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This was our first long cycling trip. For those that are considering
a cycling trip for the first time the lessons learned page
covers what we discovered and our opinions of the equipment we used.
Trip Summary
Date |
Starting Point |
Ending Point |
Today's
Mileage |
Total
Mileage |
Weather |
Alt. Modes of Transit |
Comments |
Wed, 2 Aug 00 |
Boston, MA |
Westerly, RI |
109.5 |
109.5 |
Rain in AM, Partly Cloudy PM, Temp: 70's |
None |
Rt. 102 in RI has lots of long hills |
Thr, 3 Aug 00 |
Westerly, RI |
Fisher's Island, NY |
35.5 |
145.0 |
Cloudy AM, Partly Cloudy PM, Temp 70's |
Fisher's Island Ferry |
Visited Stonington CT |
Fri, 4 Aug 00 |
Fisher's Island, NY |
Fisher's Island, NY |
0.0 |
145.0 |
Sunny AM & PM, Temp 80's |
None |
A day of rest and reading |
Sat, 5 Aug 00 |
Fisher's Island, NY |
New Rochelle, NY |
81.8 |
226.8 |
Sunny AM & PM, Temp 80's |
Fisher's Island & Orient Pt Ferry
Sailboat from Northport to New Rochelle. |
Long Island is flat until Port Jefferson. |
Sun, 6 Aug 00 |
New Rochelle, NY |
New Rochelle, NY |
3.0 |
229.8 |
Cloudy AM, Drizzle PM, Temp 70's |
None |
got bikes at dock and a day of rest |
Mon, 7 Aug 00 |
New Rochelle, NY |
Princeton, NJ |
87.7 |
317.5 |
Sunny AM, Rain and Thunder PM |
Staten Island Ferry; Port Authority Van at
Gothell's Bridge |
Manhattan is exciting on a bike and the Gothell's
Bridge is closed to bike traffic |
Tue, 8 Aug 00 |
Princeton, NJ |
Atlantic City, NJ |
92.3 |
409.8 |
Sunny AM & PM, Temp 90's |
None |
Middle of NJ is flat and empty. |
Wed, 9 Aug 00 |
Atlantic City, NJ |
Greenville, DE |
85.8 |
495.6 |
Sunny AM & PM, Temp 90's |
Cape May-Lewes Ferry |
DE is flat with wide shoulders. |
Thu, 10 Aug 00 |
Greenville, DE |
Washington DC |
93.7 |
589.3 |
Cloudy AM, Sunny PM, Temp 90's |
Taxi across Bay Bridge |
Roger broke his rear axle in three pieces. |
The Trip Photography
The photography on the trip was done with a Yashika T-4 with Fuji
Chrome Velvia slide film. The good slides were then put onto Kodak PhotoCD and posted in my
(Roger's) photo portfolio on www.photo.net. Thumbnail images of these images (leading
to the higher resolution images on photo.net) are posted here. To carry the camera, I
threaded the leather camera case on to one of the straps on my Camelback. This
allowed the camera to rest just behind my shoulder. It was out of the way and easy
to reach. This mounting method was great except for two drawbacks. 1) By the
last day the leather case was about to fall apart. 2) Since the shoulder strap of the
Camelback was passed through the loop on the camera case, the case could ride up
about. Especially if you spent a lot of time pedaling standing up then the case
would have a tendency to bounce over the top of your shoulder. One the last day I
traveled with the camera in the back pocket of my cycling jersey. This also worked well,
but usually I carried the map here.
