Beware those horse apples, Don!

June 14, 2022

Pennsylvania bike day

We were hoping to do a bike ride today on Garfield, but had to wait for some rain showers to pass through the area this morning. So we spent the time driving a few of the country roads to check out possible routes and then went into New Holland to an Amish market for some groceries. We were surprised about how large it was and found most of the items we needed.

By the time we returned to the campground and ate our lunch, the sun was peeking out. Time for a ride!

We knew from our morning drive that many of these roads were quite hilly, especially if we don't drop into the valley below us. Don researched afound few roads - they're all paved around here - that would sort of keep us parallel to the ridge. He hoped that would avoid the bigger climbs.

We've discovered that we're located in the Welsh Mountains. While we did a bike tour through this part of Pennsylvania years ago, we sure didn't recall mountains - just rolling hills.

We found very quiet roads with little traffic, except for some buggies. Don mentioned that he found smooth areas of pavement from the buggy wheels and a rougher spot in the middle where the horses ran. Of course, there were those "horse apples" to avoid! No horse diapers used here!

Unfortunately, although it was a scenic area with plenty of lovely Amish and Mennonite farms, the roads were tough for us to ride. While we have a granny gear, Don has a hard time keeping the bike upright in the lowest gears as the larger 700 cc front wheel can catch his heel if he wobbles. That's different from our other tandem which had a 20" front wheel.

So we hiked a bike many times when the climb got too steep. As we were passing one farm a guy called out that he thought our bike looked comfortable at first, but it appeared to be a workout to ride, especially when we had to get off and walk.

We would trudge up the hill then hop on and scream down the other side. In one spot we got up to 41 mph! That was a bit too fast for me!

If the terrain had been flatter, we could have ridden a lot further. But we only managed to do barely 7 miles - however it had over 700 ft. of climbing! Whew! Gotta find a flatter route.

Back at camp we ended up visiting with another Airstreamer that was attending the rally. They had owned various Airstreams since the 1990's so it was fun to hear about all of their experiences and "adventures". We're such newbies at this lifestyle!

Hopefully we'll be able to try another ride tomorrow.

This farm store is located near our campground. We had stopped in there yesterday and bought some of their cherries - so good tasting!

Cherry trees in the background with other vegetables growing in the front. They also sold apples and other produce.

We were up on a ridge today and overlooked this pretty valley.

The story of our day consisted mostly of trudging up the steep hills and zooming down the other side. One after another after another.

A potty for you and a friend! We stopped at a small Amish country school that had the gate open and I used their facilities. No running water here but they did have toilet paper and hand sanitizer.

Today's ride: 7 miles (11 km)
Total: 481 miles (774 km)

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