I am posting early today as I hope I am too tired from too much fun later to be capable of writing a post. I am having drinks/dinner with 2 special friends and I intend to enjoy the evening.
I spent about an hour on computer searching for affordable ways to park my car until Sunday.. I was communicating with another friend about plans for tomorrow night and shared my frustration. She has guest passes for street parking so the car does not have to be moved, but there are for Zone 5 which is a mile and a half away. So first thing the morning I drove to Society Hill and we went looking for Zone 5 parking space. It took about 15 minutes but we found one. I was failed at parallel parking under pressure so my friend ended up parking the car while a city bus had to wait. I will have to go change out the guest pass early tomorrow morning. Tomorrow night I may bring the car to this neighborhood because there is not 2 hour parking restrictions on Sunday. Hopefully I will be able to find a place not too far to facilitate loading the car for departure on Sunday.
Once car was parked, I took Lyfr for the first time since Feb 2020. Fortunately I had a friendly driver who was able to drive through the entire pandemic without getting Covid. He said he never had any problems with passengers not wanting to wear masks – even at the beginning.
It was a gorgeous day for biking here. I took off in search of the Schuylkill River Trail which is 2 blocks away on the map. Trail access as a pedestrian is much easier than trail access with a bicycle. I asked a couple of people before I got usable directions. I enter on the South Street ramp which was easy, but about a half-mile into the easy ride, there was construction blocking the trail with limited detour lineage. I was able to find a ramp to get off of the trail, but it was not clear how much was blocked off and where I could get back on. I rode around and asked a few people and eventually found a way that had bicycle access without stairs.
The trail was nice and there was a fair amount of walkers on the city portion but it thinned our pretty quickly once I got to the Philadelphia Art Museum and Boat House Row. I commuted along this route for 5 years and thought it would be great to cycle along it. 19 years later, I did it. The Stonesbury Regatta was getting set up as I rode away from the city and in full swing when I rode back in.
After negotiating the trail being occupied by many, many young people warming up for the regatta, I found myself on the streets of Manayunk for about a mile. The drivers seemed to be used to sharing the road with cyclists and I didn’t feel unsafe. After Manayunk streets came a canal towpath – much of which was not paved but was hard packed and easy riding. Along the towpath, I spotted a mother goose and her baby geese walking along. Another cyclist coming from he other direction had stopped to watch when a lawnmower came along and they all disappeared into the bush. Bad timing. They were very cute. The towpath was followed by paved trail with almost no pedestrians or cyclists that went on for miles and miles. I rode out a total of 16 miles and turned around. It was an uneventful ride back. When I got back to the access point for the trail in the City, I was confused because there was a closed gate that I didn’t notice earlier. Suddenly a very long train came by on the tracks on the other side of the gate. No one is going to accidentally get run over by a train here.
I negotiated the streets back to my room with less difficulties than earlier in the day. I think Philadelphia had done a good job making an old city as bicycle accessible and safe as is reasonable and I thought the drivers were respectful to cyclists. I will validate this observation tomorrow when I do more street riding around the city. I rode 31.5 miles. I am content with that.
Tamara Unleashed 