Day 1, Wednesday August 2nd 2000: Boston MA to Westerly RI
Route Maps: Boston MA to Woonsocket RI, Woonsocket RI to Westerly RI
Distance
Traveled 109.45 miles Time moving: 9h 56m
Well the trip got off
to a fine start. Roger left the maps that we had so painstakingly made with the Microsoft
Streets & Trips in the car. This was deemed not a huge problem since we had a
good bike maps of Massachusetts and Rhode Island. The stretch in Connecticut is just
down Rt. 1 to New London and part in Long Island is pretty easy too. So we decided to push
on without the maps we had made. |
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The Route:
We started by
wandering in downtown Boston to Tremont St, to Washington St (through Roxbury) to Hyde
Park Ave, to Neponset Valley Parkway, to Rt. 138 (past blue hills) to Washington St
(Through the town of Canton) to Rt. 27N, to Washington St (through the town of Walpole),
to Summer St (at South Walpole), to Route 140 (in Wrentham). We took Route 140N (through
the town of Franklin, to King St, to Forest St, to West, to Spring St (and crossed in to
RI). We took Route 114 (though Woonsocket and Blackstone MA), St. Paul St, to Route 146A,
to 102. We took 102 to Route 3, and Route 3 into Westerly. After Route 7, 102 is pretty
much up and down the whole way to Route 3.
Comments on the Route:
The nicest
parts of this section were going through Walpole to Wrentham. The 2 lane road had
basically no traffic, and lots of woods and nice houses. There were some farms mixed
in. We saw, and mooed at, some cows, and barked at some dogs.
For the most
part the grades today were ok. The hilliest section was RI Rt. 102 which had lots of
very long hills. There is a very wide shoulder for most of the southern part of 102
and very light traffic. Route 3 also has a wide shoulder with light to moderate
traffic. The only exception seems to be in the area around Hope Valley RI.
Here there is no shoulder and the cars would scream by.
We stopped for
breakfast at a Mobil station in Walpole just before Washington St. breakfast was PB&J.
Rogers rear derailer was shifting the chain off the gears, so he adjusted the travel
stops at breakfast. It no longer went into the highest gear, and it takes about 3
clicks to change the next gear.
|
We crossed into
Rhode Island after traveling 44 miles and pedaling for 3h35m, on Spring St.
We stopped for lunch
of bananas, granola bars, and oranges at Route 102 and 7.
We stopped for more
PB&J and a much needed break at the West Greenwich police station on 102.
We wondered around
Westerly for a while looking for a motel. Asked a guy at the Mobil station just inside
CT. His directions were not very helpful. We went up the road to the fire station
and asked. We were directed about a mile up Rt. 1. There was one last big hill climb
to get to the section of 1 that we needed. RI getting its last shot in now because
tomorrow it is off to Connecticut.
We arrived at the
Franklin Gardens motel on Route 1 (north of Westerly center) at about 7:35pm and then went
and ate supper at the Friendlys across the street. Roger was disappointed to find
that Friendlys does not serve beer. But he made due with a tasty strawberry
milkshake. |
Day 2, Thursday August 3rd 2000: Westerly RI to Fisher's Island NY
Route Maps: Westerly RI to North Port NY
Distance
Traveled 35.5 miles
We slept in until
7:30!! When we left it was raining steadily. The temperature was pretty warm
(low 70's maybe).
The Route:
We took Rt. 1 south to Stonington CT, then took Rt. 1A into Stonington
village. We took a detour down Water St to see Rogers grandmother's old house.
We continued on to the point at the end of Water St. After this break we continued
west on 1a until it met back up with Rt. 1. We followed this into Mystic. We crossed the
Mystic River on the drawbridge. We continued south on Rt. 1, and took 215 back to Rt. 1
west into Groton. We took the pedestrian walkway on the I-95 bridge across the
Thames and a one the other side made our way to the New London train station. |
|
Comments on the Route:
Our earlier
concerns that Rt. 1 south of Westerly might have a lot of lights and not be too pleasant
were unfounded. There was a wide shoulder.
Right before
rejoining 1 west there was very large hill in the town of Groton. Rt. 1 in Groton becomes
a bunch of strip malls and stores. Before this happens we did pass a few bicycle
shops. Rt. 1 during and after the stripmall section is not great biking. There
is no shoulder, and the two lanes in your direction are 1) very narrow and 2) filled with
lots of high speed traffic.
