Fri 10 Jul 2009
We’ve made it! BUT WE’RE NOT THERE YET!
Posted by Ken under Awesome People, Beautiful Things, Photos
[18] Comments
Between Waynesboro & Easton are several Pennsylvania locales I’ve heard a lot about but never really been to. Lancaster, for instance, is supposed to be the Amish capital of the world (even though the largest population of them is in Ohio). We didn’t come across any Amish until we were near Kutztown.

a bit blurry, but there's an amish girl back there who rode with us for about a mile near Kutztown
We did hit up the recommended “Lancaster Dispensary” where the bartender played Yankee Hotel Foxtrot in it’s entirety, making us nostalgic for our iPods, and the waitress invited us to pitch our tent in the sprawling 1/4 acre backyard of her historical landmark home.

This Lancaster back yard extends all the way to the next street over. It's HUGE!
Out of place “on the wrong side of the tracks” next to tenement-style brick buildings, Susannah’s wood sided 1.5 floor bungalow’s property extends way back until the next block. As sleep crept closer, the arbitrary outbursts of her neighbors became less & less startling, and we slept like babies.
The next day, we stopped in Reading, where I’ve only been once before to buy some unstylish stonewashed jeans from the city’s famed discount outlet stores when I was a teenager. From there, I called Mike Fegley at the Allentown Brew Works to tell him I was going to be there in a matter of hours to say “hi”.
Allentown, Bethlehem & Easton make up the third largest metropolitan area in Pennsylvania behind Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. The Billy Joel song is about that Allentown, but it was based more on Bethlehem, where the factories were being torn down and have recently been turned into sprawling casinos. Easton is famous for Crayola Crayons, Larry Holmes (who beat Muhammad Ali back in the early 80’s), and being the second place that the Declaration of Independence was read publicly.
Allentown doesn’t have all that much going for it, and Mike was disappointed in his attempts to attract the Bicycling Hall of Fame to the unused storefronts across from his brewery. Still, in spite of the perceived disinterest express from his community, we boldly encouraged him to continue the Tour De Brew – the only USCF sanctioned event that goes THROUGH an occupied building before continuing on to the streets. A while ago, I had screened a youtube video he had cobbled together of the race after my Mom had saved a clipping from the Morning Call to show me last Christmas. It’s open to amateurs, and if he does this event again (which runs concurrently with a beer fest), I’ve promised to come & drag some New Yorkers with me.
I was going to lead twoarmparty into Easton by the Lehigh River Canal bike path, but we were already a few beers deep and on the last 20 miles of an 85+ mile day, so I skipped the scenic & went for the direct, which brought us past two Blockbusters I used to work at, my High School & Middle School, a Laneco I got caught shoplifting at, the Dixie Cup factory, and some of the less lovely parts of downtown Easton. Then we rolled up on Pearly Baker’s where my Dad was waiting for us with several empty seabreezes in front of him. Apparently he thought we might get there quicker. Family & friends rolled up and we had a great time beginning a relaxing day in Easton. Quinn did a great job recapping that in the last post.

Jersey
Someone else’s photo of the bridge we illegally rode over. There was no other way! The best part was how I got a flat tire at the very base, by running over a drainage grate. There are few things in life I’m afraid of. I am, afterall, fearless. But of those few things (Tornadoes, opening car doors, wet metal construction plates, and expansion joints on bridges), I pretty much ran into two of them crossing this bridge, because having a flat tire makes you just about as stable as riding over a wet metal plate. And yes, as Quinn mentioned, we stopped on the other side of the bridge to take that Jersey State sign photo (impressive sign, New Jersey!) and fix my flat. That took a good 15 minutes, and nobody did anything about it. So the moral of the story is IGNORE THE LAWS, KIDS! I wish I had known this when we were at the Crayola Factory the day before….
Love the Tour de Brew…
Come back to Boise August 22nd for Tour de fat
http://www.newbelgium.com/tour-de-fat
Great to see you in the Atlantic! Great to see you along the route, since we’ve traveled so far together! Don’t get any sand in your private parts. You don’t want any rash now.
Let me know when you guys go again. I’m your chase car driver.
I believe this is one of the such a lot important information for me.
And i’m happy studying your article. However want
to remark on few common things, The website style is great, the articles
is actually great : D. Good activity, cheers
I have read so many content on the topic of the blogger lovers except this post is in fact
a good piece of writing, keep it up.
I do trust all the ideas you have offered on your post. They’re really convincing and will definitely work. Nonetheless, the posts are too short for beginners. May you please extend them a bit from subsequent time? Thank you for the post.
Don’t let fat cost-free or perhaps gentle meals trick anyone; them usually comprise
copious amounts connected with one more unhealthy element.
Adiphene is the newest and fastest weight reduction supplement in market.
Different studies have demonstrated the profits of Ginseng Panax Root Extract.
Such digestive ailments are caused by an imbalance in our intestinal tract flora, i.
Inclusion of turmeric in cleansing diet helps in fat metabolism and formation of bile secretions.
One of the key properties, and health benefits of pineapple, is ‘bromelain’.
Simply wish to say your article is as astounding. The clearness
for your publish is simply cool and that i can think you
are an expert in this subject. Well with your permission allow me to seize your
RSS feed to stay updated with impending post. Thank you a million and please keep up the gratifying work.
What’s up, yup this piece of writing is truly nice and
I have learned lot of things from it on the topic of blogging.
thanks.
%url
Good response in return of this query with genuine arguments and explaining everything on the topic of that.
ant man movie watch online free
ant man full movie online free
Pretty nice post. I just stumbled upon your blog and wished to say that I have really loved browsing your blog posts. After all I will be subscribing in your feed and I hope you write once more soon!
This is the perfect website for anybody who wishes to find out about this topic.
You know so much its almost hard to argue with you (not that I personally would want to…HaHa).
You definitely put a fresh spin on a subject that has been written about for decades.
Wonderful stuff, just excellent!
Virtually all of what you say happens to be astonishingly legitimate and that makes me ponder the reason why I had not looked at this with this light before. Your article truly did turn the light on for me as far as this particular subject goes. However at this time there is actually just one factor I am not really too comfy with and while I try to reconcile that with the core theme of your position, permit me see exactly what the rest of your subscribers have to point out.Well done.
Hi there colleagues, its fantastic article regarding teachingand entirely explained, keep it up all the time.
Hey There. I found your weblog the use of msn. That is a really well written article. I’ll make sure to bookmark it and come back to learn extra of your useful info. Thank you for the post. I will certainly comeback.
I been reviewing online more than 9 hours today for 1/2 Price Pro Calgary Painting & We?ve
made it! BUT WE?RE NOT THERE YET! > two.arm.party, yet
I never found any interesting article like yours. It’s pretty worth enough for me.
Personally, if all site owners and bloggers made good content as you did, the internet
will be much more useful than ever before.