June 8 Berwick

We had a nice start with a “real hotel breakfast”, our first on the tip.  Hotel waffles are good when they are the only alternative.  We saw several deer as our ride began and enjoyed the cool temperatures that we knew would soon evaporate.  Actually, with the high humidity, nothing evaporated today.  In West Pittston, Joe came to an abrupt stop and pointed franticly at a shopping center sign “Insalaco Shopping Center”.  Joe said that when his family immigrated to the United States they first settled in this area.  He believes that it is likely that some of his distant relatives are still here.

For several days, Joe has been concerned with his rear hub bearings making noise.  We stopped at a bike shop in Wilkes-Barre where Rich, the owner of Around Town Bikes, stopped his project and replaced Joe’s bearings.  Before leaving, we decided to fill our bike tires using the shop’s floor pump.  Jeff’s Presta valve broke off and Rich graciously put a new tube in his front wheel.  Does this count as Jeff’s first flat?

Today was all about the 3 H’es—Heat, Humidity, and Hills.  When we got within 10 miles of our lodging in Berwick we had a choice of continuing on the rolling terrain of the country roads or cross the river and cycle on the highway. We were worn out with the 3 H’es so we opted for the highway and enjoyed a tail wind.  However, we still talked about how great it would be to have some ice cream to cool off.  About 5 miles later we came to a country store that advertised hand dipped ice cream.  Joe got 3 scoops and Jeff got 2 scoops.  The scoops were very large. Joe ate his 3 but Jeff could only finish 1 scoop.  It was amazing how 4 large scoops of ice cream made Joe fly down the highway to our lodging.

Today's Pictures

Today Map

Map - Total Trip to date - 416  Miles (up to Berwick, PA)

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