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Published: June 28th 2006
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Day 51: York, PA to Phoenixville, PA
Total Miles: 73.6
Total to date: 3646.3
The storms must have really wreaked havoc on the area last night. We woke up this morning (late as we didn’t hear our alarm ring) to find out that the power was out in all of York (not a small town) and wouldn’t be on again till noon. We felt relieved that we made it to shelter the night before.
Today we weren’t alone on our bicycles. Riding through Amish and Mennonite territory (most people we met were Mennonites, despite our assumptions), bicycling is probably one of the more popular forms of transportation. For lunch we pulled up to the market and parked our bikes among about twenty others - definitely the biggest turn out we’ve seen so far. The bicycles outnumbered the cars in the parking lot by far. We enjoyed a large lunch of various organic foods and baked goods. As the day went on we developed more and more questions about the Mennonites and indulged in one of the best advantages of bike riding - the ease at which you can stop and talk to people without looking like a creep or
blocking roads. We interviewed a Mennonite gentleman who helped to clear up many of the questions we had (one of the perks of this trip has been learning about all the different religions and ways of life throughout the country first hand). We visited with the cutest little girls and their lamb (who had very sharp teeth), got to watch little kids having the greatest time playing games such as ‘toss the hat’ or other forms of simple entertainment. It’s nice to know this area is a mere century away from where we’ll be living in Philadelphia … what a different world - sometimes I think I wouldn’t mind living like that one day. Everyone we encountered seemed so relaxed and healthy. They certainly didn’t mind taking the time to chat with us (unfortunately they weren’t interested in our blog, j/k). Plus we could learn how to make really cool bike trailers to carry our goods to the market.
We passed by the much gossiped about towns of Blue Ball, Intercourse, and Bird in Hand. As we approached Phoenixville we watched the farmland disappear and the suburbs of Philly really become apparent. Somehow we ended up at the cutest
natural food store in Kimberton. We met with locals there and learned how community oriented and co-op based the town is. They even have a farm where they teach you to do everything one would do on a farm - the community sure seemed proud of the place they lived. We found a hotel close by and gave them a call - when asked what the rooms were like, the manager responded “the rooms are, ugh, the rooms … you know.” At the price they wanted to charge us and given our current surroundings (beautiful, organic community) we figured it couldn’t be that bad and we got on our way in that direction.
The manager’s directions led us to a total s-hole, one of those “lounges” with rooms attached that only really get rented out when people find someone they like at the bar but can’t take them home with them for whatever reason. We enter the smoky bar which doubles as the office. Needless to say the bartender/manager (who looked like she hadn’t left the confines of the bar since the early 90’s and obviously hadn’t realized that blue eyeliner was no longer the rage) was surprised when
two people dressed in spandex wearing helmets walked into the bar. We asked her if she had any non smoking rooms and she quickly reassured us not to worry, you could smoke in all the rooms.
We sat down at the bar and got to talking to the man who ran the deli attached (by the amount of time he spent drinking at the bar we guessed that the deli didn’t get much business). One thing led to another and we were enjoying conversation and beers with the locals (definitely a bar where everybody knows your name - everyone wanted to know who the hell we were and why we were there). People were impressed with our journeys. At one point Barry, the man who ran the deli, leaned over and whispered to us, “Come on guys, be straight with me, why did you really ride your bikes from California … yous fugitives or somethin?” I think he would have thought we were less crazy if we had admitted to that. We sat and listened to the daily tribulations of the woman who works at the food court at K Mart - those new taco pizza’s aren’t easy to make - and the venting of the many who come to have a drink every day after work. Barry was really nice to us, aside from buying us beers he convinced ‘blue eyeliner’ to give us the efficiency room (which had 2 single beds and a working A/C - given the layout it probably wasn’t rented out as often). He even offered to put up the 5 buck difference for us. Although we spent the night on top of the covers and had to think twice about using the shower, the conversation and company was well worth the stay. Even though we didn’t quite fit in, everyone made us feel right at home.
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