There is a
bike and pedestrian walkway on the I-95 bridge over the Thames River. There are lots
of white signs instructing bicycles and pedestrians to use it. However, on the
Groton side we did not see any signs telling us how to get there. Our first attempt
to find it, lead us up the entrance ramp to 95. This is left side entrance, so to
get the shoulder where the walkway is would have required crossing 4+ lanes of high speed
interstate traffic. Not having a death wish in particular we turned around. We
decided to eat lunch at the IHOP on Rt. 12 before attempting another crossing of the
themes. Lunch was great. I had been trying get around to get to an IHOP for about
the past two months.
After lunch we
continued up Rt. 12. The thought being that if we could get around and look at the
underside of the 95 bridge maybe we could see where the walkway went. We took Walker
Hill Rd to groove street to Fairriver Ave. As we were passing under the bridge on
Fairriver Ave we found a mailman who directed us to the start of the walkway. The
walkway started on Bridge street.
A few miles west of
westerly on Rt. 1 we did pass several motels (none were within walking distances of
Friendlys though)
Looking upriver while
crossing the draw bridge into Mystic, we could see the tall ships at Mystic Seaport. We
were strong and fought the temptation to eat at any of the several ice cream shops we
passed (most of them being closed at 9:30 am helped some too).
|
The
trip across the bridge was rather uneventful. On the other side we made our way to
the New London train station to meet Rogers parents' train. They arrived on
time.
The 4 of us took the 3:30 ferry to Fisher's Island.. While we
were waiting to depart a submarine passed us on its way out to sea. The ferry ride
was rather uneventful. |
Day 3, Friday August 4th 2000: Fisher's Island
NY to Fisher's Island NY
|
The bikes did not leave the garage. We spent the day
reading and relaxing on Fisher's Island. We went for a walk around part of the
island. There is one huge ass golf course here. Took some photos, and barked at a
dog. |
Day 4, Saturday August 5th 2000: Fisher's Island
to New Rochelle NY
Route Maps: Westerly RI to North Port NY, Northport NY to New Rochelle NY
Distance Traveled:
81.8 miles Time Moving: 7h 36m
The Route:
We started by biking about 8 miles to the ferry which we took back to New
London, CT (8:15-9:00am). This stop was only temporary since an hour later, we were
back on another ferry. This time we were headed to Orient Pt, Long Island, NY
(10-11:25am). We arrived at Orient Point at about 11:30 am at the very start of NY
Rt. 25 West. It was pretty flat with a good shoulder for the first few hours.
We chose to take the Rt. 25 truck route which is also Suffolk County Rt. 48 rather than
staying on Rt. 25. This connected to Rt. 25A at Wading River. We took this all
the way to Main St in Northport which we took down to the water to meet Jens parents
on their boat. |
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|
Rt. 48 gets pretty narrow and loses the shoulder for a big chunk of
distance, however. In addition, this road stays closer to the coast as it travels
through Long Island Wine Country. Unfortunately, we did not get a change to stop for
any samples. We rode for hours through the countryside with a rest-stop every few
hours. At Wading River, Sound Ave (which connects Rt. 48 with 25A) finally merges
into 25A so we knew that we were still in the right spot. Though we were traveling
on flat or very gradually upward sloping terrain, right before Port Jeff there was a huge
downhill. |
This is only a mean trick, however, because after this point the
rather large up and downs began and stayed with us for the remainder of the trip to
Northport. In Port Jeff, we were starting to wonder how much farther Huntington was
(still our destination for the day at this time) and we got several estimates including a
guy working in a bike store: "Dude! That's really far, like 50 miles or
something!" In turns out that it was closer to 20. Luckily, our final
approach into Northport on Main St was a wonderfully steep and long downhill. If it
had been up, Jen probably would have shot someone, namely, the first family member she
encountered. We loaded the bikes onto the sailboat while resisting the swarms of
bugs on the dock and departed at about 8:15pm. The swarms of bugs are just one
indication that there was no wind at this time, so we had to motor from Huntington Bay all
the way back to Larchmont Harbor in the dark. This took quite a while so we did not
reach New Rochelle until 1 am. |
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Day 5, Sunday August 6th 2000: New Rochelle NY to New Rochelle NY
|
Distance
Traveled: 3.0 miles Time Moving:
approx. 20 m
We drove back to Larchmont Yacht Club to get the bikes off the
sailboat and biked back to Jens house in New Rochelle. It was rather hilly,
but they are short and for only 3 miles, almost anything is manageable. It was
cloudy and a little drizzly today, so a good day for laundry and sitting around. |
Day 6, Monday August 7th 2000: New Rochelle NY to Princeton NJ
Route Maps: New
Rochelle NY to Manhattan NY, Manhattan NY to New
Brunswick NJ (via Staten Island NY), New
Brunswick NJ to Princeton NJ
Distance
Traveled: 87.66 miles Time
moving: 8h 53m
We said goodbye to
Jen's parents and started pedaling in New Rochelle at about 6:40 am.
