2009

Tuesday morning I sought out Bike Addict, a bike shop that unfortunately was not open.  Sensing my disappointment, the owner of the neighboring hair salon reached out to me, which led to an unplanned haircut. I rode though Pennsylvania, Trenton, Princeton and Kingston, NJ.  Unfortunately my digital camera’s memory chip was filled up by the time I reached the New Jersey state line.  Though with few exceptions, I traversed the same route through New Jersey I had taken riding to Washington D.C.  One exception was bicycling on Route 27 between Kingston and New Brunswick, a sprawl induced corridor. 

On Wednesday morning October 1st, I explored downtown Newark seeking out the century-old Newark Broad Street Station, with its visually commanding brick and stone facade and clock tower and the historic 92-year old Robert Treat Hotel.  In 1666, Robert Treat, a Connecticut Puritan from New Haven Colony, (and Abraham Pierson, Jr.) founded Newark - purchasing the land from the Hackensack Indians.  Robert Treat returned to Milford, CT in 1672.  He was elected Governor of Connecticut in 1683.  When New England Dominion-supporter Sir Edmund Andros supplanted Treat in 1687, Robert Treat hid the State of Connecticut’s Charter in the Charter Oak.  His great-grandson Robert Treat Paine signed the Declaration of Independence. 

I crossed into Jersery by crossing the Passaic and Hackensack Rivers on Lincoln Highway and Communipaw Avenue.  I spent some time in Hoboken and Whole Foods Market in Edgewater, NJ before plying over the Hudson River on the George Washington Bridge.