Day 7- Lansdale PA to Lawrenceville NJ: $517,000!!

The last day of the Anchor House ride is always special. It's a short ride 55 miles to the Picnic at the Dutkos' house in Hopewell through familiar roads in Montgomery, Bucks, Hunterdon and Mercer County. We road out with the young generation leading the way. It was amazing to see the confidence they have gained during the week. They are now seasoned veterans! A highlight for me was coffee at SAG 1- I hadn't had my morning coffee and there was SAG volunteer Bodo with Boxes of Joe from Dunkin Donuts. Made my and my riding buddy Eric's morning!!

Flash forward to the picnic, where our annual host family the Dutkos put out a fabulous spread of food and ice cream (!) and as always we get to enjoy their pool. Of course we swam in our biking shorts!

 

One of my favorite people on the ride is the guy I started riding the Anchor House with seven years ago, my good friend and long time Anchor House room mate, Jack Hayon. Jack's smiling face is a constant positive presence during the ride.

What made this ride so special all week was of course having our sons on the ride for their first year. Jack and I were beaming and fist bumping all week as we watched our sons cycle their first 500 mile ride and experience all the things that we love about the Anchor House ride. Our favorite Anchor House of all with no question!

 

From the picnic to our finish at the Quakerbridge Mall, we ride two abreast with a police escort for ten miles, with people cheering us on along the parade route. At the mall we were greeted by our family and friends. Shown below are two children I have known since they were babies, Stephanie (on the left) and Joseph (in the middle), the children of good friend Ken Naglak who celebrated his tenth year on the ride.

 

 

As per Anchor House tradition, the cyclists ride into the mall and are greeted by the cheering crowd as their names are announced. At the mall, we learned that we raised $517,000 (so far) for the kids of Anchor House. This is the single biggest source of funds for the organization and enables the House to do so much for children who are in need of a helping hand at a critical time in their lives.

 

 

 

Of course, this Anchor House meant so much for me because Adam was on the ride. A dream come true to spend this week with my son, and to share with him my love of cycling and the spirit of using your abilities to raise money to help others. I love you Adam and I am so proud of you- you are an awesome cyclist and of course a terrific son! Thanks everyone for following along. Stay tuned in two weeks for blogs from my third Pan Mass Challenge ride.

 

 

 

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Day 6- Lancaster to Lansdale PA: Amish Delight

Another lovely day in the Anchor House bubble. Temps in the high 70's, and a relatively moderate 70 miles and 3500 feet of elevation. It was truly a beautiful riding route today.

The highlight of day 6 coming from the South is riding through Amish country. Always a treat, and it was fun watching it through the eyes of Adam, and Ben and Sol Hayon for their first time.  I discretely caught the following photos of two horse and buggies. We encountered quite a few, as well as some of the most well kempt farms you will ever see.

A highlight was stopping to talk to three adorable Amish boys sitting along a fence. Joan went right up to talk to them and before long four of us were chatting with them and taking their photos (which was okay with them and apparently their Mom who was watching from a distance). The youngest one on the right was Amos and he was cute as can be.

Here's a Ben's eye view of Amish country, to give you a sense of the view from the saddle.

Today we road with our good friends Joan, Michael and Lindsey (shown below), and Eric, Annie, and of course our constant companions the Hayons. So much of the Anchor House ride is about your riding companions. Also shown is a photo of me and a long time friend, Paul Shapiro, who is riding in his fourth Anchor House. 

We came upon this gorgeous covered bridge later in the day. It had some of the finest truss work I have seen in a covered bridge. Inside it was a true work of art. 

Oh, I promised a photo of my boom bottle. This little gizmo fits into a water bottle cage and connects up to your iphone through through either a hard wire or blue tooth. The sound is terrific and the music becomes very motivating, particularly when your son puts together a 60 hour playlist of energetic songs. Everyone loved it, especially going up hill when randomly songs like "Move on Up", "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" and "Higher Ground" are playing. Well played Adam!

We had our award banquet tonight. So far we have raised $497,000!!  Various achievements are annually celebrated. We celebrated a number of them: Adam stood up for "riders under 20" and "first year riders", and I stood up for "people who have ridden for between 6 and 10 years" and Adam and I both stood up for "parents and children riding together" and "people from out of state". Jack, Ben and Sol had similar celebrations. We all stood up for people who curse out loud at monster climbs. Of course, there are friends who celebrate ride milestones. Below Russ Buckley and Erin Drulis show off their plaques for 20 and 5 years respectively. Also good friends Newell Benedict and Ken Naglak celebrated ten years, and Debbie Pisacretta and Ken Natalie celebrated 20 years of doing the ride. Two other people celebrated 25 years!!

And of course why do we do the ride? The answer is always "For the Kids!" of Anchor House. Shown below is a note written for the riders by a current Anchor House resident. Reading it makes you want to cry and to do more for the disadvantaged children who are out in the world. All they need is a chance.

Day 5- Westminster MD to Lancaster PA: The beat goes on

Another gorgeous day in this apparent polar vortex we're having this week. The temperature was 54 F when we headed out at 6:30AM- downright chilly but it warmed up nicely as the morning unfolded. The riding right out of Westminster was beautiful as we rolled along the hilly farmland of northern Maryland. Hilly it was today, as we covered 66 miles and just over 4000 feet of climbing, with a couple of challenging out of the saddle climbs.

The ride crew today was my friend Russ Buckley and myself, and a fun crop of young riders: our two boys, the Hayon boys, and three young women riders, Erin, Nicole and Arielle. We all enjoyed the music from Adam's Anchor House playlist played from Ken's portable Boom Bottle speaker (photo of Ken's new toy tomorrow). The songs, specially selected by Adam to be upbeat and high energy, can be very motivating, especially climbing long hills. Here's a picture of all the youngins at the first SAG stop. Russ couldn't help taking a "back-up" photo.

