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After a slight delay due to self-inflicted rib injury, a new puppy and painting the front of the house, the 2015 road trip finally started today.
Road trip 2015 - Day 1 – The objective was simple, get out of town and get some distance in to start the trip. Left at 5:42 AM, arrived in Connecticut for stop at about 8:00 AM after 150 miles. It is a beautiful morning and by 11:00 I’ve hundred miles later I'm at the Thomas Edison service plaza on the New Jersey Turnpike. Everything has been smooth except for the tedium of getting over the George Washington Bridge in NYC, which was its usual traffic nightmare plus one lane closed!
New Jersey turnpike took me south and then I headed west and spotted signs for Jenkintown, PA. I just had to go there and represent Boston to the JTP (If you watch The Goldbergs you get it). It was really hot, so I crashed for an hour at the Barnes & Noble in Willow Grove, PA and cooled off with an iced green tea and a cookie. Then it was onto Breezewood, PA, which is really nothing more than a major intersection of N/S and E/W interstates, a giant hole of cheap, semi-murdery motels and fast food.
However, less than ¼ mile off the strip is rolling hill farm country and I labored through a 3.5 mile run to get the blood flowing again. Slogging runs like this after a long day of riding always remind me of Robert Parker’s Spenser pushing himself alng the Charles River to shake out the cobwebs.
Dinner at the only non-chain, a sports bar that initially looked desperately in need of John Taffer’s Bar Rescue, but turned it around with a surprisingly good sirloin, brown rice and green beans. Gotta love a place that adds bacon to the green beans!
Wandering west tomorrow at a slower pace with pictures to come!