Day 1

Day one is complete and was awesome. A number of folks came out to the MUD to see us off in the morning with a few riding with us up to the bridge. I loved being around everyone, but at the same time was eager to get the trip started. It was the first time ridin my bike fully loaded. It handled really well despite the firece winds we rode into at times.

Our initial route came from goolge maps "by bicycle". Let's just say that the may want to move back to "alpha". After winding through crowded roads of union and Bergen we were routed on newark turnpike, which is high speed road often without a shoulder. After 15 or so sketchy miles we were back on safe roads and moving through Newark.

Then the awesomeness occured! We had strayed a little from our route and just as we were going to get reoriented we saw hundreds of bicyclist cruising along an adjacent road. Ryan and I immediately peddaled off to catch up to them. The cyclist were all cops on the annual Police Unity Tour, a 4 day ride to DC. Better yet they were being escorted by motor cycles and passing thru every intersection unobstructed! We decided to stay on the ride and chatted with a number of friendly folks, many of whom were blown away when the heard we we heading cross country. One of them gave me a flag from the ride, which i know have on my nike. We rode a good 25 traffic free miles with them to Edison NJ. After parting ways Ryan and I were on cloud nine, beaming from the incredible good luck on our first day of the trip.

We found a roadside Greek dinner where we made our first and only stop of the day. Jersey dinners are GREASY. The chicken wrap almost slipped out of my hand. Over lunch we decided to shoot for Princeton but ended up making it to New Bruinswick. We found a cheap hotel 6 in east bruinswick and after a couple of miscues probably from being tired an still getting used to our combo of iPhones and a dedicated gps we found a comfy bed and a hot shower.

We put in about 65 miles and I'm feeling good, but tired. My right knee, which I had ACL surgery on a few years ago gets tired and sore, but doest bother me at all on the bike. Curious to see how my body holds up after riding day after day. Heading to Philly tomorrow.






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Location:Serviss Ave,East Brunswick,United States