Our Last Ride!!

We started our ride on the last day of Thee Adventure in Delaware and choose to drive Thee Van and Gear across the Delaware Memorial Bridge into New Jersey due to the significant traffic and lack of cycling access on this route. Note the pic, as we are packing up for the last time, the usual morning cleanliness and eager Ken ... ready to roll. Thee Bikes, of course, are strapped onto the back of Thee van.


This second pic is the huge bridge crossing the Delaware ... way different than over two hundred years ago when General Washington crossed it. Very impressive!!


We then took our turns riding on Highway 40 East, which took us all the way to the Atlantic Ocean and the famed Jersey Shore and Boardwalk. (To those 'Westerners', like myself, this is not called the Coast!! And you will be corrected for calling it such.) I rode first, fast and generally flat; generous shoulders; rapid and heave traffic, though very polite overall. Unfortunately, one more time I again saw a Veal Farm (see previous blog). Still very sad. No wonder there is PETA (although I don't support them trying to eliminate the fish throwing guys at Seattle!!). This would sincerely be a cause for them to attack.


Ken rode second and had a great, non-traumatic ride. He has grown in his cycling skills by leaps and bounds....let alone his traveling exposures and experiences.

Finally, Mark rode. This is a pic of him applying, for the last time, his "lucky chap-stick". That is a storey in itself, and way too long for this Blog. He was chosen to be the last rider due to his technical traffic skills as we entered Atlantic City and reached, somehow, in unison, the Boardwalk.

We had our pics (in previous Blog) taken at the shore. Ken ceremoniously again dipped his back wheel into the Atlantic Ocean, as he had at the start of the trip into to Pacific Ocean. We then found the hotel Mark and I are staying. In the parking garage, we did one last shuffle and re-packing of all items of the van. Mark and I took what we will need for the next few days here, and for our flight back to Spokane. Ken then drove immediately to Philadelphia to meet his wife, and they will start their 2+ week vacation drive back to Spokane.

Oh - I forgot to mention. Every evening we rode our bikes, immediately after the unpacking of Thee Van, and as the first person started to shower, we ceremoniously opened a beer and toasted one another. Very important tradition. We did go up to our hotel room so Ken could shower before taking off. Although we didn't have beer, we had a bottle (my favorite) Bombay Gin. One final toast...to us.