Pat's, Piazza's, and not much else (January 22nd - January 29th)

I jumped the gun a bit in the last post, because although January 22nd brought me within the Philadelphia limits, it did not quite bring me to Pat's Steaks. I actually made it to Pat's on the 23rd. Since I now live in Chicago, Pat's was a very special treat indeed. I've become very accustomed to the cheesesteaks from Philly's Best (which are excellent by the way), but those don't compare to the original. I had two whiz withouts with mushrooms, with fries and a diet coke. It took a while before I hopped back on the bike, but eventually I continued riding and made it to Conshohocken, PA for the night. On my way there, I crossed the Wissahickon Creek. Hat tip to my buddy Phil, who used to live in the Philadelphia area and told me about Wissahickon. There is a work by Edgar Allan Poe called "Morning on the Wissahiccon." Poe spent the most prolific years of his writing career in Philadelphia, and apparently loved the natural beauty of the creek. I can't claim to have read the story, but apparently it is all about how most people take the main road and miss the beauty of a place like the Wissahickon. Hopefully, my ride will take me off of the main road quite a bit to discover similar hidden gems.

C - (Not quite Pat's) Philadelphia, PA
D - Pat's Steaks
E - Conshohocken, PA

On the 24th, I rode into Phoenixville, PA. There are a couple of interesting things about Phoenixville. First off, they have something called the Firebird Festival every year where they burn a large wooden phoenix to celebrate the "rebirth" of the town. Apparently, it used to be a big steel town, but the local steel plant closed down in 1987, and the last decade or so have seen the town come back strong.  The second thing that really interested me about Phoenixville is that it is where Mike Piazza grew up. As a Mets fan, that makes it a very special place. Mets fan or not, you gotta love this Piazza moment #murica. Phoenixville was so darn nice that I stayed for an extra night.

D - Phoenixville, PA
E - Spring City, PA

The 26th through the 29th took me through Spring City, Elverson, Narvon, and Leola, PA. Each one was a little more remote than the last. This is something that I considered as I started my trip. Sometimes I might go days, or even weeks without coming across anything too interesting to write about. In those cases, I'll do my best to find some hidden gem, or I'll just keep things brief. This is a case of keeping things brief. There will be more to do and talk about on the 30th.

The road from Philadelphia to (almost) Lancaster, PA

Real Life: January 22nd - 10.7 miles, January 23rd - 17.8 miles (highest mileage of the year!), January 24th - 12.8 miles, January 25th - 0 miles (lazy Sunday...breaking a 20 day riding streak), January 26th - 10.5 miles, January 27th - 10.4 miles, January 28th - 10.6 miles, January 29th - 11.6 miles (Happy Birthday, Mom!). Total annual mileage: 309.6 miles (20.8 miles ahead of target pace).

Crossing the Delaware (January 18th - January 21st)

On January 18th, I rode into Rocky Hill, NJ, which is just a hop, skip, and a jump from Princeton University. Rocky Hill was once known as Devil's Featherbed due to the rocky terrain, so I was happy to be riding in the times of riverside bike paths. When I started this ride back in Montauk, one of the things that crossed my mind was that I would probably end up in a good number of towns with "George Washington slept here" houses. As far as I can tell, Rocky Hill was my first. Not only did GW sleep at Rockingham (the name of the house), but it was actually his last headquarters during the Revolutionary War.

I rode out of Rocky Hill on the 19th and stopped after a few miles to check out the Princeton University campus. Princeton is the alma mater of two deceased US Presidents, our current First Lady, and three current Supreme Court Justices. I asked around campus for a good place to eat and get a drink, which led me to Triumph Brewing Company. I had to try the Brown Tiger India Brown Ale, simply because I had never tried an India Brown Ale. It was worth the trip.

C - Rocky Hill, NJ
D - Lawrence Township, NJ

After tallying 11.6 miles for the day, I stopped in Lawrence Township, NJ. Nearby, in Lawrenceville, I checked out the Lawrenceville School. Lawrenceville is known as one of the most elite prep schools in the country, which makes sense since it is so close to Princeton. My brother-in-law attended the school during the 90s, and if anyone has time for some additional reading, I'd suggest reading this Deadspin article about the schools recent intramural football controversy. It's fascinating.

