Chicago to NYC – Day 23

Friday, October 18, 2019

Start: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
End: Point Pleasant, New Jersey
Mileage/cumulative: 74 / 1,149
Elevation Ascended/cumulative: 1,266′ / 27,651′
Weather: Sunny, 37º at start; sunny, 60º at finish; Winds: tailwinds!
Flat tires (entire group) day/cumulative: 2 / 11

After a much needed rest day in Philadelphia, our band of slightly off-centered cyclists bundled up in the cold and headed toward the Atlantic Ocean. Our route began by taking us through downtown streets, onto the Ben Franklin Bridge, and over the Delaware River. I’m not crazy about cycling over bridges and this one was no exception. I don’t look down, I don’t look over the side, and I definitely hope nobody’s coming the other way. Bev told me that the view looking back at the Philadelphia skyline was spectacular but I had to just take her word for it.

Somewhere midway across the bridge we entered New Jersey, the 29th state on our States Biked map. Entering New Jersey in Camden didn’t leave a good first impression of the “Garden State”, so we just kept on moving. The scenery temporarily improved in Cherry Hill, but at the 25 mile mark we got on NJ Route 70, a noisy, busy, and mostly ugly road. We were stuck on it for 40 miles through central New Jersey, nearly all of the way to the Atlantic. Most of the group agreed that this was one of the worst stretches of the entire trip and we only stopped on it long enough for a bathroom break at the Lakehurst Police Department. In the 1930s Lakehurst was the center of airship development in the United States and housed three of the U.S. Navy’s four rigid airships (often commonly called Zeppelins). Unfortunately for Lakehurst, they are most famous for the 1937 Hindenburg airship disaster, when it caught fire and was destroyed while attempting to dock to its mooring mast at the Lakehurst Naval Air Station. It resulted in 36 fatalities and marked the end of the airship era. Oddly, the police department emblem includes an airship and proudly describes the city as an “Airship Capital”. I’m glad that I don’t live in a city that has the Hindenburg as its biggest source of civic pride.

Spirits improved when we got to the shore and rode up Ocean Avenue to Point Pleasant Beach, passing through quiet beach towns along the way. Late-October is offseason at the Jersey Shore; nevertheless we had one of the best group dinners of the entire trip that night at Charlie’s of Bay Head. There was much to celebrate, including surviving New Jersey and preparing for our final day going into New York City.