed myself on the East Coast Greenway, specifically over 20 miles on the Delaware & Raritan Canal Towpath Trail. What the towpath affords is a cooler microclimate, shade, breezes, and interesting flora and fauna. And I Got all of those in abundance. It was a very pleasant ride from Princeton, NJ to South Bound Brook on the D & R Canal Trail.

Once off the trail the heat, especially the radiated heat coming off the pavement was oppressive. Even though the highest temperature was 94, it felt warmer. And those temps really sap one’s energy through the day, especially the afternoon.

I stopped often for shade breaks, water (I drank over 2 gallons today), pictures, and an hour long lunch and had a bit of energy to spare at the end of the ride — but not much. Just enough to ice my knee down first thing and then get all the dark fine gravel dust off in the shower. The knee looked a bit angry, but I know how to treat it. (The perils of college football, ca. 1983).

As I said tomorrow is a short day and ferry ride to Battery Park Landing from Jersey City, NJ — and I leave New Jersey behind.

I’d like to go to the Whitney Museum or the MOMA, and maybe catch the Yankees at home against the Blue Jays. Then again, a concert or some sort of sit down tour to treat the knee right is a possibility. We’ll see. I’m coming back to NYC in July for a week so I can be very selective about my two days now.

On Saturday I’ll ride the length of the island and cut across the northern half into Connecticut, where I’ll spend five days before riding home into Massachusetts and a few days off with Pattie.

Then the plan is to head up to Lubec and Calais, Maine, dipping into Canada, and turning for home sometime in mid-June.

Day 21:
Start: East Windsor, NJ
Finish: Clark, NJ
Miles: 49.12

Ice, ice, ice — it’s all about the ice and the cranky knee.

What I’m Reading:

I was fifteen when I started filling tanks,
wiping dead moths off the windows,
watching the Chevron across the street
blink its blue fire into the broken sidewalks.

— Molly Thapviwat / “Cherry Coke and Chevron Lights”

a more human knee

My one and only job and objective today was to get my knee to be a more human knee, and a lot less volleyball. As I spent all day and night icing it down I think I succeeded — now it looks like a human knee swallowed a softball , so there is a semblance of a human joint there now.

Seriously, the swelling has subsided significantly so that I’m able to bend the knee, where my range of motion was severely limited yesterday, and the pain is significantly alleviated, too. So in that sense a day off was a success. But only repeated use will provide the proof.

This happened to me last year when I was biking the first half of the Atlantic Coast / East Coast Greenway Trail. After a two day stretch of 130 miles, including a 77 mile day in to Melbourne Beach, my knee blew up like it did yesterday. Some people thought my ride was over after 450 miles. I took two days off with ice and anti-inflammatories and minimal walking, and proceeded to bike 1,000 more miles without a similar incident, and finished half the route.

I knew it might happen again this year because the Spinners have a tight schedule with minimal days off and a couple of instances  of consecutive long days planned. I hoped it wouldn’t recur, but alas, it did. Now I get an opportunity to reset and reconsider the ride — what will become: “my ride.” Here are things for me to consider:

Lack of a deadline: I loved, truly enjoyed, the consensus building of a group of 4-6 people having to come to a general agreement on issues of lodging, meals, timelines, etc., but sometimes the loss of complete autonomy felt constraining—and nowhere more than in the deadline of a June 5th finish. I no longer felt I wanted to miss that museum, or that interpretive historical marker, because we had said ferry to catch at a specific hour or certain mileage to make. This is one thing one must adapt to, and I wasn’t completely successsful at it. I’d never gone 15 days without taking an off day, recall I was biking for a week from Georgetown, SC before I met the group in Jacksonville, NC, making up the gap from where I left the route in the south last year. I (my knee) requires a day off every 7-10 days, so I biketour without a hard schedule, just a loose idea of when I’ll be done. This was a bit challenging for me.

