Washington Crossing, PA to North Brunswick, NJ -- 30 miles

We woke at 7:15 am, and got ready for our last day of biking. Lenny and Evan drove down to the Park & Ride lot to see if anyone else had showed up to bike with us. They came back, and we left our house at 9 am. We stopped in Princeton and saw Charley Mauser inside a church where we were using the restroom. Charlie is the husband of one of Lenny's patients. Today was the first time that Lenny told Lorraine to pedal slower, so that we would not arrive at the Berkowitz's home too soon. We stopped at Amish market to waste some time. 

When we reached Lenny's office, there were balloons and friends there to greet us - Bill, Deb, Billy and Richard Goodheart, as well as Michele Russo (Lenny's C.A.), Dr. Krystine Biesaga (who covered Lenny's office while he was gone), and Dr. Annie Grimaldi. We felt very welcome! We chatted with them for awhile, then left to bike the last 5 miles to Bob's house. As we turned the corner onto the Berkowitz's drive, everyone was gathered on the lawn and cheered! Lenny said the cheering made him feel so excited and proud, but not quite deserving of all this acknowledgement. Many photographs were taken of Lenny and Lorraine with different groups of people.

Bob then gave Lenny a heart-warming introduction. Lenny acknowledged people from the college, the Berkowitz's, all the supporters and Lorraine for completing the journey despite all the obstacles. He told everyone about our journey and then answered questions. He said the lessons of this trip were (1) Living simply clearly distinguishes what is essential and what is luxury. It also points out how wealthy we are beyond the basics of life. (2) Service was another theme that kept coming up. There is no way we could have completed this trip without the service of hundred of others. It brings into focus the fact that service is the cause and foundation of civilization. He then asked people to pledge to the scholarship fund, and gave the following reasons: (1) We have completed 5000 miles for this cause. (2) We all have great abundance beyond our needs. (3) To honor Dr. Berkowitz for all he has contributed to this profession. (4) This scholarship will continue to serve others long after our lives have come to an end. 

After the talk a number of people, including Dr. Thom Gelardi (the founder of Sherman College) and Kathy Berkowitz, said that they were inspired by the talk. He said he wished that the students, faculty and administrators could have heard the talk to see what inspiring and committed members of the board of trustees we have at Sherman College. We were then treated to a delicious buffet luncheon. Jerry Hardee, President of Sherman College, awarded us an engraved plaque and engraved watches for our contribution. We really enjoyed talking to everyone! Annie Grimaldi offered to bring our bikes back to the house in her van and we gratefully accepted. Lorraine's parents gave us a ride back in their car. It was a wonderful journey but we sure were glad to be heading home!

Second day at home!

We woke at 8 am. Lorraine did laundry, while Lenny worked on his speech for Saturday. Lorraine tried on all her old clothes that fit again, now that she's lost 10 pounds! Lenny spoke to Evan Fiedler on the phone, who would be riding with us tomorrow. He would be driving up from Virginia after office hours and arrive in Pennsylvania late tonight. Since we don't have a doorbell, we told him to call us from his cellphone when he was just outside our door. Lorraine cooked pasta & spinach for lunch, and we enjoyed puttering around at home. We had salmon, mashed potatoes, and broccoli for dinner, then watched a dumb movie on video. Evan called us at 2 am and Lenny let him in the house.

First day at home!

We woke at 8 am, with no particular place to go for a change! Lenny called his dad to let him know that we were home safely. It was wonderful to be in our own house, and we felt so appreciative of what we had. After living so simply for 14 weeks, it was wonderful to have luxuries such as a bathrobe and a car to run errands. Our home never looked so beautiful to us. We felt very blessed. We sat down and made our "to-do" list for the day. Lenny filled up Lorraine's car tires with air, then we drove to Princeton, along the bike route for Saturday. Lenny got a haircut, but did not shave his beard yet. We went grocery shopping and rented videos. We drove to Lorraine's parents house to visit them and pick up our mail. Her mom was relieved to see them both! We got a bite to eat with them, and got home by 8 pm. We were in bed by 9:30 pm.

French Creek State Park to Washington Crossing, Pennsylvania -- 68 miles

We woke at 6:00 am, and began riding at 7:15 am. We navigated out of the park and back to the bike route. In the town of St. Peters, we stopped to call Lenny's friend and fellow chiropractor Heather Freeman, who lives and works in Phoenixville. Lorraine wanted Lenny to call at 7:00 am, before we left the campground, but Lenny waited until 8 am to call because he knew that Heather is not a morning person. When she answered, she said she would be in the office at 10 am, and we said we would stop by when we arrived in town. 

