New Jersey?

Day 9 - June 11, 11:14pm

60 miles. Warwick, NY to Stroudsberg, PA

Rain + biking is not the funnest combination. It doesn't help when your body pretends to have been mashed by a 32oz aluminum softball bat the night before. Today had plenty of nice flat ground which was great but the rain made everything just plain icky. Fortunately we were quickly able to start off the day with two quick poses in front of boarded up dance studios (What?)

Three miles into the route today, our leaders had planned a special surprise for us. As we eagerly rode we soon found a sign welcoming us to New Jersey. Turns out, our leaders rerouted our ride to give us the honor of being graced by such marvelous marshlands for 10 miles and to add another state to our list bringing it to 18. Talk about exotic.

The day continued well until some pain started hitting my right knee. This was disconcerting so early on in the trip but after lunch it was much better. This was of course aside from the fact that my triceps were totally blasted today from all those hills yesterday. Yes, cycling is a full body sport and I've finally realized these past two days how much of a legitimate physical strain this trip is. I'm just hoping that my legs will hold up without too much pain. Fortunately my bruise from yesterday's fall is almost totally better.

After lunch we hit a pretty solid downpour for a good 3 miles. It was pretty fun in a way to have to ride in such absolutely ridiculous conditions. Also! *Cool alert* if you looked down at the ground while you were riding today you could see your full reflection in the water in the pavement. It was totally wierd and almost like riding on a mirror.

Today was also the birthday of one of our trip leaders, Noah. Awesome guy, but also the absolute wackiest i have ever met hands down. The birthday tradition on our trip(which he also started) is to apparently ride around all day with a spongebob squarepants bib on in front. He proudly did so along with his purple spandex pants.

Stroudsberg, PA is a legit nice town. The (once again very welcoming church) is right on main street and its such a quaint scene. I had totally wanted to nab this sweet neon orange hat from a camping store next door but they were closed after another great Church dinner. Either way, I still got to enjoy the fact that the store was owned by the "Fenkelberger" family. Those who have seen Senior Sing 07 understand.

After Laundry I chilled a little in this sweet comic book shop(do those even exist anymore?) and also passed by a clothing boutique and chatted them up about this funky line of t shirts they carried called "Artful Dodger". The crosswalks had a voice counting down the seconds and was kinda creepy honestly. I speculate that all our urban crosswalks will soon come complete with full robots telling us when to cross as well as making small talk with us about the weather and how Ms. Johnson is doing. If the future really goes sour, they may even have a winking feature as well.

A group of us all just came back from watching "UP" for Noah's birthday. The manager was super kind to let us in for free after we explained what we were doing. The movie was really fun and well put together. Unfortunately I was so exhausted that i kept nodding off though and didnt really get to fully sleep or watch the movie.

I really hope to get to explore towns like this more, though its tough given the little free time after arriving at destinations. We'll be in PA for a little while longer, I wonder what it has to offer.

One quick note: I forgot to mention a highlight of yesterday which was that as we were riding we were passed by 6 consecutive Lamborghini's, the drivers of which pumped their fists at us. It may be such a typical male thing to be into hot cars, but that was damn awesome.

PS - Also, totally weird, did anyone notice how I started writing both today's and yesterday's posts at exactly the same time? Talk about routine.