Simple-Tour

Laundry, repacking, relaxing. This was my whole day. Mostly the last one, since a good rest day should mostly comprise no other real activity. I repacked my belongings, because it turns out I have lost a few little things last week despite my meticulous inspection of my luggage prior to departing every location. And I don’t have a lot. A few riding clothes, items for camping, making a tea, and food. I could have packed even lighter, but this is touring, after all and not a speed race.  I also planned the next few days. I’m going to New York tomorrow, essentially exploring a little bit, probably also sitting in a coffee shop and drinking…tea! Then head south, and I’m aiming to reach Washington D.C. in a few days. Based on my observation, “little town America” overall is the best place for a bike traveller in the US, so I planned a route to avoid large cities. Well, except New York tomorrow! Oh yes, and the photo from today demonstrate the laundry, when you only have a few items to w...

I ’m getting really close to New York. I saw some of the skyline from the distance today! Although that wasn’t a usual thing, I mean looking around a lot. Most of the time today I was trying to navigate through the suburbs, then through small towns, centres of New Jersey, with rather colourful neighbourhoods. I even got compliments when a few (approximately 5) teenagers, sitting on a small staircase in front of a townhouse and smoking, made obvious compliments about my bike shouting “I like your bike dude”. Since I was pedalling, I didn’t hear anything else and based on my visual observation of the neighbourhood I probably shouldn’t have stopped anyway. This experience sort of mirrored in the area I found an accommodation for today and tomorrow night. I’m in Elizabeth, and although it is a beautiful name, that doesn’t seem to reflect on the streets. Hopefully this is a temporary state and the city will have more to come!  I’m taking tomorrow off, and will be probably biking to New ...

This morning, around 9-10am I was riding through a small town, Easton. When I ride in cities, I generally listen to the GPS directions through one earphone in my right ear, so I can hear the traffic with my left one. I find it easier then constantly looking at a screen, and in cities and towns the best route is usually way more complex, then with a car. I have to avoid certain roads, and there are occasional bike paths that are preferred anyway. Small roads are also preferred. Due to this complexity, listening to the directions have been proven to be the safest and most convenient way to get through a city. So I was riding through Easton, Monday morning, I crossed one bridge, I found myself in a road construction, then in heavy traffic, and I crossed another bridge, navigating through cars, occasionally broken asphalt, sunk manhole covers and debris. Just when I crossed it and I turned right (after listening to the direction) all the sudden I hear “Welcome to New Jersey”. My GPS welcom...

In the woods! As much as you can be in Pennsylvania, about 190km from New York. And the way here had everything one might want from a bike ride and some more: quaint towns, colourful streets, quite streets, some rural looking areas with no cars on the road, long bridges, and short ones too, fields, occasionally lovely architecture, a few bike path and hills, so many hills! It is a constant up and down, and you never know which one will be a stopper. A stopper is where you just had enough, get off the bike and push it. It didn’t happen today, but I was really close.  I stayed at a really nice warmshowers host yesterday, and I also had to fix my first flat during the trip. I really hope it won’t be a regular thing…the big cities are coming and I’ve seen city roads here, hence I have little confidence…meanwhile August is knocking on the door! I did bike through July with one (+1) rest day(s)…The hills will continue tomorrow, I don’t think they’ll ever end! A vadonban vagyok!  ...

In York! Not the new one just yet, although if the old York is in England, this could technically be a new York as well! I’m at another lovely warmshowers hosts, who, like I like to do, bikes (one of them) to literally everywhere, whether it’s shopping, dentist…wouldn’t be nicer to have more people do errands on bikes and less car on the road? Wouldn’t be better for everyone, especially for the drivers, who actually cannot take a bike for any reasons? (Any reasonably reason, because there is always something that prevents people from biking.) Anyhow, the ride was lovely, rolling hills and nice weather (the heat is out again!), and I stopped at…Gettysburg!! They have a nice exhibition and a cyclorama there, sharing details of the battle that took place in the hills of Gettysburg in 1863. It is worth to visit. Oh, the last photo is an evidense that tiny wires can make a biker’s life more difficult… Yorkban!    Még nem az újban, bár ha a régi York Angliában van, akkor ez tec...

The second day in Pennsylvania brought the first real rainy day during this trip. Right at the beginning, for about 130km it was raining periodically. Most of the time it was a light rain, but at times it just poured. This in turns resulted the lack of photos. I only have the phone to take pictures with, and since everything was wet and I didn’t bother finding shelter to clean the screen and my hand for a photo, I didn’t really take pictures. Believe me, Pennsylvania is beautiful. Most (not all) towns are quaint, with a cool historical downtown and early, mid 19th century architecture. And as a bonus, the tiny county roads are paved! Compared the surfaces to the previous states, either Iowa or Illinois, the roads so far are way better. The county roads do not have shoulders, nor traffic, however. Oh, and the hills. According to my GPS, the total ascending today was a record during this trip. I climbed more (in a single day) then any other day so far, including through the Sierra Nevada...