The first road we turned on was very busy with commuter traffic, school buses, and "oversize load" trucks carrying barns and modular homes. When we got off this road, we biked along steep, winding, wooded roads until we reached Phoenixville. We arrived just at 10 am, and greeted Heather, her sister Adele, and Adele's 2-year-old daughter Fiona. They had gotten coffee and bagels from Dunkin' Donuts, and we visited for over 2 hours at the office. Heather introduced us like celebrities to her patients! 

We still had about 45 miles to go, so we left at 12:30 pm to continue biking. We rode into Valley Forge Park and picked up a bike path, which took us across the Schuykill River to Norristown. In the park, we saw a deer about 4 feet from us, who was guarding her 2 babies. From this point, there is no direct west-to-east route, so we zig-zagged along the smaller roads, turning every couple of miles. We picked up Forest Grove Road about 15 miles from home - part of a familiar route that we take to get to Doylestown. Lorraine was motivated to pedal faster, to get home sooner! 

When we turned onto a side street just a few blocks from our house, it felt like we had just been out riding for the day! We pulled into our driveway at 6:45 pm and took photos of our arrival. When we went into the house, it was like being let into a brand-new home! Lorraine called her parents, and we got pizza for dinner. We stayed up late, sorting through junk mail and relaxing in our own bed.

Marietta, Pennsylvania to French Creek State Park -- 56 miles

We woke at 6:30 am, and began biking at 7:30 am. We started the day riding in commuter traffic but it thinned out soon enough. We rode past the beautiful farms of Lancaster County - the hills were much more gentle today than they were yesterday. Lenny took a lot of pictures of the scenery. We stopped to look at headstones from the 1700's and 1800's at a small family cemetery - the Brubachers. The headstones were all written in German.

We stopped at the chiropractic office of Mary Jane Horton in Manheim - we were pleasantly surprised to find that she was a Sherman College graduate, and had read about our trip in "Straight from Sherman"! Lenny chatted with an Amish woman named Foly Eberle in the town of Stevens, and told her about our trip. She said she has seen lots of bikers go by and wondered where they came from and where they were headed. She said the furthest she has traveled from home was about 100 miles to visit a pen pal in Maryland. She said people who travel have a special talent; Lenny said we all have our gifts, and she agreed. 

We stopped in Bowmansville to have lunch at a pub/restaurant - the first place on our trip that has charged for each refill of iced tea. We spent $5.00 on tea! We thought about riding to Phoenixville (65 miles), but didn't want to get caught in the evening rush hour traffic, so we decided to camp at French Creek State Park instead. We bought fruit at a roadside stand, and wanted to talk with the woman for a few minutes, but we heard heavy thunder nearby and had to hurry to get to the park. The rain started to downpour just as we pulled into a covered area by the park office. 

We noticed that they also had cabins, so Lenny went to ask about availability. He put on his raincoat and walked around to the offices. There was a woman behind the counter who Lenny spoke to. She said, "You want to roll in at this late hour and get yourself a cabin? This isn't a motel, you know!" Lenny was amazed at the nasty and sarcastic tone coming from this public servant! She said wait a minute and got a ranger who was so agitated, presumably by Lenny's presence, that his eyes looked like they were about to pop out of their sockets. He said in a tone that matched his face that they were closing up and we would have to go to the camping area to find out about a cabin - another mile through the park. 

Lenny got on his bike and rode up there, through the rain and over one of the steeper hills of the entire trip. Lorraine followed when it stopped raining, about 10 minutes later. When Lenny arrived at the checkpoint-type building, there was no one there. A woman walked up to him with a cordless phone and said, "That would be me you're looking for." Lenny asked her about cabins while she was on a personal call. She informed him that they had plenty of availability, but there was a two-day minimum. Lenny said that the ranger who sent him out into the rain never mentioned a two-day minimum. She proceeded to ask him who he spoke to and called another ranger over to her building to speak to him about the situation. The ranger didn't add anything, he just repeated that there was a two-day minimum. Then she cut in and said, "You don't want to camp?" Lenny said no, and thought, "Would you want to set up camp in the pouring rain?" but decided to hold his tongue. 

When Lorraine arrived, this woman was telling Lenny that she couldn't do 1-night without her manager's authorization, the manager wasn't available until 8 am tomorrow, and she would not bend the rules and risk getting herself in trouble over this. Ironically, the worst service we received on the entire trip was in our home state of Pennsylvania. The workers at this park were the most snotty, unhelpful, and hostile people we encountered on the entire trip. We ended up camping, and got our tent set up just before it started raining again. It poured for the rest of the evening. We snacked on fruit, Fritos, and cookies in our tent.