Forest Ave, North Ave,
Lincoln Ave., to Mt. Vernon Ave, Yonkers Ave. to Kimball Ave, to McLean Ave, around Van
Cortland Park to Broadway (Rt. 9A) where we entered the Bronx.
There are a lot of
hills in Yonkers. |
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|
Once in the Bronx we started battling the traffic in earnest.
Broadway took us all the way through the Bronx. We passed the bar that Jen
frequented in high school, but the bar had been renamed! They probably card now. The
traffic was a lot lighter then expected for a Monday morning. The car, trucks,
busses, and street sweepers were all polite. Since it was a street sweeping day
there were a lot of parking lanes clear for us to pedal in. For a while in the Bronx we
were riding under the elevated trains. We crossed the Broadway Bridge over the
Hudson River. On the far side of the bridge there was a sign saying no bicycles
allowed. Great placement, guys. On to Manhattan: We
continued down Broadway, with fairly light traffic, until about 180th street when it
started getting heavier (still giving us plenty of room though). We turned off Broadway at
120th and got on Riverside Drive. We went on the drive for about 10 blocks and then
got on a bike path in the park. After cycling for a little bit we stopped for breakfast at
a playground. |
The path in the
park ended in the 70's. We made our way over to 11th Ave., which we took to Chelsea
Pier. We then tried to go across to 5th Ave but ended up on Mercer Street
(cobble stones and very narrow with lots of delivery trucks), which we took to Canal
Street. Traffic was really starting to get heavy in the financial district.
After this our exact route is a little vague as we just followed signs to the Staten
Island Ferry.
We had a 15-20 minute
wait for the ferry. We boarded it on the upper pedestrian entrance. A
policeman directed us to the vehicle deck downstairs. In the future use the vehicle
entrance when boarding with a bicycle. The ferry was free and the ride lasted about
25 minutes. |
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|
Once on Staten Island we made a right on to Richmond Terrace and
just followed signs for the Goethals Bridge. When we arrive at the NY/NJ Port Authority
building, Roger went upstairs to ask about how bicycles could get across. "They can't
cross this bridge". The only bridge off Staten Island that bicycles can ride
over is the Bayonne Bridge. Hmm that would take us in the opposite direction from
Princeton, NJ. None of the city buses run across the bridge. We tried calling
three taxi companies. The first said no and hung up on us, and the other two numbers
did not work. A taxi pulled up to drive this other guy across the bridge.
Roger asked the driver if knew of a taxi company that would take us across. He
thought Sam's Taxi in Staten Island would do it. At this point a really nice man
named Manny Ortega (we may be messing up the name), who works for the port
authority, called up one of his coworkers. The coworker picked us up in a bright
yellow van and dropped us off on Rt. 1 &9 near Linden, NJ. |
Multiple people had advised us that Rt. 1&9 in NJ
is horrible for biking. It is clear why. There are about 3 lanes in each
direction, no shoulder, and the traffic is extremely heavy. The speed limit is 55 mph, but
the traffic of mostly 18-wheelers was at a standstill. We turned off this road at
the first available side road, Clinton Street. From here we turned on another side
road (left) that went past school #6 and ended up on Rt. 617. We took Rt. 617 to Rt.
