Rather than get behind on this again, I’m going to pop up a post today. There are a couple of issues with this. One, as you may have spotted there are no photos. Yesterday with brooding rain clouds over head all day, which never broke, the camera was buried deep in the saddle bag. Then today it was all a little head down, and by the time I’d relaxed a bit there wasn’t a whole lot to photograph, or for reasons I’ll get onto I didn’t really fancy flashing my camera about.
The second issue, as a warning, is this may not be most cheerful post. The route cause of this is simple, hills. Relentless short sharp hills mile after mile after mile. In fact it wasn’t till the last ten miles of today I finally came off the Fall Line and back into normality.
It’s not that the hills are huge, I saw much bigger in Arizona and Texas, it’s just the frequency. I lost count of the number of times I rushed down 50, 100, 200m just to come straight up the other side. At least in Arizona, you slog it up 2 hours, but you‘re rewarded with a 1 hour decent the other side and a breathtaking view. Here there is no relief, just another hike uphill the other side. In the whole trip I’ve not walked up so many hills, and it just feels like a kick in the bits to be walking at this stage.
In fact I know I should be over the moon at the moment, but the reality is I’m rather over it now. Sure this will change once Manhattan comes into view, but right now I’ve had enough. Enough of the mothers every morning driving you into ditches so they can get their tubby diddums to school; enough of feeling sweaty and smelly non stop; enough of the snobby looks you get for being dressed as I am; enough of the dull pain in my knees; enough of feeling constantly worried about that rogue idiot in a pick up who cuts the gap too fine; enough of the odd suburban twerp who learns out the window to tell you to get out the way of their banal lives; enough of the motels. You get the picture. It’s been amazing up till now, but now I just want it to be over.
It’s a shame, because it’s been interesting country I’ve passed through since Monday. Unfortunately none of the states I passed through were marked on the smaller roads, so there is no photographic evidence, but I’ve passed through Maryland and Delaware, and I’m now in West Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Whilst I’m not sure at what point I left the country suburbs of Baltimore and entered the same of Philadelphia, it’s fascinating countryside. In the rolling hills you pass through towns, villages and farming communities that were seriously old when Mason and Dixon set out the line that would later cut the nation in half. If Virginia was all about the Civil War, much of the history in Maryland seemed focused on the war of 1812, where the British a little punch drunk on the power of putting Napoleon on Elba for the first time, decided to head over the Atlantic for a slightly vindictive trash and burn session.
As there are no photos, you have to trust me it’s beautiful and very peaceful. Which is not what I can say about Baltimore. Seeing it at rush hour with a thunder cloud overhead probably didn’t help, but the downtown seemed crowded, and I hate to be harsh, a little uninteresting. What was interesting though was the stark differences in the neighborhoods from the South West and the North East.
The South West was quite startlingly poor. I’m ashamed to admit I was really quite nervous riding through, but this is were so much of HBO’s The Wire is based, and it’s hard to detach that from reality in your mind. The North East by comparison was serious genteel. Clustered round the John Hopkins University were some of nicest urban areas I can think of. I know London has some seriously extreme wealth disparities, so there is an element of log in your own eye to this comment, but the difference just miles apart was quite stunning.So that’s it for today. I’m locked up in a shabby motel near the Philly airport. It’s got that sad air of a place no one wants to be, which is probably accurate. I’ll not be sad to push on tomorrow morning, but with a ride through Philadelphia’s historic centre, then up through Princeton, hopefully as high as Newark tomorrow, through flat countryside, I’m pretty sure things will look brighter.
Route - Rockville - Baltimore - Lutherville - Wilmington, DE - West Philadelphia
Thursday 24 May
Breakfast - Motel standards
Lunch - Buffalo chicken sub and crisps - Subway
Supper - Seafood salad and Roll sushi plate - Yamato Sushi, Lutherville. Fantastic sushi, right next to REI, so had a peaceful little evening looking at bike gear and eating sushi. Shamelessly young professional.
Wednesday 25 May
Breakfast - No breakfast at motel, so oatmeal, fruit, smoothie and a cinnamon bun at McDonalds. I’ve said it before, but it’s a good and healthy feed.
Lunch - Tuna sandwich, crisps and a milkshake - Wawa Petrol Station, Dublin. Best chain of petrol stations, good sandwich and cracking milkshake, from D’Real. All round, a good lunch.
Supper - T-Bone Steak - Dawn’s Dinner. It’s in the motel, and this area is the definition of “don’t go out after dark” so I was stuck with this. Dreadful dreadful steak. Over cooked, flabby and just one of the most depressing places to eat. Not looking forward to breakfast there.