Weather: On occasion I’ll take an extra day off due to severe weather, be it a nor’easter, record rains, or record heat. A set schedule without days off precludes that ability. As someone who had a hospitalization with acute renal failure from dehydration, after summiting Mt. Katahdin during a thru hike of the Appalachian Trail (2001), and then wound up in the emergency room again twice on two other thru hikes (2004, 2010) requiring saline IV’s — despite hydrating well — I take the heat very seriously. And after feeling mildly dehydrated yesterday in the early record heat, 94 degrees, and staying out too long on a 77 mile day, I probably would have erred on the side of safety and taken a very short day 25-35 mile today (early in the morning). So already, even if my knee was perfect, I could see a stagger between me and the main group developing. It was already developing when I couldn’t reconcile some of the off-route lodging options.

Recovery Time & Space: One of the things about riding solo, and having complete autonomy, is being able to recover without justification, and more importantly — without the guilt that I may be slowing down the group or causing consternation. I’ve done numerous group rides and none of them have gone beyond 9 days. As more time passes more differences become apparent in riding styles, personalities and proclivities that may not jibe with your own. That becomes more challenging, not easier for me, as time passes. As an only child I was used to solitude and space — and sharing a room with three others or a house, bathroom, bedroom, et al., with five others is, admittedly, challenging for me. And sometimes I need the space and room to air out my saddle sores, snore without guilt, explode my panniers out, drape drying clothes all about, and charge all my stuff first instead of deferring as I do. I find this challenging too. Sometimes you just gotta ice your knee out multiple times daily in bed in comfort, and sometimes all day while others move on.

I didn’t leave them, they didn’t leave me, this is just when we started to “ride our own rides.”

I spent 7-seasons on the Appalachian Trail (2000, ‘01, ‘02, ‘04, ‘10, ‘12, & 2014) and one thing you heard ad nauseum was true — you have to “hike your own hike.”

Starting today I’ll be back riding my own ride — and missing Scott, Richard, Bobby, Jeff, Lois, and Ashley as convivial riding partners enjoying the good sights and sounds, and commiserating through the 32mph headwinds and sideways rain. That camaraderie is hard to come by — and it’s golden!

But I won’t miss the predetermined schedule, the proximity when you’re craving space, the haggling about who will travel to whom for dinner, or the sharing of bedrooms. 

And this heat, too, shall pass.

Day 19:

Start: East Windsor, NJ
Finish: East Windsor, NJ
Miles: 0

I’ve always been keen to combine the Atlantic Coast Route with the East Coast Greenway — I did it often last year, when I rode a combination of the two over 1,400 miles. I’m going back to it starting today. I’ll be combining the East Coast Greenway and the Atlantic Coast Route starting today. I’m keeping mileages low — including another off-day in New York City… because… New York City!

I’ll make my way up the island to Stamford, New Haven, Simsbury / Hartford, Mansfield, and then a straight shot home for a few days off in Jamaica Plain (Boston), before resuming up to Lubec and probably Calais, Maine — the northern terminus of the East Coast Greenway — and then bike a few miles in Canada… because… Canada!

That’s the plan. The knee will comply… (pretty please?)

What I’m Reading:

over the fixed images of memory, a scaffold weighs
its shadow, in the shape of a pendulum
pendulum                                                 pendulum

— María Auxiliadora Álvarez / “11”

Egg Harbor City Lake, NJ.

Egg Harbor City, NJ.

The Mullica River, from Green Bank, NJ.

Cranberry Bogs, Chatsworth, NJ.

Hot Diggidy Dog, Chatsworth, NJ.

Hot Diggidy Dog, Chatsworth, NJ.

The Brendan Byrne Ranger Station. Shamong, NJ.

El Aguacate ( The Avocado). Browns Mills, NJ.

El Aguacate ( The Avocado). Browns Mills, NJ.

With Bobby on the Union Transportation Trail. Cream Ridge, NJ.

Bobby fixing a flat tire on the Union Transportation Trail. Cream Ridge, NJ.

Bobby repairs a second flat on the side of the road near Highstown, NJ.

My surgically repaired right knee swollen from the 77.20 mile day. East Windsor, NJ.

 The only solution is to take a day off and ice it down, and get off my feet. This has happened in the past, and unfortunately this is the only solution — short of stopping altogether, which I won’t do.