514, which merged into Rt. 27 outside New Brunswick. There were a lot of trucks on Rt. 514
but there was an adequate shoulder for most of it. Several miles outside of New Brunswick,
Rt. 514 became a much larger 4-lane highway with a lot of debris on the shoulder. We
were looking for Rt. 514 leaving New Brunswick. |
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|
According to the map, Rt. 514 should have branched off Rt. 27, but
first we looked up Rt. 27 for a ways and didn't find it then we went over to Rt. 527 and
didn't find it there either. This part of the map was not clear - the critical
intersection was blocked by the "ck' in New Brunswick. Rt. 527 was good,
however, in the beginning and you could see the river on the right. Rt. 527 soon got
a lot busier so we got on a crappy bike path that ran next to it to get us out of traffic. |
We took Rt. 527 to just before I-287. We stopped at the
Kwikimart at Cedar Grove Lane to get a more detailed map of Mercer County and directions
to the Delaware and Raritan Canal Path. We took Cedar Grove Lane to Weston St, and we
wound around a lot, following little bikes painted on the road. We ended up in
Colonial Park on the canal. Our intention was to follow the canal path all the way
into Princeton. We started off on a paved path in the park that ran near the canal
and then it ended at Elizabeth Road. This took us back to Rt. 514. We went west on
Rt. 514 and picked up the canal again in East Millstone. Here, we started on the
dirt towpath along the canal. It had been raining since we got on Rt. 514 for the
second time. We followed the towpath to Black Mills and crossed the canal to try
riding on Canal Road. |
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This was much less
dirty then the path and would have been very nice, but there was no shoulder and a the
little traffic that there was would go screaming past us at about mach 2. We saw a
triple rainbow behind us when the rain stopped. We got back on the path the
Griggstown lock since it was more direct and there were no cars. By this point the
sun had come out, and we were making good time, though getting pretty dirty in the process
because of all the mud puddles. Roger got a flat where the towpath crosses Rt. 27 so
we fixed it there. That provided a much-needed break. We continued the 5.5
miles to Alexander Street in Princeton. We went to my friends old house but
he had moved and neglected to tell me his new address! Fortunately, a friend of his
had moved in and she gave us direction to Tommy's new apartment on the Princeton campus.
Once there, we rinsed
the bikes off, did laundry, had really good Chinese food, and went to bed. |
Day 7, Tuesday August 8th 2000: Princeton NJ to Atlantic City NJ
Route Maps: Princeton NJ to Lebanon State Forest NJ, Lebanon SF NJ to Egg Harbor NJ, Egg Harbor NJ to Atlantic City NJ
Distance
Traveled: 94.28 miles Time
moving: 7h 35m
So we finally left
Princeton at about 6:40am. The weather was clear, but a bit warm and humid. We
took Alexander Road, to North Post Road, turned left onto something that begins with a c,
right onto Glaston Rd then right onto Old Trenton Rd. We took Rt. 526 to S. Main
Street and then turned left onto Rt. 539. We saw a bit of the morning traffic, but nothing
very heavy in our direction.
We took Rt. 539 and at
the junction with Rt. 528 we stopped at a bike shop to get a replacement inner tube
and some chain oil. The drive trains on both bikes were feeling and sounding a bit
tortured from the previous days adventure in the mud. The people at the shop were
very helpful and suggested a good route to Atlantic City. |
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|
It was about 10
miles from the bike shop to Rt. 70. About 2 miles past Rt. 70 we crossed some old
train tracks and then made the next right on Pasadena Rd (the small green street sign
called in something else). Rt. 539 had a good shoulder and moderate traffic with a
lot of trucks. Pasadena Rd went from some shoulder to none, but there was almost no
traffic. In the 8.5 miles to Rt. 72 we were passed by about a dozen cars. The Pine
forests are on both sides of the road are very nice.
