Trenton NJ

Downtown Trenton NJ

Following Philly it was a short ride over to Trenton NJ to claim another capital. There was bugger all in Trenton and nowhere to get an internet connection to find if I had a room for the evening, so I decided to just get the train into NYC. On the way to the station I was accosted by 2 homeless guys. The first was from Trinidad and Tobago, enjoyed football and cricket, and was a pleasant enough guy. The second, 30 seconds down the road, was claiming that he was homeless, diabetic, his mum had just died, and he definitely wasn't a drug addict. Plus he called me an asshole.

Although I want to cycle everywhere, I do have my reasons for taking the train from Trenton. First of all, cycling in and around NYC is not for the faint hearted like myself. It's also a lot quicker and at only $15, pretty cheap. Finally, the cycling route would take me through Rahway, Linden and Newark which will be very familiar to some of my old colleagues. I've been there before and the wider berth these places can be given the better.

New York NY

Da da daaaaaaaaa, da da daaaaaaaaa

Pretending to be: Rocky Balboa

Birthday girl, second from left

First of all, happy birthday to my Mum who is 28 again today.

Philly has been pretty good. I spent my first day just walking round doing some touristy stuff. I've seen the Liberty Bell and went round Liberty Hall where the Declaration of Independence and Bill of Rights were both signed. The definite highlight though is definitely running up the stairs to the Philadelphia Museum of Art, aka, the Rocky steps.

Yesterday I tried to go to the zoo to appease my inner child. Spent about 3 hours failing to find it.

Love Park

Rocky Balboa

 

Philadelphia from top of Rocky Steps

Photos

I had a request for some more photos and they're going up now onto Google+. For those who have my personal account details, they're not on there. Click the link on the right to get to my travelling profile, and they should be on there. No plans for them to go on Facebook as it's a bit rubbish. Any problems, comment below.

Familiar Places

Smelling of: Yesterday - sweat
Yesterday evening - lemon & coriander (yay for complimentary hotel stuff)
Today - damp

I've had a plug from me brother on his blog who said I was "rather amusing". Hopefully some really interesting stuff will happen soon so I can be downright hilarious. Until then, rather amusing will have to suffice.

Chester PA

Going through New England there are loads of places that are named after the original back home. I've gone through Abingdon, Aberdeen, Oxford, Glasgow, Chester and Newport. But I'd like to compare a very important town to me.

Nottingham, Notts, UK
City of my birth
Size: 29 sq mi
Population: 306,700
Famed for: Robin Hood, lace, and supposedly the best shopping in the UK outside of London

Nottingham, PA, USA
Stayed there the other night
Size: 20 sq mi (mostly farmland)
Population: 2,500 (I got this off Wikipedia, so I'm not entirely certain it's the same place. Maybe it's a typo with one too many 0s?)
Famed for: Herr's Snack Factory

Susquehanna State Park, MD

Nottingham PA, as the name suggests, is in Pennsylvania. How I got into Pennsylvania at this point is a mystery. I was supposed to head straight into Elkton after crossing the Susquehanna river from Baltimore, but I couldn't continue on route 40 so I had to head North to go through Susquehanna State Park and cross the Conowingo hydroelectric damn. While there I got to watch some eagles flying about. The wildlife has been incredible so far. I've seen eagles (soaring), robins (bigger than their European cousin's but nowhere near as cute), cardinals (the red birds), bluebirds (the blue birds), possums (roadkill), turtles (basking), a lynx (roadkill) and a bear cub (roadkill). A few other things as well, but I can't identify them. Met a couple in the park who offered us a place to stay for the evening in Bel Air. Everybody... "In West Philadelphia born and raised, on the playground where I spent most of my days, etc.". Curse you Bel Air for being in the wrong direction! The couple told me to cross the dam and follow the road to Elkton, and somehow I ended up in Pennsylvania heading North.

Route 13 and the bastard bridge, DE

Leaving Nottingham to head South again, there could only be one road suitable for the task: Blue Ball Road. Incidentally, it's not blue yet, but I know the razor-like feeling Colin was on about. I'm assuming the Sudocrem does more than give cheap thrills upon application but I'm yet to feel the proof. Blue Ball Road took me into Elkton from where I had to suffer McDonalds in order to abuse their free WiFi and figure out where I was and where I needed to go. Back onto route 40, down route 72, and down route 13 all the way into Dover DE for another State capital. All these roads are much like cycling down the A34 except with a bike lane (the hard shoulder with a man on a bike painted every now and then) and all the cars driving on the wrong side of the road.

City Hall, Dover DE

 Dover DE is a very small town. The main attraction is a casino and the Nascar race track. Other than that there's a historic part of town which looks nice, but there's nothing else there.

With nothing to do in Dover, the next step was to get back up North to head towards Philadelphia. Within reasonable distance was Wilmington. From Elkton to Wilmington is roughly 20 miles. From Elkton to Wilmington via Dover is nearer 100 miles. Dover has been a pain in the arse as it is half way down a peninsular (Annapolis to Dover is 65 miles or so, or if you go my route, 150 - could have saved sooooo much time). I was talking to a guy in a cafe in Dover who suggested taking route 9 up North which seemed like a decent idea. Country roads with farmland and wetlands all the way up to Wilmington. Beautiful. Somehow I ended up back on route 13 again (bit like A34) having to cross the same bastard steep bridge battling the traffic. I missed out on 25 miles of coastal roads, state parks, managed wetlands and a power station. I also got horrifically lost. I was following route 13 when it became route 7 and route 13 joined with route 1 which is a little more like a motorway and I couldn't go on there (I've got absolutely no idea how these different roads work - finding a side street is a piece of piss, finding a major road is a fucking nightmare). Followed route 7 all the way into a mall - less than helpful. Asked a friendly police officer for some help and he says go back around to route 7, under route 95, and where it splits with route 4 follow route 4 all the way into town. Went back around, can't go onto route 1 and nowhere to go under route 95. Tried another route in right kind of direction and ended up in another mall - fucksocks! Another route and I stumbled on route 4, but which way? No bastard signs to Wilmington. My trusty compass helped me out and after a couple of miles I was on route 7!?! On the edge of town I met a guy who stopped me to ask about me bike. Turns out he was a farmer, had landscaped half of Wilmington, been some precision engineer, been a security official at the bank and he was alright to sit outside the bank as they wouldn't know who he was as he wore prosthetics for that job, he did some work at the hospital draining knees, and told me all about his various bank accounts and bonds. I think he was just a little bit nuts.

Wetlands off route 9, DE

Absolutely knackered and not much happening with CouchSurfing so settle on one of the cheaper hotels in town.

Girl on desk: That'll be $119.

Me: Is there any chance of haggling that price?

Girl on desk: Do you have a loyalty card?

 Me: No.

Girl on desk: Yeah you do. That'll be $100.

Welcome to Newport (just before Wilmington) DE

To think what I may have achieved had I smelled of lemon and coriander before I checked in.

Over the past week it's been amazing weather and I've been badly sunburnt and on the point of heat stroke. Today, it's been pissing it down. I'd been asked what I'd do when it rained, and the obvious answer was that I'd get wet. And I did. Very wet. Got me trainers in the drier right now. At least it was only 30 miles from Wilmington to Philadelphia and I had the route written (smudged) on me hand so I didn't get lost and it only took a few hours, but I'm here in Philadelphia where it's always sunny (or not).

Welcome to Philadelphia

Stu's Review

For anyone wanting to figure out my actual route, time to review what I've done over the past week and to figure out how far I've travelled. Google Maps will help for this.

Capitol, Washington DC

Started off in Washington DC and headed east along the 214 as far as Mayo (too far). Back onto Route 2 to take us most of the way into Annapolis for State capital number 2 (41 miles).

State House, Annapolis MD

From Annapolis it was up to Baltimore via a bike trail and a bit of getting lost (35 miles).

Trail around BMI airport, MD

Baltimore MD

Route 40 across the river from Baltimore would be far too easy and dangerous so a detour up through the Susquehanna State Park was needed and a trip across the Conowingo dam. From here I got slightly lost and  ended up in Nottingham PA (60 miles).

Route 40, MD

Susquehanna State Park, MD

Welcome to Pennsylvania

From Nottingham it was down the aptly named Blue Ball Road into Elkton to rejoin route 40 briefly. Down the 72 and the 13 and I ended up in Dover (58 miles).

Welcome to Delaware

Route 13, DE

Total distance so far: 194 miles. Off up north again tomorrow, maybe into Philadelphia.

Oh say can you see...

The sun in a scaled distance model of the solar system

I left Annapolis in blazing sunshine again an immediately got lost looking for a bike trail to take me most of the way to Baltimore. After several miles a scaled distance model of the solar system began with Pluto. About 3 miles later I found the sun. I'm just the nerdy kind of guy that would think that was a good idea.

The trail took me to Baltimore/Washington International Airport where there's another trail going around the perimeter. Blatantly I have to take the long route round adding 10 miles to me journey, but was nice. And once off the trail, I got properly lost. I think I've found somewhere with worse traffic signposting than Warrington. Had to ask several people for directions and was still lost until I was on the far side of the harbour and could see Baltimore clearly. I tried a couple of students for a sofa but got nowhere so went to find the hostel. $30 a night - done! When I woke up, with a bit more to see in Baltimore, crappy weather and several aches and pains I thought it'd be an idea to stick in Baltimore for a whole day and get an extra night in the hostel.

American Visionary Art Museum

Baltimore is home to the National Aquarium. I always seem to end up in aquariums or zoos for some reason (maybe because I like them) so why stop now? Met a guy from the hostel (Dev) in there and so we stuck together for the next adventure - American Visionary Art Museum. Some crazy things in there - some visionary, some just bad. Particular highlights were a sphere made from 18000 bras and a multiple ping-pong ball run made of matchsticks depicting numerous iconic scenes of San Francisco. Final trip was to Walters Art Museum before relaxing with me Kindle for the evening.

I've made a couple of updates to the progress page and feel as though I need to clarify the injuries received so far. The first was getting scratched by a kitten using my head as a springboard across a sofa. The second was cutting my finger slightly while trying to get keys out of me over-packed bag.

Marks... Set....

Listening to: Bach

Classic ship in Annapolis harbor

Writing this post, I'm sat on a college campus in blistering sunshine and a not too shabby 27 degC. Left Washington DC around 7 this morning on the first day of actual travelling. Either the saddle or me arse need to be broken in because it was agony. But, 1 day travelling down, 2 State capitals done: Washington DC and Annapolis MD. Straight forward route along some pretty major roads, hugging the edge or making use of the extensive hard shoulder all the way. For anyone repeating the journey, just head East out of DC and when you get to a small coastal town called Mayo, you've gone too far. Lovely place though.

There are several patterns along the way which seem fairly typical for America. Coming out of DC there were several 7Elevens, then there were garages everywhere, then you get to your idyllic residential communities (have a look at the theme from Weeds if you need a better idea of what I'm on about). I also saw a massive evangelic cathedral at a place called Camelot, and hopefully not an omen, a flock of vultures picking on a deer. Saw me first possum too.

Home for the evening

Made it into Annapolis around half 11. Annapolis is a small harbor town and home to the US Naval Academy. The visitors center was incredibly helpful and all jumped into action to try and help me find somewhere hostel cheap to stay. Mentioned couchsurfing and they pointed me towards the college campus and told me just to ask some people. Went down, and saw a group of guys playing croquet. No luck with them, but they pointed us up to the quad where I met Peter who had a spare couch, and even a spare bed. Destination reached by half 11, bed found by 12. Couldn't have asked for better.