Crossing the Mason-Dixon line is always a cool thing as we left the South and entered Pennsylvania. Sol Hayon (who actually lives below the Mason Dixon line) is seen pedaling his way into the North in the second photo. The Pennsylvania countryside was equally lush and verdant and the cycling was great.

We had a great third SAG stop at one of our favorite ice cream places, Jimmy Mack's, in Hallam, PA where Adam, Ben, Erin and I enjoyed some well deserved snacks. Thankfully we don't need to be formally attired to be served in these establishments,  but some riders, like Dave Robinson, always strives to look his very best just in case.

We crossed the Susquehana River (one of the longest bridges I've ever crossed on bicycle) and road on a fairly busy road for the next 12 miles to get us into Lancaster. Not anyone's favorite type of riding but it probably saved us some additional miles and climbing. We arrived by 1PM, early enough to help unload the luggage from the Yellow truck, and settled in for a rather long wait for hotel rooms.

With 200 riders coming into a hotel, the cleaning staff can get overwhelmed so sometimes you get lucky and get your rooms right away and other times you have a long wait. No worries though as you can always go fo a swim or hang with a few friends in the hot tub!

Adam's cycling ability and strength keeps improving as the week unfolds (sometimes called training ont the ride), and he's doing a great job of keeping up with his old man. Along the way, he's gotten many helpful tips from veteran riders. Russ Buckley (Senior) has been especially helpful, particularly on situational awareness. Tomorrow we roll through Amish country, which is always a fantastic experience, and then wind up in Lansdale for our banquet night.

Day 4: Hagerstown to Winchester MD- Fathers and Sons

Today was a spectacular day on many fronts. On the weather front, you couldn't have dialed in a more beautiful day- cool start, sunny with highs in the upper 70's, and not a smidge of humidity. It was so ideal that our jerseys from today didn't even need to be hand washed tonight. Unheard of!

On the cycling front, it was a 58 mile day with only 3,200 feet of climbing- a good chunk of that on a 5 mile climb up and over the Cacoctins early in the day. And the riding was primo!  Lovely roads and green verdant scenery which I will try to capture in photos below. I forget how beautiful Maryland is. And most importantly, it was father and son day- three sets of fathers and sons.

Today Adam and I road once again with Jack Hayon and his sons Ben and Sol, and with old friends from West Windsor, 15 year AH veteran Russ Buckley and his son Russ Buckley, aka Buss Ruckley, who is riding his 7th AH ride. Adam and Russ The Younger were making each other crack up - including swapping movie ideas and using cliches in inappropriate circumstances - and were singing along to the Boom Bottle playlist for a large chunk of the ride. It was amazing to be all riding together- the dads cherished every moment. I honestly didn't want the day to end. It was a special day that I will remember for a long time.

Leaving Hagerstown, we saw this very appropriate mailbox. It was a sign of a red letter day for cycling.

The Maryland countryside was spectacular with gorgeous farmlands. As we rolled through the farmland, the landscape became dominated by the Cacoctin mountains, the mountains where Camp David is nestled within and the source of our 5 mile climb, and an awesome 5 mile descent!

Adam and I both had tire issues- Adam had a blowout just after a water SAG stop and I discovered a flat while at a SAG. Luckily, Pete Garnisch, the owner of Knapps Cyclery and our mechanic on the ride, was there to the rescue. Pete is a good friend and an awesome mechanic.

We passed these adorable kids in Old New Windsor (literally the name of the town). They were cheering us on. I stopped to talk to them and to snap their picture. They were super cute and very excited to see us cycling through their town.

All in all a very memorable day. Tomorrow promises more of the same spectacular weather as we head into Pennsylvania and Amish country.

Day 3: Winchester VA to Hagerstown MD- Three states and mostly dry!

On a day when the entire East Coast was inundated with biblical floods, the third day of the Anchor House ride escaped with a few scattered drops here and there over the course of the day.

The forecast was ominous, with a formidable line of storms just to the west of us, and tracking north. It looked like there was a chance that they might just slide by and just miss us, and that's exactly what happened. Somebody somewhere was looking out for us. Speaking of biblical, we were treated at the first SAG at the Welltown Church. Members of the church prepared food and gatorade for us and treated us with a warm reception. They were incredibly sweet, and bought and prepared food for us including delicious coffee!

It was a good day 3 recovery ride- typically an easier day with less climbing to allow recovery from day one and two. We covered three states (Virginia, West Virginia, and Maryland) in 71 miles, including the original home state of Adam Ross Carlson. It wasn't as picturesque as the first two days, and the last ten miles was pretty much "get 'er done" as we cycled on a busier road into Hagerstown.

Flats happen on these rides of course. Shown below is a flat repair by Frank Kimchik, assisted by yours truly. We were able to change the flat faster than our friend Joan Plumb could take a photo and post it on Facebook!  Technology taken down, in five minutes flat!  (pun intended).

Styling is of course an important part of cycling. The winners today were Daryl McMillan in his classic orange and black "kit," (cycling clothes) and the Hayon boys dressed in identical stylish kits. By the way, the Hayons were featured in a piece in Planet Princeton. Click HERE to read. 

Of course, when in Rome.... We had to eat crabs in Maryland, especially when Ken the Crab King is in your party. We went to a great crab house and had a blast. The fur, er the back fin, was flying as Ken gave a crab pickin' 101 class to the Hayon boys.

We are halfway to 500 miles!  Looks like we should be rain free until Saturday (knock on wood), and we're excited to bike with the Russ Buckleys (Sr. and Jr.) tomorrow! Thanks for reading!  And for Adam editing and adding to this blog!