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