Some wisdom for today from Peter...

A bagel is nothing if it's not made with danger.

Successful Day in DC

Drinking: crate of Magic Hat Brewing Company, Summer Scene.

My beautiful new bike

Been a busy day today, and best start off with perhaps the most important of the whole trip. This morning I bought a bike. Before flying out, I did have ideas of getting something with a basket and tassels off the handlebars, or even a tandem with a sex doll to go on the back and keep me company during the lonely nights. But, thankfully no doubt, sense has prevailed and I've got meself some roadbike that will hopefully go the distance. Thanks to the guys at Bicycle Space in Washington DC for their help, advice, encouragement and of course their bike. And just to reassure my Mum, that is a pretty beefy helmet on the pedal.

The guys at Bicycle Space

Ben's Chilli Bowl

Lunch was at what would seem to be a Washington institution, Bens Chili Bowl, for their infamous Chili Smoke. We even sat at the table used by Obama when he visited, right underneath their 'shrine' to him, and next to a particularly unflattering picture of Nicolas Sarkozy and Carla Bruni (that guy is really short when he isn't stood on his platform). Well worth the visit - amazing chili dog.

Warning - morris dancers in this picture!

Final activities were a trip round the Newseum which is just incredible. Very emotional in places, and easily one of the best museums I've been to. Highly recommended for anyone in DC. After that it was time to try out my new bike with a slow trip around the National Mall. Think perhaps the most disturbing image of the day was at the steps of the Capitol. A sight to strike fear into the heart of any Englishman - morris dancers. You travel however many thousand miles to experience a different culture and leave behind your own only to be confronted with that.

Also, had a brilliant heckle today. I'm sure that anyone who knows us wouldn't be surprised to learn that I was wearing my Superman hoodie. On my way back to Mark's flat I encountered a black guy with the following wisdom...

You ain't Superman! Superman was a black man.

Made It!

Drinking: Samuel Adams Black Lager

As seems befitting, my journey started off with confusion and things going slightly wrong. The ticket machine failed and I came relatively close to not being able to get a ticket to the airport. At the airport I needed the predictably longest line full of school kids on a Geography field trip to Iceland. At least I escaped the rub-down and swabs for explosive materials this time.

Sat down with way more leg-room than is usual for cattle class. Thought that the arm-rest was a little odd, but it just turned out to be a hold on the emergency exit. 3 hours to Reykjavik went pretty well, but the airport is a little sparse of information with a trip past passport control, only to be told I needed to go back through passport control.

On the plane there were plenty of adverts for Iceland telling us that the most amazing thing about Iceland isn’t the glaciers, or the geysers, or springs, or the fjords. Oh no! It’s the fact that the national dish is cured shark, and that at New Years they send up 600 tons of fireworks, and that every year they have an entire 10 bands trying to make it big. Personally, I’m sold, and so with no need to go see any of the interesting stuff I can consider Iceland as a country I have visited and seen everything worthwhile, all from the discomfort of Kerflavik airport.

Second plane was much like the first: tons of leg-room, an emergency exit, no entertainment system and no food. Only this one was longer than the first. At customs, the queues were as fast moving as you may expect, except mine which was even slower. I did however see that oh so rare sight of a smiling immigrations officer. Carry on to get my bag, go to hand in the form they give you and “you need to be over that way, Sir”. Turns out that the smiling immigration officials were just to lull me into a false sense of security. Fill in the form, hand over the passport, sit down and wait to be called. And wait some more. Speak to one guy and get the usual questions: “What are you doing over here?”, “How much money have you brought”, “When are you leaving?” – all the usual questions designed to make one feel welcome in the land of the free and founded by immigrants. For some reason, they just don’t seem to like my story of coming over to travel for 5 months with nothing but a small rucksack of stuff. I spoke to probably 4 people including “Supervisor Cullhan” who all took great delight in going through all my things, item by item, including a card written to me by Annie that I hadn’t read as I’d been forbidden to do so before leaving. Eventually though, STAMP, STAMP, STAMP, free to go!

