Day 8: Langhorne to Philadelphia (another windy day in PA)

Oct 22

Posted by

Me, Ellen and Phil before leaving Langhorne

We awoke later than planned, at 9am.  Ellen’s friend, Dan, stopped by with coffee, tea and bagels from Dunkin Donuts on his way home from his graveyard shift job.

Phil changes his flat tire

Fortunately, we had a short ride to Philadelphia from Langhorne, although, after Dan’s suggested changes to our route, the distance went from under 30 to close to 35 miles.  We made good time in spite of the wind, stopping only twice – once for a snack and once about 4 miles out from our destination due to a flat tire.  This was Phil’s 4th flat tire in only 4 days of riding.  This time it was the front tire, which isn’t as much of a pain to change, but we are going through tubes much faster than we had planned!

Philly Cheesesteak!

When we reached Steve and Lucia’s home in Philadelphia, their dog Danny greeted us eagerly and followed us to our room.  We quickly changeed our clothes and walked a few blocks to Jim’s on South Street, where we ordered the classic Philly cheesesteak sandwiches (hoagies?).  After eating, we walked west to EMS, stopping for ice-cream at Scoops DeVille on the way.  After purchasing a pair of pants at EMS, we walked back towards our hosts’ home.

Phil relaxing at the Coffee Bar

I was really craving a beer, and Phil wanted tea, so we found the perfect place to chill out and drink our beverages of choice while listening to good music and catching up on e-mail – The Coffee Bar.

We walked back to Steve and Lucia’s house, where we had some tea, loaded the next day’s route into Garmin, and talked about bicycling and traveling before retiring to bed.

About Sarah

Sarah grew up in Cranston - just south of Providence, Rhode Island - and developed a love for travel, music, and outdoor sports at an early age. She had started bicycling long distances at age 12, as a participant of the MS150 bike tours to raise money for the MS Society. She didn't use her bike regularly until she built her own while studying in Montreal and found it an excellent way to get around the city. After graduating from McGill and moving back to Providence, Sarah started working at Brown University's office of Environmental Health & Safety as the Biological Safety Specialist. She was living 4 miles away at the time, and for the first few weeks was driving to work. She made the switch from driving to bicycling when she realized that she could get to work faster, avoid parking tickets, and integrate a few miles of training into her day. Bicycling was better for the environment and better for her own health and mood. She found that she had more energy and felt much happier once she started biking to work. When her car broke down several months later, she never bothered replacing it. After 4 years of working in Biosafety (and on her master's in Environmental Studies), Sarah left her job to pursue her passion. She has been working various jobs in the bicycle industry since June of 2011, including pedicab driver, bicycle tour guide, bike mechanic and traveling bicycle advocate. In between seasonal jobs, she has done a few long-distance bike tours, which is the main reason for this blog. Her dream is to eventually ride around the world and sail across the oceans.

Posted on 22 October 2011, in Bicycle Touring, Providence to New Orleans. Bookmark the permalink. Leave a comment.

Comments are closed.

%d bloggers like this: