Advertisement
Published: January 14th 2020
Edit Blog Post
*Cue eye roll*
Is this West Palm?! This morning we head out of the parking lot where I bid my "see you later" to Sabrina just a few hours ago, with NJ and her friend in leader van, allowing an additional rider to be on the road today. Despite having more of us on the road today, I ride a date day with none other but Dillan. Though its strange to not ride with any of my teammates, all summer I have been averaging riding with whatever alums join us for a day or two, so its not different than previous patterns. A few miles in, an alum from Beth Haley's P2S08 ride meets up with us on the left side of the road in an empty lot in Westin with popsicles and pups 😊) We stop for second breakfast pops, pup pets, and B&B story sharing before rolling on with our morning. I actually enjoy riding with him on our date day--its nice to have one-on-one intentional conversation, sharing stories about our Bike & Build experiences and life outside of B&B. Dillan is a great conversationalist and an excellent rider so it makes for an enjoyable day, and the views don't hurt either 😉
We roll through Massachusetts and before we know it, its time for lunch, which takes place in Somerville, rolling through Harvard to get there! Following the chalk and appreciating all the brick buildings, we find unchecking set up on a few benches by a Holiday Inn--which of course we utilize for a potty break. Maura, another enthusiastic B&B alum, joins us here and is going to ride with us to Salem and join us for a few days. A kind, older gentlemen sings for us, including happy birthday to "everybody" and a cute little hat! I would listen to him sing every day and be happy 😊 We nom on some grub and get rolling through the afternoon sun.
Shortly into our afternoon ride, we get held up on the bridge as it goes up to allow a boat to pass through--"stoppingggg." After a few hot minutes in the sun and an instagram story later, we click back in and ride towards Salem. A few miles short of the host, we come across an ice cream shop called Kell's Kreme while approaching a light. Dillian and I make the split decision to go for it, and many
folks end up joining us! Jana and her brother join us and I snap a portrait of them (which ended up in the Bike & Build newsletter!). Polaroids and jimmies later, we get back on our bikes for the last few miles. We arrive at church with Greek-like columns with a Pride flag between the columns and the parking lot is covered in some of NJ's finest signature chalkage. We put our bikes in the basement, flipped upside down on a tarp as always, and grab our belongings and a snack in the kitchen. Carly and I decide its shower o clock so we grab our stuff and things and walk around to the local YMCA right around the corner of the church we are staying at. I'm enthused that there are blow dryers here so of course I do not hesitate to blow dry and straighten my hair --a real treat on Bike & Build!
We pass by an old witch's house and the the Witch Dungeon Museum on our way back, so of course we have to stop and take a picture with a pillory outside of the museum. We decide we want to keep exploring Salem
a bit, so we take our clothes back to the church and hit the streets of Salem like the witches that we are! 😉 We explore some of the old witches houses, other museums, some gift shops, and other fun shopping perusings throughout the cute brickroad lined streets of downtown Salem. Carly even buys a t-shirt that reads "Road trip to Salem" with a car full of witches driving and flying to Salem from a street vendor tent. I found not only a cute succulent in a white elephant pot, but also a few cute and colorful elephant stickers. Of course I have to buy them for Kristi, Carly, and I "Team Ellies" for our bikes 😊
We make our way back to the church and we enjoy dinner all together--with Beth's mom present as well! Beth was ecstatic to have her mom join us for the ride today and on the trip for a few days! We head out to see what the downtown night life is all about and find ourselves at Tavern in the Square to meet up with Manders since we're in her stompin grounds :D We all catch up, we learn of her break
Fell for the Tourist Trap
A road bike ride to Salem counts as a road trip, right?! up, Jana tells me I "just need to move to Philly" as I freak out about what I should do after K2C, and Aiden brings me my warm, thrifted teal sweater since it cooled off by the water after the sun went down. Though he tried to steal it, I'm happy I have it, though I then felt bad and tried to pass it around. We made our way back to the church where we once again crashed on the hard wood floors with Thermarests and sleeping bags in the middle of the floor of a church fellowship hall.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.082s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 12; qc: 33; dbt: 0.0544s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb