Week 18 in Review (July 4 - 10)

It’s been hot in Philadelphia and as a result slowed my biking explorations. Between that and trying to find a sustaining income I only got around to biking twice in the entire week.  One ride through Fairmount and Northern Liberties was just out of boredom and the other was with a NEW bike riding buddy, Ben.  I was in Ben’s wedding earlier this summer and as a wedding gist Ben and Sarah got new bikes (not from me, that’d be awfully generous).  On Saturday we decided to bike along the Delaware River, which I had chronicled previously.  We only made it to Northern Liberties before we had a a craving for food. After spending more than an hour at the Green Olive, a healthy/veggie friendly take out market, we finally moved along Delaware and Richmond Avenues.  Traveling past the casino, through Port Richmond and along the big-ass road near the Tioga port we headed away from the river search of a better way home.  FYI: Richmond Avenue might be one of the worst roads for biking. Not only is it fairly broken up, there is approximately 4 feet between parked cars and the route 15 trolley tracks, sometimes less depending on the a driver’s ability to parallel park. I suggested that we head to the Frankford Transportation Center to fill up our water bottles. Much to the chagrin of Ben it was not a couple blocks away as I eluded but a couple miles. However we made it and decided to bike under the El as it would provide shade on our way back.  That turned out to be false as the sun was setting, but we did get to see some of the finer citizens of Philadelphia. Kensington Avenue is hopping for being cockblocked by a giant elevated rail line. As we travelled back through Northern Liberties Ben got a flat tire so we ended up going to A Trophy Bike Garage (which I didn’t realize was connected to Trophy Bikes in University City until I just looked it up) and then got an iced coffee at One Shot Coffee (which possibly might be the cutest coffee shop around, sorry Good Karma).

As always here are the stats for the past few weeks. 

Routes	Miles	Minutes	Speed	Calories Burned
2	28.5	140	12.2	1,661

Make sure you check out the Geographic Analysis page, but some highlights of the changes in my riding are that biking through Frankford, Juniata and Upper Kensington added a lot of new area to my total area.  I’m currently up to 30.5 sq. mi. or 21.1% of the entire city!  Due to Ben and I’s lunch as well as they pit stop at the bike shop, Northern Liberties is the 11^th neighborhood I’ve biked through more than 90%. Additionally, I’ve biked through 98% on Center City (from Vine to South) and 92% of “Greater” Center City (From Girard to Washington). I don’t know, I found that fascinating