Day 17
October 20, 2021:
I slept in a bit longer than I had intended, and enjoyed a little while resting in the tent. I packed my things, noting that the rear tire felt a little soft. I cycled uphill, past the concrete barn, and into the hills west of York. I watched the tire carefully as I went, feeling the rear of the bicycle sway more than it normally does when fully inflated. I stopped to get my handpump, and inflated it a bit further. Thing is, I’m not sure if I just didn’t do it enough, or if there’s a slow leak in the tire that caused it to soften a bit again, since I didn’t feel much different as I continued riding. The hills made going slow, and I really hated the thought of wasting energy on an only partially filled tire. I think I’ll have to buy a mechanical gauge that reads the tire pressure, since the current hand pump I have just lets me go until I feel I’ve done enough. I usually just feel the hardness of the tire by pushing my thumb into it, but I may be underdoing it, unsure how hard the tire should feel at a set psi. After a while, I stopped again, unconvinced the tire was softening, but thinking I might just be fooling myself since I hadn’t wanted to change yet another tire. But the feeling was bothering me, so I found a grass driveway that led into the woods that gave me enough space by the side of the road to work.
I followed the process the bicycle mechanic in Chambersburg showed me to replace the tire. Once again, I didn’t have a basin of water to work with though, so checking the old inner tube did not result in me finding an obvious leak. I also inspected both the inside and outside of the tire rubber, and found no issues. Puzzling. I decided to replace the inner tube anyway, saving the old one for later inspection. I took my time, resting in the noon-day sun. It took about half an hour, but only because I was working very slowly.
I made it into York at around 1:30, and found an interesting-looking Egyptian restaurant called Neama’s downtown. They let me wheel my bicycle inside the restaurant since I was worried it might get stolen. I ordered a plate with chicken and rice served with a creamy mushroom sauce. It was delicious, but I forget what it was called. I washed it down with mango nectar, and was so thirsty I drank an entire liter.
I also got to take a look around oldtown York, and saw the Courthouse where the Articles of Confederation were drafted and adopted. During that time, it served as the capital of the United States while the Revolutionary War still raged. It is under that claim to fame that York believes it is the first capital of the US, despite the Declaration of Independence having been drafted and signed earlier in Philadelphia.
After York, I cycled on through Wrightsville and across the Sasquehanna River to Columbia and then Lancaster. The Sasquehanna river is much wider than I had expected; the bridge had maybe a dozen arches and was about a mile long. I saw a few cool-looking islands from the bridge, and it occurred to me that I never did my kayak trip on the Wisconsin river to the cool islands and sand banks I had seen from the air west of Madison – a missed opportunity. I was aware of the slowly setting sun behind me, and searched fruitlessly for a good spot, ultimately passing through Lancaster and continuing east past the Smoketown airport. The population density out here in eastern PA is just too high. Cities down end by fading into rural landscapes, they just become suburban areas before growing denser upon reaching the next city. That makes stealth spot-finding nearly impossible. I think the trick will be to use better make use of Warmshowers as I move into higher population density areas.
I decided to ask a farmer if I could use their land to camp, and approached a farm by a small creek that had horses in a pen outside the main buildings. I saw Amish women run between buildings, and a bearded man driving a Caterpillar drove over and asked what I wanted. I made my request politely, but he wasn’t interested. “Would $20 change your mind?” “No, I don’t think so.” He wanted his privacy, and I understood. I thanked him for his time, then cycled on. The area has dozens of motels for all the Amish tourism in this area, so I called it quits and stayed in a Days Inn for $70. My room was on the second floor and they didn’t have an elevator, so I hauled my bike upstairs the hard way. I ate dinner – which consisted of sandwiches I had picked up in a deli outside of York – drank a ginger ale, and watched a few youtube videos on my computer. I didn’t have the energy to work on blog, and promptly fell asleep.