Day 12:
Start: Egg Harbor Township, NJ
Finish: East Windsor, NJ
Miles: 77.20

After a full day of rest, icing down, I should be able to continue northbound on my own with reduced mileages for the first few days back. More on this tomorrow.

What I’m Reading:

Wouldn’t you rather be kettle-cooked than smeared under a 
rain boot? 

— Elizabeth Crawford / “Antelope Valley Times”

The Jersey Devil?

Getting ready to roll with Richard, et al., into the New Jersey pine barrens after a day off — the first, and hopefully not the last. Cape May, NJ.

Bobby pointing out the local flora, in this case, wild asparagus by the side of the Middle-Township Bike Path. Whitesboro, NJ.

Since we were all staying at different sites tonight we knew we’d be splitting up at some point — here near Swainton, NJ it was time for a route check. I eventually peeled off from the maj. group at South Seaville, NJ. Lois and Jeff started out about 45 minutes behind us and went straight for real coffee in town.

An eighth of a mile after I split off from the group I found this “gem” — Gem Grill & Pizzeria, just in time for second breakfast — Celsius and Flaming Peanuts — please don’t follow this diet … or do so at your own peril. South Seaville, NJ.

At the base of Garden State Parkway / Great Egg Harbor Biking & Walking Path over the Tuckahoe River. Beesley’s Point, NJ.

And later, across the river at the Submarine Veterans Memorial at Somers Point, NJ.

Pre-World Cup fever fix: check / travel league soccer match…

Lunch place: check / Mazza’s …

Bike safe: check; 2 gatorades, banana, 1 massive Italian hoagie (2 meals): check! At Mazza’s Market & Coffeehouse, Northfield, NJ.

Check out the other half of the massive hoagie on the rack as take out dinner.

I love being surprised on tour — those unexpected & unforeseen places that knock one out. Despite a hearty lunch a stop, I found Reed’s Farm a welcome air-conditioned stop for a lemon poppyseed cookie and cold nitro coffee. Near Egg Harbor Township, NJ.

The sign that pulled me in … a sucker for caffeine. Reed’s Farms. Near Egg Harbor Township, NJ.

I can report: none about… Near Egg Harbor Township, NJ.

The Atlantic County Bikeway, the last of the three bike paths I spent most of the day riding to Egg Harbor Township, NJ.

Day 11:
Start: Cape May, NJ
Finish: Egg Harbor Township, NJ
Miles: 43.28

Tomorrow we all head to East Windsor, NJ from three different points — as I had the shortest day today, I’ll have the longest day tomorrow at 77.5 miles, and it’s going to be a hot one, forecasted high is 94 for E. Windsor. It’ll be an early start.

What I’m Reading:

In South Jersey and Philadelphia folklore in the United States, the Jersey Devil, also known as the Leeds Devil, is a legendary creature, or cryptid, said to inhabit the forests of the New Jersey Pine Barrens in South Jersey.[1] The creature is often described as a flying biped with hooves, but there are many variations.

— Wikipedia entry

Three State Day

Every day has to start somewhere, today starts here: (above) as I leave the hotel and (below) as I traverse the Ocean Gateway Bridge en route to Ocean City Beach, MD.

My stomach has asked me to stop paying homages to saturated fat, and for a few days I’m going to follow that directive … Oy! 

Only nutritious foods in moderation from here on out. Yeah, sure … never believe a newly minted Gummy Clusters Nerds addict.

Ocean City Beach was very sedate. Very few people out on the boardwalk …

… not even at Ripley’s Believe It or Not amusement park …

… and no one on the beach in 56 degree weather …

The only thing to slow a bike rider down is a sustained 12 mph headwind early in the day.

The “e” is silent — someone was actually fixing the light fixture inside the “e”. Ocean City Beach, MD.

The plan was to meet Richard at his hotel at 10am, and we’d ride up the beach together.

Hello, my name is Jorge, and I’m a Nerds Gummy Clusters addict. Ocean City Beach, MD.

Our first picture in Delaware, at the ubiquitous Royal Farms: (l-r): Bobby, Scott, Richard, and I. Fenwick Island, DE.