11.4 miles of riding on January 20th took me to Levittown, PA. While I had never been to the Pennsylvania version, I was already very familiar with the name Levittown. This is because there is also a Levittown, NY. One can also find a Levittown, Puerto Rico and a town that was formerly known as Levittown in New Jersey. All of these Levittowns were the brainchild of William Levitt. Levitt applied the assembly line ideas of Henry Ford to housing, which allowed him to produce a large number of homes quickly and inexpensively. A large number of these homes were purchased by recently returned World War II vets, who were able to buy the homes at a significant discount. One of these homes in Levittown, NY was purchased by my grandparents, Cyril and Pat Hebrank. You can see some great photos and read more about Levittown here. I recommend reading the piece on race in Levittown.

After another 10.4 miles on the 21st, I was now on the outskirts of Philadelphia, in an area called Bensalam, PA. I spent the evening watching horses run in an oval and playing some slots at Parx Casino and Racing. I lost some money, but it's not really losing if you're having fun. Plus, I knew that the next day had a delicious cheesesteak (or two) in store for me.

C - Levittown, PA
D - Bensalem, PA

Real Life: It was mostly just regular work commutes with a little detour on Tuesday to buy some flowers and meet my beautiful wife at Five Guys for a celebration of the five year anniversary of our first date. We also celebrated our three year wedding anniversary the next night. Daily mileage: January 18th - 16 miles, January 19th - 11.6 miles, January 20th - 11.4 miles, January 21st - 10.4 miles. Total annual mileage: 225.2 miles (16 miles ahead of target pace).

Happy Birthday, Bobby

I'm a bit behind on the blogging about my Imaginary Bike Ride, but in the real world, today is January 21st. I wanted to break format just a bit, because today is Bobby Cann's birthday. For those that don't know Bobby's story, you can read a lot more here. In short, Bobby was a friend and cyclist who was killed by a drunk driver while riding his bike home from work on May 29th, 2013.

A lot of better writers, who knew Bobby much better than I did, have written beautiful things about him. I'll keep my thoughts related to this blog. In June of 2010, Bobby started a three-week cycling tour from New Hampshire to Chicago. He left on June 24th, and dealt with heat and hills in New York, a sore butt at Lake Ontario, mosquitoes in Hiawatha National Forest, had a staring match with a deer in Wisconsin, and rode over 100 miles on many days. He arrived in Chicago on July 14th. He was much more of a badass than I could ever be. This is one of the first things that I thought of when I came up with the idea for this blog.

Michelle Klosinski; courtesy Groupon

Bobby would be 28 years old today. Happy birthday, Bobby.

Leaving Long Island (January 13th - January 17th)

I mentioned a few posts back that I was falling behind on my mileage, but keeping up with my blog posts. The last week has seen just the opposite happen. For that reason, this post will be a bit of a catch-up. I won't go into much detail on any of the places that the ride took me. However, when I finished my ride on January 17th, I had now gone eleven straight days with 10+ miles of riding. Since my target pace is about 10 miles per day, that means I had a done a lot of catching up.

January 13th took me out of Nassau County and into Queens. My ride was only mapped out to take me through two of New York City's boroughs and Queens was the first. Fittingly, I ended my 11.7 mile ride in Flushing Meadows Corona Park, which is a short walk from the home of the New York Mets (my favorite baseball team).

The 14th brought me 10.7 miles to downtown Manhattan. I was happy to be able to walk over to Bleecker Street Bar where I could play a few games of darts. The 15th brought me 10.6 miles to Newark, NJ. Newark is home to the New Jersey Devils and their modern new home, The Prudential Center, but the Devils were off that night. My sister, brother-in-law and nieces live ten miles northwest of Newark, so riding there would add two full days to my ride, but they were nice enough to come meet me for dinner. We enjoyed some ribs at the famous Dinosaur Bar-B-Que.

