Tuesday

Double Nickels 2012

Early June and time for our annual bike trip with Laurie and Gary and Emily and David. Pennsylvania is the destination this year to ride parts of the Schuylkill River and Delaware and Lehigh Trails. Unfortunately, as we gather to leave Friday morning (6/8), Gary is in Ohio because his son was admitted to the hospital this week in serious condition. He is hoping to join us this weekend if Aaron's condition stabilizes.

Three p.m. and the full page of directions has successfully guided us to the AT Cottage in the woods we rented for the weekend. It is a well appointed rustic cabin about a quarter mile south of the point where the Appalachian Trail crosses Rt. 183; only a few miles from Schuylkill Haven where Gretchen and I grew up. We quickly changed and rode a 12 mile section of the Schuylkill River Trail north of Hamburg to stretch our legs after the long trip. After the ride, we took the group on a "Tour of Gretchen and Tom's youth" ending at Heisler's Dairy for dinner and ice cream!

Saturday we left the cabin at the "civilized" hour of 10 a.m. (either age or the Morgan's are influencing the group) and headed to Pottsville. Laurie and Gretchen dropped Emily, David and I at the Yuengling Brewery for a tour and picked up Gretchen's mom to run some errands. Then we stopped at Roma Pizzeria to pick up lunch to take to Providence Place to eat with Peg. She had arranged to eat lunch at her table with drinks, potato chips and dessert....and David had the best Greek salad of his life! It was great the group could see Peg's apartment and share a meal with her. Next on the agenda was Longwood Gardens and an afternoon of listening to David talk about his Greek salad!

Longwood Gardens is a world-class facility created by Pierre S. du Pont; the result of a lifetime developing his weekend retreat near Wilmington, DE. We arrived at 4:00 p.m. in hopes of touring the gardens and staying until dark to get a glimpse of "Light Installations," a seasonal art exhibit by British artist, Bruce Munro. Gretchen was happy as we logged over 10,000 steps walking around the grounds filled with early summer blooms, climbed the tree houses, saw a musical fountain display and enjoyed the beautiful Conservatory and Exhibition Hall. Following dinner in the Cafe, we wandered again to see the light exhibition. Unfortunately, it was not quite dark enough to enjoy the full effects of tens of thousands of fiber optic bulbs scattered around the landscape, but a two hour drive back to the cabin, made us bid farewell to Longwood prior to total darkness. Throughout the day, I marveled at the gardens and kept thinking that Longwood Gardens is the first garden I have visited in the USA that is on a par with the wonderful gardens we have visited in Europe.

BTW, did I mention that David had an absolutely marvelous Greek salad yesterday?


The Delaware and Lehigh Canal Trail beckoned us on Sunday and we arrived in Bethlehem at the "civilized" hour of 11:00 a.m. The plan was to ride first to Allentown and back, then to Easton and back. Shortly into the ride, however, we noticed we were riding down river, ie to Easton! So all allusions to extraordinary trip planning were abandoned; no matter how hard we try, the Morgan's can't rival Gary in that venue! The Trail is varied with rocky dirt, nice crushed stone and paved sections hugging the river. However, if you are going to ride the trail, be ready to ask a lot of questions to gain local knowledge because there are absolutely no signs anywhere where you need them the most to follow the path. Following the round trip to Easton (24 miles), we ate dinner and toasted Emily for her strong riding as we quaffed a few beers (between us Fegley's ESB, Steelmaker's Oatmeal Stoudt, Yard's IPA and Devil's Hearth) at The Brew Works. The picture below was taken at the confluence of the Lehigh and Delaware Rivers.

Monday's "civilized" hour found us at the Pawley's Road entrance to the Schuylkill River Trail. We road the trail from Valley Forge to the Philadelphia Museum of Art (46 miles round trip). It was an absolutely perfect day to ride and this section of the Trail is paved, well signed and takes riders through canopied woods, suburban towns like Conshohocken and Manayunk, and Fairmont Park with its sculpture and the famous "Boathouse Row" along the river. At the Museum, a man offered to take a picture for us and then "hustled" us through myriad poses in hopes of a nice tip. He got one, and it was well worth every cent; the guy and his "photo shoot" with our cameras was just a scream!

After the ride, we got Laurie settled in a motel in Norristown so she could catch a morning train to Boston from Philly and ate dinner at Brother Paul's (a pub rated 90+ on Urbanspoon). Are not those iPhones great, David? We all inhaled our dinners, bade farewell to Laurie and headed back to the cabin.

Double Nickels 2012 was a great trip as usual with lots of adventures, great bike riding, good food, and fun times with wonderful friends. All that was missing was Gary. We missed you dear friend and our thoughts and prayers were with you and Aaron.

Want the best Greek salad David ever ate? It's available to you in Pottsville, PA!

BTW, there really was a secret swing at the A.T. Cottage for those willing to seek and find!

 

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