It’s Sunny in Philadelphia, Again

For the first time on this trip, when I headed out this morning I didn’t do so alone. But more on that shortly. Before today’s ride began I enjoyed a great breakfast with my Warm Showers hosts, Janice and Ed. Much like dinner last night, there was no shortage of entertaining stories or great food – including delicious scones!

My goal of being on the road by 9:00 was ALMOST met thanks to Janice keeping me on schedule – loose schedule that it is. And Ed offered to join me for the first part of today’s ride. This was particularly helpful in that his route avoided a sizeable hill that I otherwise would have no doubt found myself climbing. Granted, I’m not all that averse to hills but I don’t necessarily seek them out either.

Ed ended up riding along with me for about 20 km before he headed back home and I continued on to Philadelphia, solo. The ride from Bethlehem to Philadelphia is about 100 km so, by the time time Ed and I parted ways, I only had about 80 km to go.

The excitement of getting to Philadelphia led to me NOT stopping as much as I probably should have for food, water or photos. Of those three, water was likely the most important as it was a crazy hot and humid day today. The kind of day I actually like and most people seem to dread. That said, I did a pretty good job with water.

The first 55 km of my solo portion of today’s ride went by without incident. My broken spoke was still broken but the wheel was still functioning. Spoiler Alert: The broken spoke did not affect my day. And the final 25 km of my ride was a somewhat unexpectedly familiar ride.

As has been the case for the vast majority of this ride, I relied heavily on my GPS to guide my way today. As it did, I was led to another trail. This time it was the Schuylkill River Trail. I’m fondly familiar with the Schuylkill River from my numerous visits to Philadelphia. However, I had forgotten that I’d actually ridden this trail before back in 2015 when I took a detour from my west coast tour to come to Philadelphia for my friend Gage’s surprise birthday party. The memory of the trail brought a big smile to my face – a smile that stayed with me for quite some time as I continued along the trail. What can I say? I really like Philadelphia.

With about 10 km to go, I made a quick stop in the shade to have a drink. I think I was stopped for about a minute and in that time I was literally dripping in sweat. Dripping! It was so hot. And SO humid. I loved it. That said, my stop was short lived as I was eager to get to Philadelphia … plus the airflow from cycling kept the sweat a bit more controlled.

Given the close proximity of Gage’s place to the Art Museum (aka. the Rocky steps), I opted to get the requisite photo of my bike in front of said Rocky steps before heading to her place. It still amazes me how many people still visit (and run up and down) the steps more than 40 years after Rocky first did so. That said, apparently plans are in the works to do a serious renovation to the Art Museum including a big change to the Rocky steps. So, if you have any inclination to run up and down the steps as Rocky did, well … don’t wait too long. The change is coming soon!

From the Rocky steps I made my way over to Gage’s place – a journey which took all of about five minutes. Unfortunately,she wasn’t actually home at the time so the reunion was delayed a bit. But the reunion did occur and it’s great to be back in Philadelphia with Gage, Jack, their kids and, of course, Tsunami (the still very excitable and energetic Portuguese water dog).

Oh, and my arrival today proved yet again that it’s still always sunny in Philadelphia.

Today’s totals:
Distance traveled: 103.84 km
Ride time: 5:26:13
Average speed: 19.09 km/h
Maximum speed: 53.46 km/h