This trip had one final first up it’s sleeve. I believe I’m the first man in history to be deliriously happy about seeing Newark Airport. Unlike everyone else in the hotel lounge who just wishes their secretary had booked JFK when they’d asked, I couldn’t be happier.
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| Philly from afar |
It’s the first familiar sight in 8 weeks, and boy does it feel good. My hotel window doesn’t look North East so I can’t see Manhattan, which I’m oddly glad about. Would rather take that on tomorrow.
Today’s been slower than expected, and it was a race against the setting sun to make the hotel on the Newark Airport ring road. The root cause of this is simple, I’ve not left urban areas all day. I’ve ridden clean across Philadelphia from the South West fringe to within sight briefly of, what I think were, the towers of Jersey City. 100 miles if you include a couple of silly wrong turns, and yet I’ve never left built up areas, not even for a mile.
Most of the towns were pretty standard middle class enclaves of strip malls and SUV, with the odd 5 miles through some seriously tough looking neighborhoods. None more so than South and West Philly. Beaten up roads, beaten up houses, and a general air of neglect about the whole place. Not sure what Penn would make of his big experiment today, but it’s a bit frayed to say the least. That said, everyone I asked for directions from was helpful to a fault, and I only saw the downtown from afar as I pushed on hard for New Jersey.
The rest of the day was hard work. It’s flattened out massively, but the constant stop starting at the lights, heavy traffic all day, and some of the most variable roads of the whole trip, made it a mentally exhausting day; just so much to try and keep under control. It didn’t help that the GPS was having an off day, and 3 times shot me out onto 4 lane highways without any shoulders, meaning I had to reroute on the hoof.
But it was worth it. There’s 25 miles to George Washington Bridge and Manhattan. Then 10 miles on and it’s done. If my slightly odd reaction to seeing Newark is anything to go by, it should be quite a thing. On the basis it may all be slightly blubbering drivel tomorrow, there are a few things I wanted to just cover off at this point.Firstly a huge thank you to everyone who’s sponsored so far (http://www.justgiving.com/wwhiteuscoasttocoast). Your donations have far exceeded what I expected, and will be very helpful to great work the MS Trust does.
Secondly there are two questions I seemed to have got by email more than any other, so here are the answers. My backside is fine, in fact more than fine. It’s the oddest thing but it’s really never been a concern. A bit of care and attention and some cyclists gel and I’ve had no trouble. So hopefully that should be the end of those questions.
As for the impact on my body, there’s no six pack coming back to Heathrow, but all my clothes are definitely looser. My legs though look extraordinary. I’ve always rather rated my pins, but I caught the back of them in the motel mirror a couple of nights ago, and there are muscles I didn’t even know should be there.
Route - Chester - Darby - Philadelphia - Princeton - New Brunswick - Newark
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| Newark |
Breakfast - French Toast - Dawn’s Dinner. They made a far better breakfast than they cooked a T-Bone.
Lunch - Tune sandwich, crisps and milkshake. Wawa. Same as yesterday, just as good.
Supper - Hummus and Beef sandwich at the hotel. Good, but basically the kind of food businessmen eat before a flight.
