Day 61 Dalton to Sussex

Today would be our last "long" ride so we left a little earlier, at 7 AM.
As we are in the Poconos Mountains the hills started right away and continued the whole 130 k. We started under cloudy skies, but it was not as cool as some of the previous mornings. There was no wind to speak of.

This area of Pennsylvania is very nice. Besides cycling, a car ride in the countryside here would be great. Lots to enjoy.

We stopped for brunch around 10:30 AM in Hawley PA. The "London Express" and a number of other cyclists were at this restaurant as well. We sat with Louis B (ON) and Barb M (IA).

Getting back to the hills, we had 7000' of up hills and the same footage of down hills. There was never any long flat stretches. We were basically going up or going down. The hills were never really long (not like the Rockies and the Cascades) so they were fine and the downhills were really nice.

We crossed the Delaware River into New Jersey after lunch. Dave T (MI) biked quite a bit with Fred and I today. We always get a hoot out of Dave.

Fred and I stopped at a bakery (Cove Point Bakery ?) just before Sussex. They had some nice looking pie there, but none by the slice. What could we do but buy a whole pie? (peach/blueberry) We had some there and took the rest back to camp where we arrived at around 3:30 PM. Fred Everett of NJ was already at camp (Sussex Chr School) and it was great seeing him. He and his wife Ruth had hosted Shelley and Elly for the two previous nights and was most helpful to us with transportation from the airports etc.

Tonight's dinner was hosted by the Sussex NJ and Goshen NY CRCs in the Sussex Chr School gym next door to the Sussex church. It was another great meal and the hospitality of the people here was greatly appreciated.

Later that night it began to rain pretty good. Also at around 4 AM Fred heard some rustling by his tent where we had left the left over pie in it's plastic container. He thought it was me (like I'm going to eat pie outside his tent at 4 AM) but it turned out to be a raccoon. The rotter ate the rest of our pie!

Totals for day: 137 k, 6:02 on the saddle, 22.7 k avg (much lower due to all the hill climbing)