Day Six -- Easton, PA to Pottstown, PA

The Delaware River was good to us yesterday, so we continued along it for a while this morning along dinky little roads (the best kind for bicycling!) that ran right alongside the river and were usually called (appropriately) River Road. For a good long while, I was in a stretch between other riders, and more or less by myself. One of the joys of this trip is the chance to ride with others, but it was pleasant to spin along with just myself and the river for a while.

We eventually left the river and climbed out of the Delaware River valley into the surrounding Pennsylvania countryside. Most of the day was spent rolling through farmland and some country estates. As we have traveled south, the dense New England forests have given way to more open woodlands and farms.

While the group today was broken up into smaller groups, many of us were fairly close together, and we had just about the entire group at our second SAG (rest) stop in an open park about 45 miles into the ride. The wife of one of our riders (Andrew Stroukoff) joined us for dinner last night and brought chocolate bundt cake and chocolate chip cookies, which we broke out at this SAG stop. I think we stayed here longer than most stops. . . .

Shortly after this stop we rolled into Skippack, PA, a small town with a good collection of little restaurants, and several of us stopped at "Butterflies" cafe for what has become the almost obligatory chicken wrap and smoothie lunch. The proprietor was thrilled to have us, as she has been struggling in this economy since she opened in July.

A line of thunderstorms made the final run of 20 miles into Pottstown a little exciting. The sky grew quite dark and a strong cool wind whipped us around for a while. There were strong thunderstorms and hail in the area, but we escaped with just enough rain to get us thoroughly wet. Just as the first few drops began to fall, Chris and I were passing a peach orchard selling peaches out of the barn, and we ducked in in case we needed to get off the road. After about five minutes, we decided to press on, but stopped long enough to enjoy some freshly picked, sweet, ripe and juicy peaches.

Here's today's route: 70.6 miles, 1837 feet of climbing.