Day 2: Montague to Philadelphia

Day 2 brought us a little of everything. We started out on frost covered bikes at around 7am with an estimated 300 miles to cover and partly cloudy skies above us. We decided to get some miles under us before stopping for breakfast so we headed west on route 9 out of Northampton with the plan of stopping at or near the Hawthore Vally Farm in Harlemville, NY for some eats.

The sunshine was sparkling on the tips of the frosted grasses along the road. Well at least it was right up until I let out a big breath (why? I don't know.) and my face shield instantly became translucent. With fogging issues sorted, we continued our ride only to be confronted a short time later with a roadway that looked to be wet, but with the temperatures as they were, that was imposible. Gingerly, we skimmed across the "wetness" and carried on. The Teconic State Parkway was great riding with many oportunities for us to ride side by side in our own lanes and a great diner just an exit or two before Harlemville with a big banner out front: Welcome Bikers.

After breakfast we made a stop at the H.V. Farm for old times sake. One last note about the Teconic... I think we saw about a dozen troopers on patrol during our forty-something mile jaunt, many with customers.

Things went smoothly for a good long stretch but with increasing cloud cover and standing water in low spots we wondered just how long it would be until we caught up with the offending rain storm. Oh wait, I meant snow storm. New Jersey greeted us with our first true taste of winter with sleet at lower elevations and giant snow drops at the peaks. With no sign of snow build-up on the road we rolled on with careful decelerations for each corner (or switchback as the case was several times). How was the visibility through the face shield? One word: Crap.
Snow eventually changed to rain and stayed that way (at varying intensities) for the rest of the day.

Pennsylvania apparently was gaurding it's borders from us because several attempts at getting out of NJ were thwarted by the mysterious disappearance of road signs in all the right places. Route 29 seemed to be the outter limit. Sometimes you have to just give in, so we eventually stopped to have something to eat so as to move forward with fully functioning brain cells. Upon entering our destined roadside bar/resturant we were greeted by the only waitstaff in the place with "I'm sorry, you can't bring your helmets in here." After the both of us mumbling something about the qualifications/definition of "fine dinning establishments" and "taking our business elsewhere" the bartender spoke up and gave us a spot to put our helmets. Needless to say we sat at the bar.

7pm was about the time that we figured out our evening's resting place due to a case of communication breakdown. With a 50 mile section between us and UPenn where we were to spend the night, we decided that our backroad-only driving policy had to be put into "emergency mode" and we completed our day' journey with 45 min on I95. I loath "emergency mode."

Philidelphia met us with more rain and stop lights that seemed to turn red just for us. Makes for slow progress on a grid system with a stoplight at each block and 25 blocks to cover.

All day I thought that our bikes were providing us little shelter from the weather. Well, I was wrong. The moment when I really got wet was in the steady drizzle during the 5 min it took to unload the things I was bringing in for the night after parking the bike. Wetter in 5 min than 10 hours and about 400 miles on the bike, hmmm...

Now we are cozily set up in a third floor room at UPenn thanks to Jame's friend Esther and her roomates Jordan, Nneka and Stephanie. Off to sleep, peace.

-Colin