Saturday, October 23, 2010

Pulaski Highway makes an interesting ride

October 11th

We hadn't ridden long before we felt a substantial increase in humidity. Once again, we had crossed a state line, this time in Maryland. We were off Adventure Cycling's route, and my GPS had us routed on the Pulaski Highway, supposedly the quickest route to Baltimore.

At first, there wasn't much traffic, but there was a wide shoulder and plenty of signs that said "Bike Route." Great, we thought. We'll just ride this bike route all the way to Baltimore. Ah, but the best laid plans of mice and men . . .

Around mid-day we got to a bridge and the shoulder disappeared. Uh oh. Construction workers had closed off one lane of traffic. Well, the bridge wasn't very long, and if there's room for bicycles in the construction lane . . .

We started riding on the bridge. We were about 40 percent of the way across until one of the workers spotted us. "Hey, you can't ride here!" One of them shouted. "This is a construction zone!" Then a police pulled up along side of us.

"No bicycles," he said. "You have to turn around."

At least I knew better than to argue with a police officer. We turned around, knowing the irony that in doing so we were riding virtually the entire length of the bridge. Once we got back, we saw a Maryland Transit Authority Police Station on the other side of the road. We crossed, hoping we could get some advice on how to cross the Susquehanna River. Once we got to the station, we saw another officer in his car.

"How do we get across," we asked.

"Yeah, it's a real pain," he said. "You have to call the Montville Taxi company."

"There's no other way."

"No there isn't," he said. "And we hate it. This is the only bridge within 40 miles that someone can cross this river, and every time someone tries to ride their bike over the bridge or jog over the bridge we have to go and stop them and tell them to call the taxi."

He also told us he had voiced his concerns to the powers that be but these fell on deaf ears.

"They said they didn't want a pedestrian section because that would increase suicides. That's crazy. If someone wants to do it, they'll go and do it. A pedestrian walkway isn't going to make it any easier."

The whole situation was almost funny, if not for the fact that we had to call in a taxi minivan and fork over 8 bucks to go over a bridge that we nearly rode the entirety of it. We had to unload all the bags off our bikes and remove the front wheels just to get them in the back of the vehicle.

So far, Maryland has not been a warm welcome.

We kept riding, and as we approached Baltimore, we noticed that traffic just kept getting busier, and these "bike lanes" starting disappearing and reappearing to make way for exit and entrance lanes. What was once a rural road was looking more like the Berlin Turnpike. In a supreme act of laziness, the good government of Maryland had simply declared that the breakdown lane of the Pulaski highway was a bike lane! What was worse is that 90 percent of the roads were just cul-de-sacs for housing sub-divisions, giving us no choice but to stay on the road we were on.

Fortunately, we were able to navigate through traffic. As daylight started giving way to dusk, we decided to find a hotel for the night. We found a place that said they had vacancy and pulled over. When we got to the main office, we found a rather frantic looking shirtless man. There was a screen door that he didn't bother to open once he saw us.

"You can't stay the night," he said quickly. "It's not a hotel, it's not a hotel."

"But you're sign," I said. "You're sign--"

"No no no, is not hotel anymore. You can't stay here."

"But," I said, motioning with my hand towards the cars in the parking lot.

"They are staying the week. I am turning this into apartments. Everything in the rooms is out. Not there anymore. No hotel."

He kept talking.

"You want to stay someplace cheap? Edgewood motel. Just a few minutes down the road."

Well, whatever. We road on, marvelled that this man kept up a giant sign that said "Motel," and another large sign underneath that said "vacancy." Whatever, we figured, we had another place to stay just down the road.

When we got to the Edgewood motel, the owner was incredulous that we wanted to stay the entire night. He sighed and gave us the key. What followed was one of the worst hotel experiences in my life.

The room had a stale air quality to it. Whatever. I'll grin and bear it, I thought. A few flies in the room? I swatted them. No other signs of bugs. We can bear it, I thought. Nicole fell asleep. I tried. I couldn't sleep. One hour went by. Then two hours. Then it was almost midnight. I started pacing. In doing so, Nicole woke up.

"What's wrong," she said.

"I can't sleep here. The air is just too bad." I could feel my nose stuffing up. My head was starting to ache. Something was rotten in the state of Maryland.

"Well it's almost midnight," she said. "We already paid to stay here."

"Well I'll just sleep outside!" I said grouchily.

I went outside, I took some deep breaths. Outside the hotel, I could hear that some people had their air conditioners running. That must be the secret. A.C.

I return. I turn the A.C. on. The air is a little bit better. Just a little, but enough such that I can breathe without feeling sick. I'm able to sleep for a few hours . . .

I wake up to the sound of power tools and metal banging up against metal. I hear engines revving. What the hell is going on? It's a quarter to six a.m. in the morning.

"He's been doing that all night," said Nicole. "I haven't been able to get back to sleep."

"Well, let's get the hell out of here," I say. We pack up and are out the door in 10 minutes. Once we leave, traffic is almost a nightmare. Why is it so busy at this hour? Before long, we see a diner on the other side of the road. We cross at a light and sit down to eat.

I look at Nicole. We're exhausted, ironically not from riding but trying to sleep.

"Yeah," I say. "That's never going to happen again."

Next stop: Baltimore . . .

3 comments:

  1. Ahhh this was great. I've been thinking about riding on Pulaski highway today to do some shopping but this is making me reconsider hahah.

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  2. Just came across your blog, a friend and I just got back from biking to NYC from DC and had a similar experience crossing the Susquehanna river on that bridge. We got around 2/3 across when we were stopped by a cop who told us we had to turn around, we mentioned that wouldnt it be more dangerous to go against traffic so he let us continue on the bridge. Though on the other side we did have to talk to some more police about how we couldnt do it again.

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