Yesterday was a lot of fun. We woke up around 10, ate breakfast, hung out with Amanda’s mom, and cousins for a bit and then headed out to Philly. Apparently there are more Red Sox fans in Philly than there are Philly fans, so the game was sold out a month ago (there were still Standing Room Only seats but neither of us felt like standing through an entire baseball game). We ended up walking around and poking in and out of a few stores and then heading home. We ended up hitting a bunch of traffic but with the iPod in hand we had an entertaining ride home (possibly the highlight of the day).

Amanda’s mom went completely overboard and cooked a ton of food for all the guests that were over (but according to Amanda she was really good, I guess she usually makes even more food when people are over). We had shisk-ka-bobs, with steak, turkey, and shrimp on them, two different types of rice, corn, salad, and I’m sure there were at least two other dishes that are slipping my mind right now. Once we had had our fill of that, she brought out round two: DESERT! She had chocolate covered raisins, chocolate covered strawberries, cream puffs, and gelati. Everything was absolutely delicious!

After digesting all that food, we said good bye to her cousins and went ‘into town’ (something that Amanda’s cousins kept saying). We walked around and then just chilled out for a bit until we met up with one of Amanda’s friends I had met the night before, Ron. We were planning on going into Philly again, but Ron got a call from a friend saying there was a small party going on nearby so we went to that instead. We stayed there trading stories and playing Mario Cart till about 2:30am, and then headed home.

Amanda had a bunch of things to do today so I took of. It was kind of a bum day to walk around since its been raining off and on all day, but I managed to get a bit in between the spurts. Its a college town, so there’s a good amount of places to eat and things to look at, and more importantly, it has a fairly comfy library to hide out in when the rain did come down.

I’m just hanging out now, waiting for Ron or one of the other kids I’ve met around here to get done with what they have to do, then we’re hanging out. I’ll probably crash at Ron’s house tonight, and maybe tomorrow, and then catch a ride back to MA with some for the show on the 30th. I’ll be around there for the 4th, and then catch a ride back down with one of them again, if any of them are still around, and then be back on the bike by the 7th. At least those are how the plans are looking in my head right now, we’ll see how they look tomorrow.

So I made it! I didn’t have any time to post yesterday, but I had an awesome time.

I woke up in the morning around 7:30. My stuff was pretty wet from sweat and morning dew, so I laid it out on the driveway of the bank I was sleeping at to dry and made some breakfast.

Being a Saturday and riding near a bike trail, there were lots of other riders out, which is always nice. I stopped at Bull’s Island to get some water and talked to two guys about the trip for a bit. A little bit later another biker stopped me because he thought one of my bags was going to fall off. It turns out it was alright, but I noticed that he had a touring bike so we talked about that for a bit. Between these two stops I really didn’t have much more time to spare.

I had to meet Amanda in Norristown between 3 and 4 which was about 55 miles away fro. Where I started that morning. Most of the riding was on top of open windy hills which were newly paved which made for a REALLY hot ride in the 100 degree sun we had yesterday. Fortunately, I drank enough water and was able to make it Norristown around 3:30, so it was a good day.

I got a ride back to Amanda’s house and took a much needed shower. I borrowed a clean shirt and we headed off to the show. As soon as we got there Justin from Have Heart saw me and we talked for a bit. The show started and was a lot of fun. Pat pulled me out during their set and announced to everyone that I had ridden my bike 150 miles in two days to make it to the show which was pretty awesome but kind of awkward. Like 3 or 4 bands got added to the show so it kind of dragged on but still really awesome.

After the show we hit up the local Wawa, which is kind of like a 7-11 down here, but was better. They had King Size Take 5 candy bars, which was awesome. I ate for like the 100th time that day. And we headed out to a pool party.

There weren’t many kids at the house, but everyone that was there was really cool. I talked to them for a bit and then joined Amanda, Justin, and Chris in the pool. We started a huge whirl pool, and easily ran a good 2 miles in the process. Afterwards we hung out a bit more while we waited to dry off and then we headed back to Amanda’s and I watched horrible 3am tv until I fell asleep.

Today we woke up around 10 o’clock, which was nice for a change, and now we’re about to go into Philly. We’re going to get some cheese steaks and try to get into the Philly/Red Socks game. I’m probably going to hang out here for another day or two and then head home for a week before starting back out to DC.

I rode for just over eight hours today, and that’s the time the wheels were spinning! I was hoping to make a Century, but fell shot at 88 miles. I probably could have squeezed a few more in before dusk but I found an abandoned bank that looked like a nice place to stay, and since I didn’t have time to make it another 12 miles, I decided to stop.

I met two interesting characters today, who I’ll call Glock and Bull, I never got their real names. Glock had a lot to say about the roads, trails, and camping spots around here. He only road short distances but carried more gear than me on his bike (he estimated it at 65 lbs. worth). Bull helped me out with some directions and then we talked a bit about the flooding that had been plaguing this area in the last year or so.

I’ve got about 60 miles left till Norristown, PA where I’m meeting Amanda. For a little while I was almost going to meet her in New Hope, which is only 20 miles from here but that didn’t happen. Either way I’m still going to get to see Have Heart tomorrow, so that will be awesome.

The sun’s already set and its almost dark now, so I’m going to go. Hopefully I’ll get an early start tomorrow and make it to Norristown in good time.