C - New York, NY
D - Newark , NJ

The 16th put 14.2 more miles in my rear view, and gave me a night in the lovely Cranford, NJ. Cranford is best known for having a list of thirteen notable people that I have never heard of on their Wikipedia page (Wikipedia is the starting point for all research on this blog). One day and 12.8 miles later, I was in Middlesex, NJ. Middlesex was apparently home to Charlie Weis (former Notre Dame football coach) at some point. That made me think of my favorite Occupy Wall Street sign (it's funny because he is a large man).

C - Cranford, NJ
D - Middlesex, NJ

As mentioned earlier, I had now gone eleven straight days of 10+ miles of riding, so I was finally ahead of my target pace. If I can continue to stay ahead of pace during the difficult Chicago winter, I should have no problem getting all the way across the country.

Real Life: Mostly uneventful work commutes. On January 17th, I took my bike to Roll on Clybourn for a tuneup. They did an awesome job and I got most of my mileage on the 17th via Divvy. Daily mileage: January 13th - 11.7 miles, January 14th - 10.7 miles, January 15th - 10.6 miles, January 16th - 14.2 miles, January 17th - 12.8 miles. Total annual mileage - 175.8 miles (6.5 miles ahead of target pace).

My Hometown (January 12th)

I left Hickville on the 12th, knowing that I had just broken the 100 mile mark in my trip, so I only had about 3,500 miles to go. It certainly wasn't time to celebrate yet, but I also knew that the day would take me to Garden City, NY. My family moved to Garden City from Malverne, NY when I was a baby. I lived in Garden City for 20+ years, so it was certainly a place where I needed to stop. Visiting a place that I knew so well meant that I had to make some very difficult decisions about what to do while I was there. Luckily, I hung around for lunch and dinner to give myself some time. I stopped at my parents place on Mulberry Ave to say hello, and then we went out to lunch at Leo's, where I ordered Mongo's Favorite (open faced steak sandwich with melted mozzarella cheese). Yum.

My ride took me just north of the Garden City Golf Club (better known as the Men's Club). This course hosted the 1902 U.S. Open, but is probably better known as the place where I spent the summer after my freshman year of high school just sitting in the caddy yard. I hardly ever got sent out for a loop, and I barely made any money, but I did get to play the course on Mondays for free. It was totally worth it.

To work off my lunch, I headed over to the Garden City Community Park Mini-Golf Course. I had worked at this course as the Mini-Golf Pro for 3 summers, and I held the course record of 29 before the course was redone in 2008. I hadn't played the course since the renovation, so I had to check it out.

For dinner I grabbed two Grilled Chicken Panini's at Mama Theresa's in Garden City Park. With that, I had now had enough melted mozzarella to choke an elephant, so it was time to move on.

It was dark by the time I arrived in New Hyde Park, NY, and it was quite a full day in Garden City, so I just hit the sack.

C - Garden City, NY
D - New Hyde Park, NY

Real Life: Just the typical work commute. 10.4 miles. Total annual miles - 115.8 miles (3.7 miles behind target pace).

Billy Joel, Everywhere (January 9th - January 11th)

On January 9th, I rode 14.6 miles. This brought me to Smithtown, NY. With that, I encountered my first Croxley's. Croxley's is one of my favorite bars in the world. There are actually six of them (all on Long Island or in NYC), and I had never been to the one in Smithtown, but it doesn't matter which Croxley's you go to as long as you get a Guinness and their wings. They have wing specials on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Saturday. I was there on a Friday, so sadly they were not running a special, but they were delicious at full price as well.

B - Smithtown, NY

On January 10th, I rode 12.7 miles, which brought me to Huntington, NY. Huntington is the birthplace of some really interesting people, including Walt Whitman, Mariah Carey, and the Karate Kid, Ralph Macchio. Most importantly, it is home to my Aunt Patty and Uncle Jim. They have a great place just a short walk from Huntington Bay, so it was the perfect place to spend a quiet night. Patty and Jim have hosted awesome family pool parties for as long as I can remember. Too bad it was too cold to go in the pool. Billy Joel's mom, Roz, was their next door neighbor until she sadly passed away last year. She would come over for the pool parties as well. It doesn't get more Long Island than that.

