June 9, 2023 – Keep Calm and Pedal On

If you ever need a micro lesson in northeastern states geography we suggest riding bikes up here. Delaware is where? Oh it’s south of Pennsylvania which neighbors Ohio which is just east of Indy. And the Delmarva (Delaware, Maryland, Virginia) peninsula which we are cycling around now shows Maryland encroaching on Delaware’s southern coastline with a string of Virginia land tacked onto the bottom for good measure. Who the heck decided these state boundaries and how? I have questions!

We’ve now entered our seventh state on the tour (knocking off five new ones we needed) in just a week. Heck it took us 18 days to cross Texas last February on bikes. What a metaphor for life. Some things come easy, and well others ya work for harder.

Speaking of working toward a goal… does anyone recognize the steps behind us in the above pic?

Friday, June 9th was our 16th wedding anniversary and we celebrated by… you guessed it. Riding bikes! Pleasant Point to Cherry Hill, NJ was pretty near perfect rural riding with little traffic, wide shoulders and smooth pavement – about 98% of it. We were in such a rhythm we took only three pics all day.

However riding from Cherry Hill to Bear, Delaware via Philadelphia today was 98% stoplights which made for slow going until we got to Delaware. There were also some steps to navigate to get over the Delaware River.

We used Hipcamp to find digs for the night and landed on a most unique campsite: just behind a beautiful mansion on two acres.

And there are grass tennis courts marked for pickeball! Owners Peter and Karin built this lovely home in Bear and rent rooms out to travelers. They even have a cozy spot for tenters. They found themselves so busy they added two modern RVs that share a gigantic shade giving tree and a deck to enjoy outside time. Peter’s built this all, including the house. Karin is an elementary school principal (600 students) who hosts both a podcast and has a TikTok following of over 13k. The people we meet are hands DOWN the best part of any bike tour.

If you spent 30 seconds with Karin you’d get a sense of her passion and creative genius for kids and education, especially school administrator wellness. Plus they are a couple of entrepreneurs living a dream.

Finally someone who may or may not be living the dream… Meet Rocket, the domesticated raccoon pet of a couple just outside Delaware City who have had him since he was three months old. Rocket ya need to lay off the Dunkin’ Donuts, my friend.