There had not been any
major hills yet today. The ground rolls up and down very slightly and we have been
making excellent time.We turned left onto Rt. 72 and then right onto Rt. 532. We
took this to Rt. 563 in Chatsworth. We stopped for lunch here having traveled 52
miles in the morning.
In Chatsworth we took
Rt. 563 South into Egg Harbor. Rt. 563 was a pleasant cycle. Traffic was light. Then
we took Rt. 30 all the way into Atlantic City. Traffic on Rt. 30 was heavy, but
there was a wide shoulder for most of the way. |
We arrived in Atlantic City at 5:30 PM. Once
there we took Martin Luther King Blvd to the Boardwalk. We walked up the Boardwalk
with the bikes a little bit until we found a Comfort Inn on Kentucky Ave. We got a
room and then went out on the Boardwalk to find something to eat and to look at the
strange people. |
|
Day 8, Wednesday August 9th 2000: Atlantic City
NJ to Greenwood DE
Route Maps: Atlantic City NJ to Sea Isle City NJ, Sea Isle City to Greenwood DE
Total distance
traveled today: 85.8 miles Total time
moving: 7h 37m
Atlantic City to Cape
May Distance: 52 miles Time: 4h 45m
Total distance
traveled to date: 498.44 miles
The weather was
overcast in the morning and then sunny by midday. It warmed up after 10 am so the
temperature was in the 80's.
After our continental
breakfast of Rice Crispies, Cheerios, Orange Juice and bananas we started out. |
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|
We traveled down the Atlantic City boardwalk for the first 4.5
miles, then we took Atlantic Ave and eventually cut over to Ventor Ave to the traffic
circle. We went over our first bridge of the day. After this bridge we had to take a
more indirect route to Ocean City. We took Rt.152 inland since the more direct
bridge is closed to bicycles. We took Rt. 152 to Rt. 585, which then became Rt. 52.
We took this across another bridge back towards Ocean City and the boardwalk there.
This was superior to the Atlantic City Boardwalk because it had designated bike, surrey,
and pedestrian lanes for each direction. This lasted about 1.2 miles and then the
boardwalk narrowed so we took Central Ave south. Later on we tried getting back on the
boardwalk because it pretty very empty, but it ended 1 block later. |
Back on Central
Ave we took Ocean Drive (Rt. 619) until North Wildwood where it became Rt. 621.
Follow the gull signs. We crossed a whole bunch of cool draw bridges over the
intracoastal waterway. It was $0.50 for cars and free for bikes!!!! The bridges had
a metal grating for the draw part.
We stopped to eat our
regular fare of peanut butter, bananas, bagels and granola bars outside the McDonalds in
North Wildwood (where 619 became 621).
At Rt. 109, Roger made
a wrong turn south (following signs to cape may), and we had to ask for directions to the
ferry. There is no sign for the ferry at the junction of Routes 109 and 621, but
there were lots of signs to lead the beach traffic from the beach back to the ferry.
|
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|
We turned around and made our way to the ferry. We caught the
1:40 PM boat to Lewes. The ferry ride was about 1h 20m and the cost for two cyclist was $14.
After leaving the
ferry port at Lewes, DE we stopped in the main terminal building and picked up our free
map of DE, and a booklet with all the motels and hotels in Delaware listed. This was
very useful, as it was one of the factors in determining how far we could go that
afternoon.
We took Rt. 9 to Rt.
5. For about 1/2 mile Rt. 9 and 1 are the same with 3 lanes of moderate to heavy
traffic in each direction.
We took Rt. 5 North
into the town of Milford where we picked up Rt. 16 West. We stayed on Rt. 16 until
the junction with Rt. 13 N (about 14 miles). We turned north for about 1 MI on Rt.
13 to the Greenwood Inn, passing Cafe Milano, the Italian restaurant we would return to
for dinner an hour later. |
We don't know why someone would choose to visit Greenwood, however .
. . maybe it's for the truckers passing through. There was a billboard advertising a
Hampton Inn about 10 miles south of the Rt. 16/13 junction that would be opening in the
fall of 2000, so if passing through again, it might be worth looking into.
