52 Miles today   467 Total miles

We entered 2 new states today - Delaware and Maryland. This was a rough ride. We went through a lot of industrial areas today and busy highways. No scenic back roads. Lots of traffic and very noisy. But, we had great bike lanes and felt safe. A bazillion cars must have flown by us and it was nice to get to our room. We got upgraded to a king suite by a nice lady when she realized what we were doing.

We also welcomed back our friends, the hills. We had a 235ft (yes Jim tracked it on the GPS) as we finally rode into our hotel. It was brutal but we rode every foot of it (with a little whining from Jim). It is good to relax now.

Some of our roads today

Another beautiful day!  Crisp morning that warmed up quickly.  We knew we were headed to PA and out of NJ, but we didn’t realize we would be riding through downtown Philly. Actually it was awesome. There were a lot of big bike lanes. We went from the “low rent district” to the “high rent district”. It was quite a diverse ride. It’s hard to explain and it doesn’t sound logical, but riding through these huge cities is unbelievably cool.

To get into Philly we had to cross the Delaware River via a very long and intimidating bridge. There was a toll plaza, but bikes were free. We had to walk our bikes on a tiny sidewalk which was fine with us. There was a lot of traffic on the bridge. The bridge was over a half a mile long and the views were spectacular. We could see the skyline of Philly from the bridge, not realizing we would soon be pedaling through it.

We had a great Philly cheese steak hoagie for lunch and will be dining on Chinese tonight. We are staying out by the airport. The hotel is a little old but clean and fine for us. We have been blessed the entire trip.

Some of the roads we were on today.

Another beautiful day! A little chilly when we started out but soon warmed up.  We actually averaged over 9 miles an hour due to and occasional (and I mean occasional) tail wind. We do feel we are getting stronger. Lots of beautiful country roads and fewer hills.  Foliage is beginning to turn and it looks like fall here. We are ready to get out of New Jersey. Tonight is our last night in NJ headed to PA tomorrow. Trying to keep our rides short as we get stronger and stronger as we have some long rides coming up.

We got into our hotel around 2:30 today and it was so nice. Got our laundry done and cleaned up and it wasn't bedtime................

A sample of roads we traveled on today.

Beautiful ride today.  The weather was wonderful. Headed south and east to the shore. We were able to share with quite a few people today about our ride and why we are riding. We rode through some amazing neighborhoods and small towns today. As we rode along the shore, the destruction from Sandy was still very apparent. 

Getting out of North Bergen was not a pleasant experience but we made it . Lots of traffic and congested areas.  The whole time we were in North Bergen we were impressed by the diversity of the neighborhoods. So different from our area of Florida.  We went over two huge metal drawbridges. Thank goodness we had sidewalks. We went through many small towns and the GPS took us right through the downtown areas. While it was a little congested it was really interesting going through them. Had a few uphills but nothing like Connecticut and Mass. All in all it was a nice day. Excited about tomorrow as we plan to ride along the Jersey shore. We are hoping we don't run into Snooki!  It is nice being back on our bikes but we really enjoyed our days of rest. 

Nice day in the city. Rode the train in to NYC to the Trade Center/ Financial district.  Took the ferry to the Statue of Liberty. Very cool!!  Lunch in a NYC deli. YUMM! Went to the 911 Memorial and ground zero. Unbelievable to actually be where it all happened and visualize it. It puts a whole new perspective on it. Looking forward to being back on our bikes tomorrow. Checked our route for tomorrow and plotted the elevation. Got it all loaded in the GPS so we are ready to go in the morning.

Arrived in North Bergen, NJ today just across from NYC. Way too much traffic..... Dropped off the Suburban, did some laundry, and got organized. Planning to see Ground Zero and a ferry ride to the Statue of Liberty tomorrow. Had a nice "non-riding" day but we did miss riding our bikes today.

We may not be able to post every night (for you mother hens, Jan) as it all depends on whether we have wi-fi or not). If we remember we will post on Facebook if we do not have wi-fi.

It is time for a couple of rest days. We have scheduled in rest days along the ride and we decided we needed to take a few now. The wind and hills (actually mountains) have been tough and we needed to take a few of our rest days. We also decided to change the route and go somewhere we really want to go - New York City. We will stay in NJ a couple days and take the ferry over to NYC.

So we rented a car that we can get our bikes into and will drive to NJ (100 miles) on Tuesday morning. We will stay there in NJ Tues and Wed and resume our ride Thurs along the Jersey shore, down to Philadelphia, through Baltimore and into Washington DC  where we will hook up with our original route.
We will be giving up riding through Amish country but we really want to take it easy for a few day and get to see NYC.

The weather report was rain for the first part of today until noon but it ended around 10:00am so we waited and avoided riding in the rain. A cold front is moving in making it extremely windy (a headwind of course) and it will be in the low 40's in the morning. We've ridden in colder temps but it will still be a little chilly.

Lots of hills again today and along with the wind, it was our toughest day yet but it was a gorgeous ride none the less. We appreciate all the encouragement from the comments, text messages, & emails. They keep us focused and mean a lot to us. Got to the hotel about 5:00. It is very interesting. Pictures below.

A beautiful day despite the winds (17 gusting to 23 at times) and overcast most of the day. We really enjoyed this ride - lots of cool towns (hilly), country roads (hilly), beautiful neighborhoods (hilly) - did we mention it was hilly. It was just a very pleasant day.

We are using our GPS to select the routes and not using the Adventure Cycling and it saved us 16 miles on today's ride. Hopefully we can continue to shorten our miles ridden as it is really hilly and very hard on us.