Everybody... awwwwwwwwwwww

For the first couple of days I’m staying with a friend from Uni and his wife, Mark and Lauren. Arrived at their’s at about half 9 (after landing at 7) which was about half 2 AM for me. A couple of beers and a bit of food really helped, especially the beers. Mark and Lauren foster kittens so there are 4 kittens currently running round all over the place trying to catch the static sparks on the back of the sofa I’m sleeping on. Today’s plan is to try and get a bike, a phone and drunk.

The Weigh-In & Race

Only the essentials

Tomorrow I leave behind my family as I travel south before flying out of Heathrow on Thursday. I've spent the last couple of days packing and re-packing everything I'll need over the next few months to try and make it fit into my rucksack. With a rucksack that's only 25 litres there's a scarily small amount of stuff I can take.

Somehow, that pile in the picture manages (just about) to fit into the rucksack. Total weight is 9 kg which is about on target, and with added water will reach 11 kg.

For a comparison, before and after, I weighed myself to be 81 kg; largely thanks to driving everywhere, less visits to the gym and numerous and frequent visits to the Sainsbury's sweets isle. Just as I was coming to terms with having a 32 inch waist, a fitting for the suit for me mate's wedding determined that I needed 34 inch waist. I'm hoping for these numbers to have reduced by the time I get back, but we shall see.

The finish line

It was my last day with my family, and it was also my last day in Lymm. Every Easter Monday is the Lymm Duck Race, and I went along for the first time in years. I bought 3 streamlined, highly trained racing ducks and took up position at the finish line to watch my victory. Congratulations to whoever won (ducks 308, 993 and 127), because it wasn't me. Maybe next year.

I Do

Groom and Best Men (L-R: Jon, Me, Mike, Bennett)

Reading: The Owl & The Pussycat by Edward Lear

One of my final duties before I depart was to act as a best man (one of three) for my best mate. On Thursday 5th April, Mike and Vicks Boden (née Fielden) were married at Rookery Hall.

Absolutely stunning night. Vast quantities of alcohol were consumed and there was plenty of 'dancing' done by everyone. Really good to see the groom's father really embrace the 'tie-round-the-head' look. Not a single bad thing occurred, other than the dubious dancing and the 'Come Dine With Me' film crew asking the groom to be quiet for a few minutes before the ceremony.

In the morning at breakfast, there was a disturbing absence of Mr Bennett. Couple of phone calls and we eventually got hold of him (paraphrased a little here)...

Mr B: Yeah, I'm fine. Slept in a cupboard though.

Me: Oh, really?

Mr B: Well, I think it was a wardrobe to be fair.

Me: So you made it up to your room, saw your massive and very comfy bed, and thought 'nah, that's not for me, the wardrobe - that's where I want to sleep'?

Mr B: Must have done, because that's where I woke up.

Me: Alright. 

Mr B: At least I took the ironing board out the wardrobe first.

Me: Jolly good.

Mr B: I'll be down soon, I've just got some tidying up to do.

Me:  Tidying up?!? Hold on. Your track record for getting drunk and then needing to tidy up isn't the best. What are you tidying up, and again, with that in mind, why did you sleep in a wardrobe rather than your bed?

Nobody's entirely sure how Mr B's bar tab came to be over £200 either, but it perhaps does help explain the wardrobe.

Congratulations to Mike and Vicks, and my thanks to Jon and Bennett (best men), Ashley, Charlotte and Andy (bridesmaids, near enough), Pauline (bride's Mum), Stephen and Linda (groom's parents) and the staff at Rookery Hall (with a special mention to Jane) for all their help and organisation in making it an incredible evening.