NYC -2- ATL

Our first real day of the trip! Today we awoke and packed up our little basecamp from the previous two nights. We drove a few miles down the road to the rental truck return place and unloaded everything we have in the parking lot. A quick start of ride photo and we were off!

A few miles through some suburban residential roads where the Kruimers had shown us where to ride and then we arrived at the East Coast Greenway. The greenway started in a large park, but quickly began to follow the Delaware & Raritan Canal. The surface was a crushed stone and was pretty good to ride on except where it was super wet from the recent rains. We saw lots of geese with their baby goslings and tons of turtles sunning on logs in the canal.

We stopped maybe 10 miles in at a bench and ate some smoked salmon with crackers. My dad makes the best smoked salmon and we have a few portions vacuum packed that we’ve been keeping cold in a little cooler bag and hotel refrigerators. That stuff is the perfect bike food in my mind—so full of good fats and protein that you can almost feel it giving you energy as you eat it.

The greenway was scenic but uneventful. We came across a freshly fallen tree blocking the trail at the same time as another cyclist, so the three of us decided we would all lift a portion together and clear the trail. Grant Peterson says you should be perfect on the trail and it felt good to leave the trail better than we found it.

After about 20 miles, somewhere near Princeton, we turned off of the trail and onto a course known as the High Point to Cape May Bicycle Route. The route took several turns and led us through half a dozen small towns, interlaced with beautiful rolling rural farmland. Around lunchtime, we came across a little commercial area and pulled into a McDonalds. I thought, I’m hungry… I could definitely a burger, but then all of a sudden it hit me—what was I doing?

I pulled up my map and within a few minutes I had charted a course to a place called The Original Steak & Hoagie where we got some really great cheesesteaks to go. We ate across the street at a picnic table under a beautiful tree in what we later figured was a small school. A few miles after we rejoined the trail, I was fifty yards ahead of my dad when we came to a beautiful cemetery and I instinctively pulled in. I know he loves to stop in cemeteries and when we rolled to a good place to stop and rest he approved of the choice.

The remainder of the day was very scenic. We saw horses, sheep, goats, a miniature horse, and beautiful farms. We stopped and looked ahead on the map at hotel options and decided to ride to a place on the edge of Fort Dix, where I’m told my Uncle Ivan spent some time during Army training. The hotel is fine and we ate dinner just across the parking lot at the award-winning Local Smoke BBQ, which had really great brisket, ribs, mac & cheese bites, and sweet chili brussels sprouts. 

There doesn’t seem like very much to do in this little area, and that’s no problem for us. We’re back in the room and its already time for bed while I continue getting these thoughts uploaded. We’re looking at the map and perhaps tomorrow we’ll depart the current route and head towards Atlantic City and see the ocean.