‘Free ice’ is often to be found on billboards outside motels and seems to be an important component of the overnight experience

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Neil’s bike has broken comprehensively; the derailleur has snapped from the bike frame, breaking the model specific part called the ‘hanger’ and also the chain. Outcomes are mixed, it means that Rob and I get a third person to break up the large number of hours that we are spending alone together each day and Neil gets a day off from cycling. Don’t get me wrong Rob and I are getting along fine, but it is nice to have someone else to do things with. Neil was very frustrated that he couldn’t cycle at times but glad to be able to do fun things at others. The current plan is to find a Trek shop in New York who can fix all the problems over a few days. Leo joined the other two and they made their way slowly but surely over the Appellations.

Driving from Scranton to Mcafee, a nonentity with a cheap hostel near Port Jervis, New Jersey, we stopped beside Lake Wallenpaupack for a walk and a paddle than ate at a restaurant taking its name from the lake. I had a steak salad - which was fantastic. Neil said his burger was the best he’d ever had. Incidentally, I had my first US steak last night, (a 14oz New Yorker, apparently the best cut although the waitress didn’t know what it was), and was less impressed than I’d expected to be. More pleasing were the Buffalo wings I shared as a starter. The spicy sauce on the chicken was just delicious and I may well look for it in the UK at some point. I had two pints of Pennsylvanian larger served in glasses kept in the freezer and was glad to discover I was only mildly pissed after my appallingly low tolerance this past week. I got a free coffee too. We had ventured into central Scranton, in two legs because we couldn’t all fit in the car at once. Whilst ‘The Electric City’ was far from spectacular, it was good to see a city centre, not just the backwaters where the cheap motels and fast food outlets are.

I think it is about time I mentioned a few words about the motels. Firstly, they can be extraordinarily cheap. The last few days we have taken a room for four and two people have slept on the floor (frequently me as I tend to take pity on the tired cyclists) and this has cost us as little as $60/£30. Total. They are very comfortable with air conditioning and often a fridge, microwave and/or coffee machine. Breakfast, the details of which I may have mentioned on occasion, are almost always included, although frequently you pile food and drink into polystyrene plates and cups and sit around a few tables close to the reception desk. This must produce masses of waste but this has never been something the Americans are too worried about. The last thing to mention is the importance of ice. Ice machines are well used by all customers and an ice bucket is provided in all rooms. Most of the gents have entered into this custom wholeheartedly, filling the tub with more ice than you could ever use in one evening as soon as they have dropped their bags. ‘Free ice’ is often to be found on billboards outside motels and seems to be an important component of the overnight experience, illustrating just how stupid Americans are. Similarly, one of the handful of statistics that automobile magazines print on vehicles reviewed is how many cup holders they have. One car had to be withdrawn from the market and redesigned due to its lack of cup-holders, perhaps only three or four. Credit for this piece of information is once again due to Bill Bryson, although I remembered this one from reading a book rather than from listening to it on audio CD.

Whilst we were eating lunch, it poured down again. Indeed, the radio cut out a little later and a severe storm warning was issued, although it seems to have been a different one and the cyclers didn’t get caught up in the latter. Bikers, many on Harley Davidsons, were everywhere. I don’t know if it a Sunday thing or whether the area is a popular destination for bikers but it sure seemed like a sociable hobby and I temporary regretted not learning how to ride and maintain a motorcycle in order to ride through Central America. Neil, Rob and I checked-in then went in search of a Dairy Queen. These are at least as numerous as bikers; ice cream is big in America. My sundae was gorgeous, I’d never have expected such a large chain to have such good ice cream. I had cotton candy flavour and an ice cream with a long name from which I only understood the word ‘berry’ despite asking twice. This was all topped with ‘rainbow sprinkles’ and peanut butter sauce, which to my surprise went perfectly, tasted better than any peanut butter and made the whole thing.

We went in search of the Franklin Heritage Museum but instead found the Franklin Mineral Museum. It was closed, but Neil got very excited about it and we took some photos anywhere. We then made our way to no less than Gingerbread Castle on Gingerbread Castle Lane via a perfectly ordinary Shalom and an extraordinary unremarkable First Presbyterian Church. Bryson was entirely right in saying that signs for sites of historical importance are never worth following. The Castle itself used to be a kids amusement park but it is now derelict. All in all, Neil was considerably more successful than me at getting Rob to do random things although I like to think it was our combined persuasion skills. Dinner was Domino’s pizza in front of a programme about gangs in prisons.

Tomorrow we head to New York so you may not hear from me for a few days. I hope to be doing more interesting things and the hostels we are staying at probably won’t have internet access anyway.

If any of you would like to tell me your news, I am always interested to hear it and you can leave a message on here, email me or facebook me.

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