Day 78 - Wilmington DE Philadelphia PA

Friday May 10, Biked 48 miles. Total mileage by end of day: 4273. 

Cloudy and dodged most of the rain. Lots of excitement today.

My Warmshowers.org hosts Patrick and Heather were fantastic and they have wonderful family as well. I had great conversations with their kids, sister, parents, and other relatives.

Pretty blooms on their street.

Then down a super steep trail that I barely made it up the day before.

The path along the river was peaceful.

Construction forced me onto a road but it was blocked to motorist traffic :-)

More construction narrowed this highway to a single lane.

First a van blocked traffic for me.

Then a school bus. Glad to be followed by respectful drivers!

So sad to encounter discarded disposable water bottles. The people buying these are such chumps -- paying 1000x more for a product than they need to pay. Tap water is safer and cleaner than bottled water in most of the US.

Rode by a big area of refineries with tanks and more.

This guy from Braskem did not like me taking so many pictures as I biked by so I took a picture of him and his pickup.

More refineries. So ugly.

These poor people live right across from the refineries that are polluting so much!!

Then some security people forced me to stop with their cars.

So rude. I called 911 and the police showed up shortly.

Here is a Facebook live video of what transpired:

https://www.facebook.com/timoey/videos/10157190911964603/

After this I met some workers in Trainer PA whose company refused to pay them for health care coverage. Outrageous! The owner of Service Painting Inc at 200 Price St, Marcus Hook, PA 19061 is a big fat rat.

I hope I did Rosa Parks proud.

It is terrible for people to live in the shadow of so many refineries. Really everyone in Philadelphia is suffering from this pollution.

A bit more history -- once the biggest shipyard in the world.

Happy to see share the road signs. More motorists need much more education about this.

Now here is the spot to park near the Philadelphia airport.

Lots of trucks blocking the bike lane. Bike lanes are useful when they are honored as well as designed properly.

After passing dozens of these illegally parked trucks, I met the police officer who was in the process of ticketing them.

A bit after this I was bicycling down Snyder street in Philadelphia when I encountered a very rude SEPTA bus driver. Here is the video I captured of them honking endlessly:

Finally made it to Philadelphia's water front and checked out some ships.

I ate an impossible burger from Village Burger / Garcia's.

They liked my zero waste / save our oceans message and also gave me a free chicken sandwich :-)

Here is Olivia checking out the Hope Fence.

Olivia and I were at Independence Hall. 

It is vital that ALL citizens participate in our government and honor the work that are forefathers did to create our great nation. If people do not participate in government, then they are letting the rich rule at poor people's expense. The rich smirk at poor suckers all the way to the bank.

A group of students working with WHYY in Philadelphia interviewed me.

Olivia admires the Liberty Bell in the distance.

These tech workers...

...love playing Pokemon Go. Here they are tapping away to capture a Pokemon after a battle.

A bit later I made it to the Schuykill River Trail. It was awesome!

Along they way I stopped at the Cosmic Cafe. It was truly Cosmic and they are working to be as zero waste as possible.

Had a blueberry smoothie in my own container :-)

Also talked to Scott and...

...Darlene and Peggy.

Some pretty cool buildings along boathouse row here.

Also enjoyed watching some of the regatta in process.

And met Scott, a bicyclist and crew coach whose team was competing shortly.

Also met Susan, a history professor at Rutgers who has biked across the US a couple of times. She liked the glove tan marks on my hands.

Olivia and I arrived at the Wissahikon Boys & Girls Club.

Ms Kelly helped me with my talk to the kids there.

The neighborhood near my classmate Betsy's house was very cool! And beautiful!