Harrisburg to Philly

Harrisburg to Denver, PA

Not much to speak of.. but whenever I say that I'm here an hour later still typing for Britain.

• 6.45 at the van, no keys
• Probably a bit too much
• Breakfast
• Well kinda 2 breakfasts really
• Short ride for the day, only 52 miles or so.  Not as hot as the last few days, not quite as scenic, unless you count Three Mile Island.
• Stopped for a nice milkshake after about 20 miles or so.
• Got to Econo-lodge Denver at around 1, bonza.  Loads of free time.
• Attempted to fix my broken spoke - yeah broken spoke, why must it be always spokes and chains with me, why not just a little puncture repair.  Though there has been a bit of that.
• Can't fix the spoke without a new nipple so will have to wait til tomorrow in Philly
• Did my laundry
• went for lunch
• sat around
• spoke to home base, which was very nice
• getting excited about Everything: Philly, NY, Bristol, Home.

An amazing meal with limited numbers,
Getting close to the end so researching NY bars.  Must have a final bash somewhere

Denver to Philly

Of course This has been my earworm all day... well the first few lines anyway
There were pretty severe (or from my point of view, amusing) navigational issues from the off, travelling along in pretty heavy fog.  Meandering along busy highways and quiet rural roads.  My tunes were set to 'Philly Sound' as over dinner last night I found out that Grant was oblivious to the Philly sound.




More lovely rural roads, no big hills, but some fine views and well maintained farmsteads
Stopped off after 30 miles in St Peter for a coffee and peanut butter brownie.
Carried on in convoy, a until the head of The Schuylkill River Trail into town.
Luckily for me we came in past the Philadelphia museum of art, and 'the Rocky Steps'.  OK yes i'm a bit of a philistine for just running up, getting a picture of me with my bike and completely neglecting to appreciate anything in the way of art beyond the terrible Rocky statue.  But it had to be on the must do list for someone with a love of popular culture and a nickname of Rocky for various vague reasons.





We made the rest of the way into town and eventually found the motel on Walnut street.  Relatively early, but there was lots for me to do as my spokes is gone, the cleat fell off one of my knackered shoes and the chainset doesn't have much life left in it either!




But being a bit over-excited over-tired and over-heated i ended up just faffing about until a few of us left to join the Urban Geek drinks somewhere up north.  We grabbed a couple of cabs as the skies opened, proper cats & Dog.  We were early to the bar, and with a couple of drinks in started to meet some Urban Geeks.  I met a couple of chaps variously involved in ways to engage people in local planning issues and city building which are particular interests of mine, so some more links to follow up when the dust settles in a week or two.  I was also busy gaining some valuable local knowledge from like minded locals but had to shoot to dinner quite soon.




We rode the el train back, which was cool, because I've seen it in films and everything.  Made it to dinner which was laid on very generously by local architects George Skarmeas and Dominique Hawkins.  A good meal, made all the better by being able to pick Dominique's brains about local knowledge.  As a proud Philly native and someone who has great knowledge of cities her info and general chat was very appreciated indeed.




After dinner there may have been a few more drinks in the Gaybourhood.  Another sign of being back in metropolitan areas.  Through this trip I'm realising more and more how much I like living in cities.  Yes I'm a white middle class hetrosexual man as vanilla as they come for all intense purposes.  Guardian reading sandal wearer with aspirations of fixing the world and no real knowledge of any serious hardship or experience of being ill treated for my race or background (unless you count being the only Englishman working in an Irish bar in Australia during the ashes of '06!, which we shouldn't really now should we) but as much as I'm not any kind of minority in the world I live in it's nice and reassuring to be in a city with difference and tolerance around.




I was a little late to rise in the morning, missing breakfast but joined a few of the guys out to the Peoples Emergency Centre in West Philly.  Another insight to some interesting projects aimed at rejuvenating deprived areas and trying to engage people in their places.  Saw an old vaudeville theatre with an installation in about the cult of Pythagorus or something like that.  Really quite fun, and in a great derelict space.  In fact the whole area had that kind of run down urban feel that looks like a well lived area ripe for gentrification, though that only means that in an area where 1 in 3 people live in poverty, they'll only get displaced so it sounded interesting that the kinds of projects that were being talked about for the Lancaster Avenue area were more about engaging the people living there and improving their opportunities rather than making a buck or two for developers.



I had unfortunately broken the important rule of an urban researcher in the digital era and neglected to bring any photographic recording device

• Parklets
• Make your Mark
• Hot & Sweaty
• Ride back to the Van
• Breakaway bike shop to replace shoes and spoke
• Rejoin the gang outside civic offices with the baton
• Bit of a ride around town with no particular purpose with a spare wheel slung across my back
• hot
• humid
• Return to the van (which by the way was not in a particularly convenient location)
• Turns out that, yes, I had left the van locked.
• Soda
• Off to the Reading Market
• Italian Hoagie (Hoagie being another Philly related thing that has links to old nicknames of mine)
• Back for a rest
• Massive storm again just as I was heading out
• little bit of a touristy photo walk
• back for dinner.

So in summary Philly, well I really need more time.  A very dense city with a strong identity.  The home of Independence, and National Treasure.
I have had a few good chats, more related to wider planning issues than cycling itself, which is quite nice actually, and helping form a stronger idea, or at least remembering the aspects that drew me to studying planning and cites in the first place.




In terms of cycling in Philly I think any issues are very different to those of many of the other cities we visited. It's more akin to British cities with it's older smaller streets.  Cycling seems to be growing, as it is in many places from more personal drivers such as economics and lifestyle choice, and provision is slowly being added in response to this, rather than cycling being seen as a way to revitalise the city.  The city is strong enough that cycling is just a practical way to get around.




So a bit of a long one again, not really with a huge amount of insight but it's late, I'm lethargic and an early start for the penultimate day of riding in the USA.  I didn't even have a Philly Cheesesteak.