B - Huntington, NY
C - Hicksville, NY

On January 11th, a 10.4 mile ride took me to Hicksville, NY. This is where Billy Joel grew up and went to high school (Billy Joel mentions will probably decrease after I get off of the Island). The most interesting thing about being in Hicksville for me was that I was now only 7.2 miles from my parent's house in Garden City, NY. I should be there on the 12th.

Real Life: On the 9th, I rode to work and rode home, with a stop at Cullen's Bar for a pint on the way. I also rode to Stage 773 to see the Exquisite Corpse show at the Chicago Sketch Comedy Festival. On the 10th, I rode to meet my friend Tim for coffee at CityGrounds Coffee Bar, then my wife and friend Allison for lunch at The Butcher's Tap, and then rode a bit up the Lake Shore Path. On the 11th, I rode to and from Cleo's Bar to watch Arsenal FC beat Stoke City 3-0. Daily mileage: January 9th - 14.6 miles, January 10th - 12.7 miles, January 11th - 10.4 miles. Total annual mileage: 105.4 miles (4.2 miles behind target pace).

It's Warmer in My Imagination (January 5th - January 8th)

As I mentioned in the last post, a couple of days without riding had set me back a bit from my target pace of ten miles per day. It was now time to kick things into gear, and it was definitely time to start a streak of consecutive days of riding.

I started that streak on January 5th with 10.4 miles ridden. For those keeping score at home, get used to that number. You're going to see a lot of it. Coincidentally, 10.4 miles was exactly enough to take me to Hampton Bays, NY. This is a place I actually know a little bit about! Growing up, I spent a lot of time in Hampton Bays at my friend Steve's summer house. I have a lot of great memories from that house, from 4th of July pool parties and inline speed skating competitions, to one on one baseball games and intense tennis matches (he always won). I vividly remember the time that we were playing at his friend's down the street and I slid in a pile of dog shit, which got all over me. I also remember the time that I tried to slide tackle Steve in a game of football and slid directly into a metal stake. That one cost me 25 stitches.

I also know Hampton Bays from a summer in the mid-naughts when a bunch of my friends had a summer share-house that was referred to as "The Compound". A lot of great times were had in that house, and I'm somewhat thankful that I was only there for a few of them. I don't think I could have endured every weekend for the entire summer.

With only one night in Hampton Bays, I had to go to get wings at Gator's. There were many nights back in the day where I would sit across the table as Steve's dad put down an incredible amount of Nuclear Wings. It seemed almost super human. I stayed away from the Nuclear ones, but I put down 20 hot wings and a Blue Point Toasted Lager. Sustenance for the ride ahead.

My ride on January 6th was a short one; just 5.3 miles. I'll cover the reasons for that in real life later on, but in the Imaginary Bike Ride world, that means that I ended up in Flanders, NY, which is exactly one town northwest of Hampton Bays (technically, it's a hamlet, but I'll say town a lot for the sake of simplicity). I tried to do a bit of research on Flanders, but there's not much out there. However, I rode through Hubbard County Park, which is pretty nice, with its choice location on the Flanders Bay near the Peconic River.

On January 7th, I rode 12.4 miles. I passed through Riverhead, where I stopped at the Tanger Outlet to pick up some gear. I also stopped at Splish Splash Water Park, but it was closed. Despite my disappointment, I rode on and made it to Wading River, NY. If you google Wading River, a Tripadvisor link comes up that says "2 Things to do in Wading River". One is Wildwood State Park on the Long Island Sound and the other is Lewin Farms, which is home to what I had to assume was an awesome corn maze. So, I headed into the corn maze, then picked up some produce and headed to Wildwood to camp out for the night.

Despite Tripadvisor's thoughts about the town, there are a few cool pieces of trivia about Wading River. I'll keep it to what I find most interesting so as not to overdo it. I learned that there is a three-story home there called the Benson House that served as a counterintelligence base during World War II. They used it to send out transmissions, which were supposed to seem like they were from Nazi spies, that told of (falsified) Allied plans. This required way more energy than you would have available in a normal house at that time, so they put a Buick engine in the basement to use as a generator. Very cool!

