April 7, 2024 - Port Jervis, NY, to Honesdale, PA

Start: Port Jervis, NY
End: Honesdale, PA
Miles: 55.4
Feet climbing per mile: 77
Record of the day's ride: https://ridewithgps.com/trips/162102049

The day began with a short ride to Tom Reingold's home to pick up a pair of glasses to use for the eclipse the next day. I had foolishly delayed looking for glasses until the previous day and was unable to find any. Fortunately Tom had an extra pair to give me. After I got the glasses I rode to Penn Station, arriving there at 8:30. I would catch the 9:14 New Jersey Transit train to Port Jervis, New York.

As I wrote in Planning Cross Country 2024 - Update March 26, 2024, for my cross-country trip this summer I will be taking a jacket, fingered gloves, and a cap, which I will store in a ziplock bag to the top of my trunk bag when not wearing those items. Since then I found a 5-liter waterproof stuff sack to use in place of the ziplock bag. In the picture below you can see the orange stuff sack holding the jacket and other items which I thought I might need on this trip.

In Planning Cross Country 2024 - Update March 26, 2024 I also wrote about carrying a spare tire in a plastic bag secured to the bottom of my rear rack. You can see the spare tire in the picture below, with an umbrella sheath over the rear of the tire. I hope to find another umbrella sheath to put on the front of the tire, in which case I will dispense with the plastic bag.

This was the maiden voyage of my Ortlieb trunk bag, the modification of which by Uriel Gurgov I described in Gear Update - November 30, 2023.

After I boarded the train and secured my bike, a man asked me about my travel plans, so I told him where I would ride. I then thought that I recognized that he was Bill Schaffner, the person who a few years ago had told me about QLab, a program for running sound and video for performances. It was Bill, but he had not recognized me. Bill and I would both take the train to Secaucus, where we would transfer to the 9:30 train that would take us to Port Jervis. Unfortunately the connection was very tight, with the 9:14 train scheduled to arrive in Secaucus at 9:23. Neither of us had been to the Secaucus station, and the track information was posted in a large area high in the air, so it was not easy to learn on which track we would find the 9:30 train. By the time we got to the track the train had left. Bill was able to catch a train leaving at 10:30, but I needed to wait for until 11:30. This meant that instead of starting to ride from Port Jervis at about noon, I would now not start to ride until about 2:00. I thought that I might still be able to arrive in Honesdale before sunset at 7:30, but I knew that 2:00 was quite late to be starting a 55-mile ride.

The irony is that while I was in Penn Station waiting for the 9:14 train, I heard an announcement for at least one of the trains departing for Secaucus at 8:53, 9:07, or 9:11. If I had gotten on any of those trains I would have made my connection. As a result of this experience I have created a new exhortation in Aphorisms and Exhortations:

If, while waiting for a train, there is an earlier train departing for your destination,
get on that train!

I had the idea to create a set of alternate lyrics for Paul Simon's Homeward Bound to reflect my experience of missing the 9:30 train, but I only got as far as the first line:

I'm sittin' in Secaucus Station, got a ticket for my destination

If I'm able to finish the alternate lyrics I will include them in Alternate Lyrics.

When I arrived at Port Jervis the temperature was 53F, so I did not need the jacket, gloves, and cap. I noticed that the steering was a little squirrelly. I suspect that it had always been like that when I used a handlebar bag and trunk bag but no top tube bag. The last time I had ridden with just the two bags was last October, so maybe I had forgotten how it had felt and how I needed to adjust my steering. In any case I quickly adapted to my setup.

I had previously ridden through Port Jervis several times, and in October of 2020 rode the first almost 16 miles of this day's trip (October 5, 2020 - Stroudsburg, PA, to Port Jervis, NY, and return). Just as I remembered, River Road had a beautiful surface, but Old Mine Road was rather broken up until I came to mile 13, where the surface was again excellent, as you can see in the picture below.

Old Mine Road

Shortly thereafter I crossed the Delaware River on the Dingmans Ferry Bridge, the last privately-owned toll bridge on the Delaware and one of the few remaining in the United States. I was not charged a toll.

I have not been able to find information about Judge Daniel W. Dingman who built the stone house just north of the bridge. (After I published this post David Nebhut wrote a comment that included this link to a page about Judge Dingman.)

I did not ring the bell under the sign. I should have, right?

At mile 19 I stopped to enjoy a Mountain Dew. I carried the empty bottle with me the rest of the trip and received a nickel for my trouble when I took it to a grocery store the day after I arrived home.

When planning this trip I had been concerned that Dingmans Turnpike, without a shoulder from mile 16 to mile 31.6, might be problematic in that there could be substantial traffic. There was, so I was relieved when I turned onto Blooming Grove Road after 15.6 miles.

Does the picture below count as a selfie?

Blooming Grove Road

At mile 39 I stopped at the Hammered Steel Tavern to fill one of my water bottles. As I left it was about 6:30, just an hour before sunset, and I had 16 more miles to ride. I thought that maybe I could arrive at my destination before dark.

At mile 48.6 I encountered some crazy dogs. In the video you can hear me calling to them once. After I shot the video I saw some of the dogs being aggressive with each other. It did not look like friendly play.

Just before mile 51, one of the several times I had to walk because of the steepness of the climb, a woman stopped her car alongside me and asked whether I was ok. I said I was ok but tired. She offered to give me a ride, which I declined despite it being 7:45, already 15 minutes past sunset, with almost five more miles to ride. While we were speaking, another car pulled up in the other lane alongside the woman's car. The driver of the second car starting yelling something I didn't understand, and I thought what a jerk he was. After the woman pulled away I saw the other driver was a state trooper. I waved to him and watched as he followed closely behind the woman. I hoped that the Good Samaritan did not get a ticket as a result of her kindness.

As the Good Samaritan and the state trooper drove away, my alternate lyrics for the introduction to the song I've Been Everywhere, which I'm planning to use in a video about my biking, came to mind:

            I was walking my bike up a very steep road
            When along came a car with barely a load
            The driver asked me "Would you like a ride?"
            I said "Thanks, but if I took it, I'd feel so bad inside
            She asked if I ever ride on roads with gravel and sand
            I said "Yes, but I do my best to stay on paved roads in this here land"

Fifteen minutes after sunset there is still light in the sky, but at thirty minutes it's as dark as can be. I was riding without a rear light because I was waiting for it to be returned after a repair, so I turned my front light around and put it in flash mode. I was glad that for the final five miles the traffic was light and the road surfaces were good. I arrived at Hotel Wayne at 8:15. I was told that the restaurant in the hotel, Bistro 1202, would soon close so I had dinner without first having my usual shower, shave, and change of clothes.

Hotel Wayne is an old hotel with a lot of charm. The picture below was taken the next day.

There were several times throughout the day I needed to walk because of the steepness of the climb, and late in the day I had one minor episode of leg cramps for which I took a magnesium pill.

Next day: April 8, 2024 - Honesdale, PA, loop

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