So CAT is moving to their new headquarters early next month, and part of the preparation is to get all the donated bikes, about 400 of them in (mostly) walkable condition, from their basement home in the current headquarters to storage at the future one.
That move happened yesterday. The “bike train” was about 100 or so volunteers walking the bikes about two miles, from the place on West Broad Street to the newly-built Walnut Street parking garage, where the new headquarters will be. We went over a little early so Anne could take up her position as a crossing guard along the route, then Joe & Laura and I joined the train in basically the first wave.
It was pretty easy and quite fun, and though Joe & Laura made for home after that trip, I went back for more. The walk back was, if anything, even more fun, as I got to greet so many of my friends doing their part.
For the first trip I took just one bike; I thought that walking two might be easy enough for the first few hundred yards but two miles might be a bit much. The walk was easy enough though, so for the second trip I did take two. That was fine, except for the very last block when one rear wheel locked up — I carried that bike to the finish line.
So two trips, three bikes and eight miles walked, and I hear that all 400 bikes got moved. Hurray!
Bicycling doesn’t usually do much for flexibility, but flexibility sure came in handy on the recent Road Scholar ride…
Monday: We switched back to the pre-Ida routing for this trip, doing the Lehigh Towpath from Bethlehem to Easton, rather than the relatively unscathed portion of the D&L from Lehighton to Cove Road we used last year. (I think that the D&L has a better surface overall between Lehighton and Cove Road, and was better even before Ida trashed the towpath, but everything else about the ride — the vibe, the points of interest, and especially the scenery — are all so much better on the original Bethlehem-Easton route.)
Posing At the Mule BarnAt The Mule BarnAt The Mule Barn
These were some shots at the Mule Barn (Lock #44, Freemansburg) on Monday’s ride.
That decision worked out pretty well, and since Genesis Bicycles (our old destination on this ride) is closed now, we didn’t bother to do the last part of the original ride — we got picked up at the Forks of the Delaware rather than do city riding through Easton.
Tuesday: The weather forecast started looking pretty bad for later in the week, and I think everyone was thinking the same thing: let’s switch the Tuesday and Thursday rides, so if Thursday is a washout we still get to do the Lehigh Gorge ride, which is supposed to be the last ride and the highlight of the week. There are usually a lot of moving parts to the Road Scholar logistics, especially when it comes to coordinating transportation, and changes like these are sometimes hard to pull off, but there were no other programs this week that needed transportation. The transport guys managed to shift the dates, and Tuesday was a great ride down the river to Jim Thorpe, on the last beautiful day of the week.
Lehigh Gorge SceneAt the WaterfallPosing With Lock ConstructionInside Lock 22At The WaterfallAt The TrestleThe View From Nesquehoning TrestlePosing At The TrestleThe Crew At The Trestle
Here are some photos from Tuesday’s Lehigh Gorge ride.
Wednesday is usually a short morning road ride, to lunch in Delaware Water Gap and an afternoon of free time for the participants. But, the morning weather looked so bad, and we’d already had such good luck messing with the previous day’s schedule, that we decided to mess with this one as well — the afternoon was supposed to clear up a bit, so we started later and had our stop lunch before the ride. This also worked out well: the rain had stopped even before lunch, and though the roads were a bit wet we managed to have a pretty decent ride. (Everyone seemed to ride a bit stronger too, probably from the extra nutrition.)
Rainy Morning at ShawneeAt The Top Of The HillThe End: Loading the Bikes
I didn’t take too many photos on Wednesday but here is one each from before, during and after.
Finally, Thursday. The forecast was still bad, so bad that the final ride (Allamuchy) was canceled. I didn’t even go in, and Midge and Andrea came up with substitute, indoor activities, yoga, a visit from the bird rehabilitation people, etc. This worked out so well I wish we’d been able to do it last year — the year we walked around Jim Thorpe in a downpour. Again, the bosses managed to move the logistics of travel and activities around to make this work. I am not usually a flexible person, physically or mentally, but this one time: Flexibility FTW!