Another 10.4 miles on January 8th led me to Mt. Sinai, NY. I feel like this blog entry is already getting into tl;dr territory, so I won't go into too much detail on my imaginary stay there. I did notice that my ride ended right near a Greek restaurant called Alexandros. So, it was a no-brainer to stop in there for a gyro (that's pronounced "JYE-roe" on Long Island).

D - Hampton Bays

E - Flanders

F - Wading River

G - Mount Sinai

Real life: I returned to Chicago from DC on the evening of the 4th to snow on the ground. On the 5th, I had my typical work commute; 10.4 miles round trip. It was a chilly high of 10 degrees. It snowed overnight leading into the 6th, so I took public transportation to work that day (with a short Divvy from the L station to the office). I regretted that decision immediately when I saw that the roads weren't that bad. A cold, crowded CTA train is the worst. I rode a Divvy home (high of 12 degrees). On the 7th, I mostly had a typical work commute with a short detour to my doctor's office on the way to work, and a detour to say hello to a few friends on the way home (high of 8 degrees). On the 8th, I had my typical work commute, but the way home was treacherous with a few hours worth of fresh snow on the ground (high of 13, but felt like -11). Daily mileage: January 5th - 10.4 miles, January 6th - 5.3 miles, January 7th - 12.4 miles, January 8th - 10.4 miles. Total annual mileage: 67.7 miles (12 miles behind target pace).

To Water Mill (January 2nd - January 4th)

After a chilly night in Napeague State Park I was back on my bike and headed west. Early in the day's ride I passed through East Hampton, NY. The beautiful Maidstone Golf Club was just a bit off the road to my left. Maidstone typically makes it onto the list of Golf Digest's 100 Greatest American Golf Courses, but is also accused by some to be a haven of racism. As of 2015, the private club has zero non-white members.

After a few more miles, I came to Wainscott, NY. I stopped for a bit to visit my good friend Mike. If we had more time, Mike would have suggested that we head to Estia's Little Kitchen to grab some brunch. Estia's is a nice little cottage surrounded by gardens. Much of the produce is harvested from the garden (though probably not in January). All of the foods are sourced from local farmers. Alas, I didn't have time to head up to Sag Harbor with Mike, so I kept right on riding until I reached Water Mill, NY. Here is a map of my 16.1 mile ride (from B to C):

It is here in Water Mill that I would spend the nights of January 2, 3, and 4. Water Mill is a small Hamlet within the larger Town of Southampton. As I researched this tiny community, I was shocked to learn that the name Water Mill comes from the fact that the hamlet was originally settled around a watermill. This origin story dates back to the English in 1644.

On my first night in Water Mill, I checked out the Parrish Art Museum. Though the museum dates back much further, it's current location was opened in 2012 and the building itself is worth the visit. It was designed by Herzog & de Meuron, and attempts to fit naturally into its East End setting by evoking the landscape of the area, and the studios of famous Long Island artists. The museum itself is host to a great collection of modern art with a focus on artists who made their name on the East End of Long Island.

During the next couple of days I enjoyed a wine tasting at Duck Walk Vineyards, picked up some fresh produce at Hank's Pumpkintown (closed for the season in real life) and a pie at The Milk Pail (open year round!).

All things considered, it was a lovely stay in Water Mill, but January 4th had now come and gone, and I had only ridden 29.2 total miles. I was already more than 10 miles behind the pace to make it across the country in 2015. Hopefully the next few days would give me a chance to play catchup!

Real life: I was still in the Washington, DC area and took a Capital Bikeshare back down to the National Mall and then out to Reagan National Airport to meet my wife. Daily mileage: January 2nd - 16.1 miles, January 3rd - 0 miles, January 4th - 0 miles. Total annual mileage: 29.2 miles.

On the Road (January 1st)

I started this blog knowing that reality would find me in Washington, DC for the first few days of January, attending a couple of family functions. This meant that I wasn't entirely certain that I'd be able to find time to ride a bike. Luckily, our nation's capital has an excellent bikeshare program called Capital Bikeshare. This allowed me to ride from Reagan National Airport to a friend's place in Bethesda, MD and stop at a couple of monuments along the way on January 1st. Total mileage: 13.1 miles.

