The first thing I noticed leaving home at 4:15am was how much I enjoyed leaving while it was still dark out. Getting out before the sunrise is such a psychological boon; it gives the impression that you have the jump on the day. (This is why those periods at the beginning and the end of Daylight Saving Time are so cool, because I can leave for work well after 7am and still feel like I am leaving early rather than having the feeling of being one step behind.) This gave me an extra boost of mental energy right at the beginning of the trip.

The other thing that impressed me was how good a bike road Route 27 is. For much of its run south of Colonia, it has a shoulder of some kind. In some places the shoulder is wide enough to keep the car lanes to a single one in each direction.

And this leads me to my next observation. There were a few sections of Route 27 where I was shocked to see a posted speed limit of 45 or even 50. Yet the cars were doing no more than 25 miles per hour. I contrast this with a horrible street out on Long Island called Old Country Road, which has two or three lanes in each direction, and no shoulder whatsoever. Its speed limit is 40; but drivers go a lot faster. This is because, when drivers see several lanes and no shoulder, they get into the mindset of driving on a highway. By contrast, when they see one lane with a wide shoulder (sometimes used by bicyclists), they get visual signals that they are to behave in a civilised fashion.

The entire route was mostly pleasant; the only truly unpleasant section was the one that has been discussed in other threads: the connection between Jersey City and Newark especially the bridge connecting Kearny and Newark. And I am sorry to report that Newatk's Doremus Avenue was particularly aromatic today; the smell of sewage was uncommonly strong.

The only other slightly difficult part was finally hitting hills in Bucks County after not having dealt with them for the first 70 miles of of the ride. But they were manageable.

And I was thrilled to see that the bike lane on Academy Road has been repainted.

Anyway, now it's time to get some lunch, to take a shower, and to go to bed. I got up at 1:30am this morning to shave, shower, and pack. So it's nighttime for me. Nighty-night!

Fantastic ride. Route 27 was the way to go !!

I did 46 miles within the city on Thursday, after having gotten a late start because of rain in the morning. I am really looking forward to the hot weather coming the next couple of days.

But I am beginning to think that the people of Philadelphia are a tad confused about the origin of pizza. In my travels around the city I have passed by one pizzeria called Old London, another called New London, yet another called England Pizza, and no fewer than four by the name of Old English!

What is going on here?? Have Philadelphians got pizza confused with bangers and mash?

I sure am! Today it was a glorious 97 degrees. I rode 41 miles for the second day in a row, after having ridden 46 miles on Thursday. Tomorrow will probably be a relatively short day, as I prepare for the 90-plus-mile ride home on Monday. The forecast for both upcoming days looks magnificent.

I have to say that Philadelphia is like a bicycling wonderland. The Northeast alone, which many people would probably not even consider when thinking about Philly, is magnificent. And, to anyone who is accustomed to the rudeness of New Yorkers, as I am, all other people seem polite by comparison. I experienced any number of examples of drivers heeding my hand signals in ways that they never do back home. And the way that the drivers down here stop at stop signs is very different to what I see in my hometown. I noticed also that the red-light periods are a lot shorter here than they are in New York. This is a policy that New York should definitely try, because the shorter periods seem to alleviate tensions.

Wish I would tell you. A few blocks from where I grew up there was a New London pizza/hoagie place. Back then, many of them were Greek-owned like virtually all of the hotdog carts were. It's quite possible that they simply copied names from each. And since they were Greek, they would never pay homage to Italians.

It the hotdog cart world, an owner would work the cart, sneak cash back to Greece every summer and eventually retire back there. When he did, he would either sell the business to someone in Greece, who would them come to the U.S. and run it, or the kids would take it over. Wouldn't be surprised if it worked the same way in the pizza shop business.

The door-to-door time was a little bit longer than the trip down, because I was carrying a few extra things (some food that I bought, stupidly; a couple of articles of clothing that I bought; and a few layers that I had been wearing on the relatively cool trip down but did not need during the hot trip back). So my bags were heavier than they had been. They were heavy enough to make my back hurt, causing me to have to stop a couple of times just to take the bags off. I do have saddlebags; and I loaded those up, as well. But, still, there was enough in the bags around my back to give me a bit of a pain.

But the weather was perfect. When I am king, it's going to be like this every day.

One thing that I did differently on my way back was to avoid the hills of Hulmeville. I went through Levittown instead, taking New Falls Road instead of Trenton Road up to Tyburn Road. That was much better.

I will also admit that I noticed the hills on Route 27 more coming back then going down. This is probably the result of my having done plenty of riding for five straight days, as well as the result of my being an old guy (soon to be 53).

I am sorry that I did not get a chance to hook up with Jarett. To be perfectly honest, it slipped my mind. I was so focussed on the geography, and on visiting various places, and then on reviewing the map at night, while eating my dinner and doing some reading and some podcast listening, that I just didn't give a thought to anything else.

My celebrations upon reaching New York were tempered by my immediate notice of lack of respect on the part of drivers, as well as the constant lawbreaking that we see here both from drivers and from bicyclists. Please note that I am not making a statement of equivalency. Drivers' lawbreaking is deadly; bicyclists' lawbreaking is bad only in that it creates bad public relations and makes it harder for us to get politicians on our side. But both kinds of misbehaviour contrast sharply to what I noticed in Philadelphia, a city that is not known for its politeness.

Anyway, I am very proud to have done this round trip for a third time.