Battling the headwinds with Bobby, with one of the World War II era artillery fire observation towers that pepper theses mid-Atlantic beaches in the background. Fenwick Island State Park, DE.

A quick break before tackling Indian River Inlest Bridge, where we were fully exposed to the headwinds that picked up throughout the day. Fenwick Island State Park, DE.

Heading over Indian River Inlet with Bobby on point …

… on the north side of the bridge, but not the headwinds. Fenwick Island State Park, DE.

A respite at the Indian River Inlet Life-Saving Station, an 1876 precursor to the Coast Guard. Delaware River State Park, DE.

Time for a quick headwind break before heading to the Cape May ferry.

Oddly the max wind speed was 14 mph, but as it was sustained all day it sapped my legs and a day off tomorrow is medicine for the soul and very sore quads and calves. Here Scott and Richard are waved in by Bobby for a quick break. Delaware River State Park, DE.

Welcome to Dewey Beach and the home of the famous Woody’s lump crab cakes. We had three separate individuals suggest we stop there and try their specialty. Dewey Beach, DE.

Woodys looked unassuming …

… but the lump crab cake sandwich is exquisite! Enough to shame Joe’s Stone Crabs out of business. Amazing crab cakes and homemade kettle chips. Dewey, DE.

Tidal marsh at Cape Henlopen State Park, as we rush to make the 2:45pm Cape May Ferry. Lewes, DE.

Not actual size ferry …

… not an actual security check, security check. Open up your panniers, dirtbags! At the Lewes — Cape May Ferry.

Is that a sfork in your pannier, m’am?

Actual-sized ferry arriving from Cape May.

We’re thinking… “That was a tougher screening than TSA at the airport!”

Sighting Cape May Lighthouse from the ferry — our third state of the day. 

Here we be! Cape May, NJ.

Joizsy! Finally here. Cape May, NJ.

The well appointed rumpus room at our VRBO rental. Cape May, NJ.

All the bikes fit nicely in the billiard room…

… who’s pool-sharking who?

Day 9:
Start: Ocean City, MD
Finish: Cape May, NJ
Miles: 43.1

Yay for a zero-day today. Today we bike not — or little with unloaded bikes — recover and get ready for the New Jersey pine barrens starting Sunday. The next section will bisect southern New Jersey from Cape May to High Point State Park.

What I’m Reading:

Surfmen at Station Indian River Inlet saved the lives of more than 400 sailors between 1876-1915. The site was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1976 and is operated as part of Delaware Seashore State Park.

— Interpretive Sign at Indian River Inlet Life-Saving Station

Blue Skies Materialized

I was so exhausted yesterday, after the long day, that I didn’t notice there was a billiard table in the front parlor of the Garden and Sea Inn and nearly walked into it on the way to getting coffee. Still too windblown and pedal-drunk to play at 6 am.

It was a late start for me. I was waiting for word that others had started to roll for the day, and I thought I’d meet them at a triangulated point on the route. But no one texted and at 8:19 I saw on the tracking app we run that everyone was riding. I felt “Home Alone” — so I rushed and loaded my gear and started rolling for the day. It rained steadily for 90 minutes and I didn’t note when I crossed into Maryland from Virginia.

But my first Maryland stop, at the Stockton Volunteer Fire Co., was to remove rain gear as blue skies materialized to the northwest.

Rolled through some beautiful farmland throughout the day — very flat riding here near Girdletree, MD.

But even though it was flatland, the wind insured the pedaling was hard. It often felt as if I was on a stationary bike cranked up to the maximum setting bicycling in place. Headwinds have become a daily constant. Farm near in Girdletree, MD.

Another odd thing to riding alone all day—unbelievably, I didn’t run into anyone until the last 10 minutes of my ride — was the dearth of services. This was the first opportunity to get something to drink or eat at 29.3 miles into the ride. Newark, MD. Rain was threatening again, but stayed away.

Thankfully, some very lightly “trafficked” roads today, as through this area near Newark, MD.

