It’s Still Always Sunny In Philadelphia

To say that today was a little long and tiring would be a bit of an understatement. But not for the usual reasons. There wasn’t a long ride. There were no big hills. No headwinds. There also wasn’t much sleep to be had because at 12:55 AM I found myself on an aptly named red-eye flight to Philadelphia. No, that’s not a typo nor is it some strange code for anything.

After spending 47 days cycling away from Toronto it took only 3.5 hours to find myself back in Ontario for a brief layover before continuing onto Philadelphia. Why? Well, my friends are important to me. Very important. And tonight there was a surprise birthday party for Gage, one of my best friends, and it was something that I really didn’t want to miss – even if it meant taking a brief detour (and a red-eye flight) from my tour.

My last visit to Philadelphia was in September during last year’s ride along the east coast. Obviously, this visit is significantly different since it wasn’t particularly feasible to cycle the 3,000 km from Calgary to Philadelphia – at least, not this year. I’m not going to lie, it was pretty strange (and slightly amusing) to follow my flight on the map as we flew over all the cities through which I had just spent the past few weeks cycling.

Fortunately there were no delays with either of my flights and I arrived in Pennsylvania without incident. I’m also happy to report that after two chilly and rainy days in Calgary, the weather was significantly different when I left the plane. Just like last year’s visit, the weather here has proven that It’s Still Sunny in Philadelphia. Not to mention more than a little humid. It was beautiful – by my standards, at least.

Several hours after my arrival I was at my friend’s surprise party – and the “surprise” element of the night was very much successful. There was food. There were drinks. And there was no shortage of funny stories to go with a lot of interesting conversations. It was a great night that went by very quickly.

As expected, and as is frequently the case with parties of this nature, I didn’t get a chance to visit with Gage (and Jack) very much so I’ve planned to stay here a few extra days. I’ve been to Philly several times over the years and I don’t think I’ve ever stayed for less than a week so I figured why should this visit be any different. As such, and because I apparently enjoy the red-eye flight so much, I’ll be taking another late flight back to Calgary at the end of the week.

In the meantime, I’ll have to temporarily adjust to life without my bike which is resting comfortably with John and Susan in Calgary. I already feel a bit of separation anxiety as I haven’t been this far from my bike in a long time. That said, it’s always great to be in Philadelphia so I will enjoy the week, my visit with Gage and Jack (and Julia and Marshall and Pam …), and hopefully a lot of sun.

This isn’t quite as spontaneous as my Colombia adventure but the ridiculousness of this detour has certainly been fun so far. My fondness and enjoyment of spontaneous adventures continues.

My arrival back in Alberta is scheduled for Saturday at 1:00 AM. Shortly thereafter I’ll be reunited with my bike, ready to tackle the Rockies and beyond.