If you recall, my imaginary trip begins at Montauk Point, NY and 13.1 miles gets me just out of the hamlet of Montauk and into Napeague State Park. Here's a map of my route:

I'm sure it would have been a beautiful ride, with the Atlantic Ocean on my left. I would have started by riding through Camp Hero State Park. Camp Hero has a really interesting history, including time as an Air Force Station before becoming a state park. You can also find all sorts of conspiracy theories about what the military was working on there, with some believing that it was home to things such as time travel experiments and contact with aliens. If you're interested, here's a link to the book that started it all: Montauk Project.

For a bit of fuel, I would have stopped at Goldberg's Bagels (everything with cream cheese). Near the end of the ride, I would've passed Cyril's Fish House on Montauk Highway. Cyril's is closed for the winter, but if you're ever in the area during the summer, stop by and drink a BBC. They are delicious!

The night of the 1st would find me camping out on the beach in Napeague (not actually permitted). The interesting trivia for this first blog is that Napeague's beach is usually closed for most of the summer because it is the nesting site for the piping plover. I had never heard of the piping plover, but it's the small, endangered bird pictured here:

They close down the whole beach for this little guy?

Anyways, there's not much to do in Napeague on a winter's night and I have a lot of riding ahead of me, so I would have called it an early night. There's riding to be done on January 2nd!

The Ride Begins

As I was riding to work one morning I began to think about how far I ride my bike on an annual basis. Since my commute amounts to a 10.4 mile round trip, I figured that I ride at least about 52 miles per week on average. Sometimes I ride a bit on the weekends as well, and typically go on some longer rides during the summer. This led to me wonder how far my riding would take me across the United States over the course of a year if I started on the east coast and rode west.

I took my wondering to Google Maps and mapped out a route that would take me from the Montauk Point lighthouse on the eastern tip of Long Island, to Seattle. I made sure that the map passed through some points of interest or cities that I would want to check out if I actually made the trip. Here's a link to the map, which you can see below: http://goo.gl/maps/30p6l

The route is 3,634 miles and would take about 317 hours of riding according to Google. It would take me to all of these locations:

-My parents' house in Garden City, NY

-Pat's Steaks in Philadelphia

-Cleveland and Toledo, OH

-Notre Dame University (My wife's alma mater)

-My current home (Chicago, IL)

-Des Moines, IA

-Omaha, NE

-Mount Rushmore

-Yellowstone National Park

-Spokane, WA

-Seattle, WA

In order to make that trip in a year, I'd have to average just about ten miles per day (9.96 to be exact). It would be a lot of fun to actually be able to make that trip a reality, but jobs, mortgages, and responsibilities sort of get in the way. That is when I came up with the Imaginary Bike Ride. Starting on January 1st I will track how far I ride on a daily basis. I will use that mileage to pinpoint where I would be on the Imaginary Bike Ride map. On this blog I will write a little bit about where I am making camp for the night, where I would have eaten in whatever town I am in, and where I would have grabbed a beer.

I see it as a travel guide of sorts, but I won't actually be traveling. Some days there might be some interesting history or trivia thrown in. Other times, I may bring on some guest bloggers to write a fictional short story about my adventures in a random town in South Dakota. Maybe someday I'll actually have the opportunity to make the imaginary trip a reality. 

I've explained the idea to a bunch of people and most people just ask why I would do this. I think there are a few reasons. First, it's just a fun project and an excuse to write, which I haven't really done recently. Second, it's an excuse to learn. For every blog, I'll be doing a bit of research on a town or city that I know nothing about. I'm excited about the little bits of trivia that I will learn about this country in the process. Finally, I hope it will encourage me to ride more during a cold Chicago winter, and will inspire me to go on some longer rides when the weather turns warmer. Ten miles per day doesn't sound like much, but sometimes I work from home, or I don't ride anywhere on the weekend. I could easily fall way behind the pace by the time the winter ends, and I'll need to play catch up.

I probably won't blog every day, but I hope to post at least a few times per week. If I make it 3,634 miles before the end of the year, then my imaginary ride will start to take me down the Pacific coast from Seattle. I'm excited to see how far I can go and I hope that some folks enjoy coming along for the adventure!