Delta, Pennsylvania to Marietta, Pennsylvania -- 36 miles

 

We woke at 6:30 am and got ready to leave. The fog was so thick, we couldn't see across the parking lot, so we had to wait 2 hours for it to clear. Lorraine watched dumb shows on TV, while Lenny worked on his speech for the party on Saturday. When the sun came out, the mist cleared, and we started biking at 9:45 am. The route was very hilly - twice, we rolled down into the Susquehanna River valley and climbed the steep hills up and out. The hills were among the steepest climbs we experienced anywhere in our trek. 

We stopped at the Otter Creek campground & store to buy snacks and eat lunch. Because it was Labor Day, there were a lot of people boating, camping, and picnicking down by the water. We called the motels listed on the map to find out their rates, and were only able to get in touch with one, in Marietta. We crossed the Susquehanna River at Wrightsville, biking over the long bridge into Columbia. We reached the Blue Note Motel at 3:30 pm and checked in, then walked down the road to buy groceries and have dinner at Marco's Restaurant. Lorraine had raviolis and Lenny had chicken parmesan. Lorraine stayed up late, then fell asleep watching a movie about Judy Garland on the "Lifetime" TV channel.

Gaithersburg, Maryland to Delta, Pennsylvania -- 88 miles

We woke at 6 am and got out on the road at 6:55 am. The highway we were forced to ride with lots of traffic last night was virtually empty at this early hour. The terrain was rolling and alternated between fields and forest. At one intersection, we tried to flag down a car to check our directions. The woman in the passenger seat just waved at us and gave us the thumbs up. Fortunately, there was a man mowing his lawn who confirmed our route. 

We stopped in Ward's Chapel at a convenience store to get a drink and have lunch. We ran into Donna Stewart and her son Abdi Farah, the roller-bladers we had met in DC! She said she would like to do something like we are doing some day, so we gave her our brochure. We all marveled that we ran into one another again, especially being so far from where we had met.

Lorraine was getting tired, so we checked at a gas station in Reistertown to see if there was a motel but there was none to be had. We stopped at Jarrettsville to get drinks. We crossed into Pennsylvania and took photos. In Delta, we stayed at the Peach Bottom Inn, and had dinner at the restaurant there.

Springfield, Virginia to Gaithersburg, Maryland -- 57 miles

We woke at 5:30 am to the sound of Neil's train alarm clock. He had Pete tell us to shut it off right away, which we were sure to do. We started to bring down our equipment to pack up our bikes when Amy and Pete woke to see us off. While we had breakfast, Amy packed some fruit and candy bars for us, which Lorraine gratefully accepted. Ed and his son Eddie came over with their bikes - we said goodbye, took photos, and got started at 6:45 am. 

We biked out of the neighborhood and followed a dirt bike path around Lake Accotink Park. Fortunately, because it was Saturday, the roads were less crowded. Ed and Eddie led us along the local roads, through "Old Town" Alexandria (shops and restaurants along the Potomac River), and out to the Mount Vernon Bike Path. We thanked them and said goodbye, as Ed called his wife to come pick them up. 

There were lots of bikers and joggers along the path, so we had to be careful and go slowly. We soon crossed Memorial Bridge into DC, and picked up the Rock Creek Bike Path. At first, we were heading the wrong way and stopped a roller-blader to ask directions. Donna Stewart said if we turned around that we would be heading in the right direction. She asked where we were going. When we told her "cross-country", she wanted to take our picture! We decided to stay on the bike path all the way to Gaithersburg, rather than following the Adventure Cycling route, which would put us on back on busy roads. We ate our lunch at a picnic table in a park. Lorraine was feeling very homesick today. 

We were able to ride on Beach Road for a few miles, since the road is closed to cars on Saturday and Sunday. We stopped at the park police station to ask about the path ahead, and spoke to Sergeant Scott Fear and Officer Craig Lane. They asked us about our trip, and offered to fill our water bottles with fresh cold water! They were all very friendly and supportive. They told us that motorists complain that beach road is closed off on the weekends. He said it is a source of great controversy. Some want it closed 7 days a week and others don't want it closed at all. The traffic on the bike path decreased as we got further away from DC, although the path itself became more twisty and hilly. We crossed into Maryland, but there was no "Welcome to Maryland" sign. We called a couple motels to find out their rates and directions, then navigated our way from the Maryland state map once we got off the bike path. We stayed at the Red Roof Inn and had dinner at Denny's.