Day 3: 70 Miles

Hoboken, NJ to Newton, NJ

Today started off behind schedule from the moment I woke up. Perhaps hosting a party the night before I left was not the best idea. I had a great time seeing everyone one least time before I headed out, but I didn’t get to sleep until 3:30am. That left me with less than 5 hours of sleep for the day ahead. Before I could hit the road I still had 1 more load of things to move into storage. After taking care of that and eating some food it was noon before I knew it.

I did finally get on the road right around noon and felt pretty good to start. My bike is very heavy with everything loaded on it, but I was still averaging 15 to 16 mph as I went north from Hoboken following the Hudson river.

I ran into my first obstacle of the day about 12 miles into the ride. When I mapped the route out I did not realize that a .5 mile stretch of road was through a fortress of a gated community. This road was the only way to avoid riding on a highway, which would have been fairly unsafe and probably illegal. At first it didn’t seem like I was going to be able to go through, which would have cost me 6 miles in backtracking, but after some time I was able to talk the guy at the gate into letting me through.

The towns surrounding Hoboken are densely populated with lots of traffic and traffic lights. This makes is very hard to build any riding momentum. Any momentum I did have was quickly stopped with my first encounter with the police on this trip. I was riding along minding my own business when a cop pulls up behind me and starts flashing her lights. She pulled up beside me and told me to pull over. At this point I was very confused. After I finally came to a stop, the cop explained that she had gotten a call that a cyclist had crashed into a car and fled the scene. I asked her if she had a description of the bike, because I’m sure someone would have described all the gear hanging onto my bike. After a few minutes, she let me continue on my way.

I left the densely populated area through a 10-mile bike path that got me away from all the cars on the roads. At this point I felt I could put a headphone in 1 ear and listen to some music given there was no traffic to pay attention to. Once I exited the bike path my day went downhill quickly, due to 30 straight miles of uphill in the rain. The only way I got through it was to treat myself each time I conquered a tough stretch. My first stop was at a gas station where I got a Gatorade and a package of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. Another 15 miles passed and with the rain getting harder I found a dairy queen to hide out in and eat a blizzard. By the time I reached my destination it had been 8 hours since I left Hoboken. I treated myself one more time to half of a large pizza. It was cheaper to buy a whole pie than the 4 slices I knew I’d be eating. Tomorrow brings the promise of free waffles in the hotel lobby and hopefully better weather to continue this trip.