Flag Day

Day 74, June 14, 2011, Flag Day

I'd already climbed the hill

27.2 miles, averaging 13.6 mph

Route from Green Lane to Ringing Rocks Family Campground, Upper Black Eddy, PA

Best Moment – When we first moved to New Jersey about 28 years ago, we found a beautiful home in the woods in a town called Califon.  Our house was about a half mile off Sierra Drive on a gravel road.  At the end of the road, nearly another quarter of a mile was our closest neighbor - Ken and Elaine. We became good friends, drank a few bottles of wine, had great dinners, got snowed in, and even planted pine trees together.  Chris was born almost exactly one month before their daughter Emily.  There were lots of shared life experiences in the short two years we lived at 23 Sierra Dr.

We got to see these dear friends tonight when they drove from Califon, NJ to Upper Black Eddy for dinner.  We drank some wine, ate dinner together, and caught up on each other’s lives.  It was so wonderful to see them again. Elaine even brought her famous Derby Pie.  (Derby Pie is amazing with chocolate, nuts, and topped with whipped cream laced with bourbon, and so yummy!)  She also brought fresh picked strawberries and homemade strawberry jam.  An amazing evening.  

Worst Moment – The intermittent rain showers sort of dampened our campfire, but we did have our awning and could stay dry while watching the flames from a distance.

Due to the vagaries of route planning, where towns are, and campground locations, some days are very different in mileage.  Ideally, every day would be exactly 80 miles, but things just don’t work out that way.  For example, the place we stayed last night was a little further north than I would have liked, and tonight’s camp is further south than what would have been perfect. Then there are not always towns in the right places for my route. 

When I planned the route, I looked at miles per day then later looked for campgrounds near the route, but didn’t go back to see how they worked out together.  Oh well, I had a wonderful ride this morning and know that I’ll pay for it tomorrow with a longer ride through the Delaware Water Gap.

I’m in Bucks County, PA, and rode by Lake Nocamixon on a shoulder wide enough for another lane of traffic.  On this stretch of the route, the up and down hills were steady, but nothing more than a 5% grade. It was wonderful. When I was looking for Ringing Rocks, it was a different story with grades as high as 13% with no shoulder. Ugh! I had been using my cell phone GPS for guidance, but somehow it shut off a few miles from here so I had to backtrack.

Being Flag Day, I saw lots of American Flags in some unusual places 

I beat Neita to the campground.  I waited by the office and talked with the person at the desk.  She lives in Florida, but leaves there in March to get out of the heat.  We talked about how wonderfully cool the day was and how green this part of the country is – that’s because of all of the rain.  Neita showed up about an hour later. 

We got camp set up, and had our first campfire of the entire trip.  It felt pretty good.  We had a wonderful visit with our dear friends.