Day 9, Thursday August 10th 2000: Greenwood DE
to Washington DC
Route Maps: Greenwood DE to Annapolis MD, Annapolis MD to Washington DC
Distance traveled: 93.7 miles Time moving: 8h
27m
We left the motel at
about 6:30 am since it was still dark at our earlier (planned) departure time. DE
continued to be very bicycle friendly. We took Rt. 16W until it split from Rt. 404W
right before Denton where we stayed on 404W. We stopped at Food City while there was
a brief shower to get more granola bars, peanut butter, bagels, and Gatorade.
We passed through
Denton, and continued on Rt. 404W. A section of it was really big after Denton, but
shortly afterwards it settled down again. The shoulder continued to be very wide and
there were lots of "share the road signs". Just before Wye Mills we got on
Rt. 50. Traffic was heavy and fast, but there was a very large shoulder so it was
not a problem. We stayed on Rt. 50 for about 8 miles and then took Rt.18 West. Rt.
18 West was 2 lanes, residential, with light traffic, but no shoulder. We passed
though the town of Grasonville. Then we came to the Kent Narrows Bridge. Route
50 takes a large overpass over the narrows while Rt.18 crosses on a small drawbridge, with
a wide smooth red bike path next to it.
We continued up
Rt. 18 west until well got to Rt. 8. Here we stopped in the "Shore Stop"
convenience store & gas station to call the taxi that would take us across the Bay
bridge. Since we had failed to give the taxi company any advanced warning, we had to
put the bikes in the back of a station wagon. With a little warning (the day before)
they could have picked us up in a pickup truck, which would have been easier.
After getting driven
across the bridge we were dropped off along the Rt. 50 service road in the parking lot of
a "Beer Wine Spirits" store. We kept pedaling until Roger noticed a new
wobble in the rear wheel of his bike and a dramatic increase in the effort needed to keep
it moving.
We stopped again and I
ascertained that the problem was a broken rear axle. After some tinkering and
adjusting of the rear cones and quick release lever, I was able to get the bike to roll
reasonably well. This allowed us to make it into Annapolis. |
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|
After making our way to Main St, we asked a UPS man if there were
any bike stores in the area. He sent us to a street just off Rt. 450 W (West St.),
which was great since it was close by and it was in the right direction. The guys
there seemed to be amazed that Roger's rear axle was in such bad shape. We spent
about an hour there getting it fixed and finally continued on. We stayed on Rt. 450W
through Bowie (and up and down lots of hills) until a T intersection.
Then we got on Rt. 564, which crossed the Beltway in New Carrollton, MD. Then we took Riverdale Rd., which becomes Rt. 410 (still pretty big hills)
and made a left onto Queen Chapel's Rd., which became Michigan Ave. when we entered
DC. We took Michigan Ave around the Washington Hospital Center (at this point we are
riding in the sidewalk which indicates that it is the Bike Route since traffic was getting
heavy and there was NO shoulder at all on the street). We turned onto Columbia which
took us to Kalorama and eventually winded our way to Massachusetts Ave and our final
destination! All this and it was only 6:55 PM rather than the much later expected
arrival time when we initially estimated that it was over 100 miles from Greenwood, DE to
Washington, DC. |
Route Map Index (North to South)
Useful Links and Contact Information
Cycling Touring Links
Transportation Links that we used to get ferrys etc. on our trip.
http://www.state.nj.us/dep/forestry/parks/drcanal.htm
http://www.njskylands.com/pkdelrar.htm
East Coast Greenway Alliance http://www.ecg.com/
The Chesapeake Bay Bridge: Cane Taxi (410)
643-1500 (transport across the bay bridge) $10 dollars per person. Meet at Route 8
and 18 at the Shore Stop convenience store. We got this information from the MD DOT
Bicycle and Pedestrian Coordinator. FYI Maryland was the most bicycle friendly
state we encountered.
back to Roger's main web page