Travelled by many wheat, corn, and potato fields through the Chesapeake Bay area, and today by a number of horse stables. Near Libertytown, MD.

At the 40-mile mark the first open place for lunch: Roadie Joe’s Bar & Grill. Berlin, MD.

They use laminated baseball cards for coasters … I got Twins / Royals stalwart Greg Gagne — a good augury.

Correction: There’s only one food group… saturated fat.. having a burnt ends grilled cheese at Roadie Joe’s in Berlin, MD. 

Don’t have pictures of anybody else today because I rolled alone, but here was my route to Ocean City, MD.

And at some point, unknown to me, I passed the 2,000 mile mark for the year on this ride.

We all did eventually get together tonight. We ended up spread out again. I’m 9.5 miles away from Lois & Jeff in North Ocean City Beach, and 2.6 miles from Richard, Scott & Bobby who are staying beachside.

 We all headed up to have dinner by Lois & Jeff’s hotel and made good consensus-based plans for the ferry crossing to Cape May. So today we’ll actually be in 3 states: start in Maryland, cross into Delaware catch the ferry across Delaware Bay from Lewes, Delaware to Cape May, New Jersey.

So in honor of a 3 state day…

… an homage to saturated fat …

Day 8:
Start: New Church, VA
Finish: Ocean City, MD
Miles: 48.1

Marylanders know their ice cream!

What I’m Reading:

Please Rate Your Experience Please / stand in this Assembly / Line of Loss / Please: We’ve all wanted to be loved / by an impossible thing / it’s why the monarch butterflies keep following us around & This Is How It Is Habibti / Things Happen Until You Die / & All You Can Do Is Not Break

— Noor Hindi / “The Document”

The Two Food Groups: Saturated Fat & Caffeine

We had an early morning because we had a long day. I was out of camp at 6:30am and biked 1.5 miles to Sting-Ray’s Restaurant for breakfast 3 (not the above pictured from Royal Farms breakfast 2 (which is a heart attack in a white plastic bag).

Breakfast 3 is not pictured, but it was shared with Jeff and Lois. And following below you can plainly see us burning it off … 

… I had three breakfasts to burn off as we left Cape Charles, VA.

You know the wind? We are intimately familiar with the wind. It’s like we’re winding thru windage. There’s a good reason the Wright Brothers traveled just south of here to experiment with flight — they found statistics from the US Weather Bureau that confirmed that this area, is in general, one heck of a windy place. Gusts well over 22 mph today. Though luckily sometimes it was a tailwind.  

Some talk about biking as I imbibe yet more caffeine. I should buy shares in Celsius.

Working up an appetite for lunch in Exmore, VA. Lois and Jeff ready to get back on the route.

Oak Grove Methodist Church, est. 1870. Near Melfa, VA.

Richard insuring his Gazelle is kept busy and away from Poseidon’s “turtley” grip. Richard, he da’ man. Locustville, VA.

Winding up lunch at Mallards Sidewalk Cafe in Accomack, VA winding down and onward …

… We finally meet up with Bobby in Accomac, VA — and we are six Spinners again. Jeff admires Bobby’s Salsa Vaya.

Accomack, VA

Gargaphia Plantation site on Route 13. I peeled off from riding with Scott, Richard, and Bobby to stay at the Garden and Sea Inn in New Church, VA. 26 of my 77.5 miles were solo in the afternoon. They moved on to Trails End. Campground in Horntown, VA. We’ll all meet up again tomorrow and move north.

I’ve arrived bushed, wind-beaten, and pedal-drunk to Garden and Sea Inn Bed & Breakfast in New Church, VA.

I really don’t feel that chipper after 77.5 miles of wind-shorn riding. I’m just giddy that my legs have stopped moving in a pedaling motion.

Day 7:
Start: Cape Charles, VA
Finish: New Church, VA
Miles: 77.5

Today we’ll cross into Maryland, with Ocean City as our destination.

The dietary excellence continues unabated… Oy!

What I’m Reading:

The angels were once as plentiful
As species of flies.
The sky at dusk
Used to be thick with them.
You had to wave both arms
Just to keep them away.

— Charles Simic / “In the Library”