Day 1 down, Day 2 beginning:

Good morning.

Up and just about on my way from a great evening spent in Stewartsville, NJ, at the home of NJ State Parks employee, Mrs. Kim Russ, and her husband Richard Russ, who just goes by "Russ." Upon being received safely into town, we sat down to a beautiful and bountiful meal of shrimp and squash, stuffed peppers, fresh corn on the cob, salad and wine. Having heard of my penchant for 'amateur gourmet cookery,' Mrs. Russ invited me to attend to the scampi, which went well. After stuffing ourselves to the gills, we retired to the patio for an evening coffee by the fire.

The Russ home sits upon 2 acres of beautiful rolling country, alongside a corn field and speckled with wildlife, which Russ is constantly photographing, and so the home is abundantly stuffed with photos of deer, wild turkeys, snow geese and foxes, all of whom have come to nestle into the blurred boundaries of human and animal habitat.

After fixing breakfast with tomatoes and peppers from the garden to show my gratitude for such wonderful lodgings, I sat down with Russ who re-directed my Google Map directions onto a more favorable route out of town. Now off to Kutztown, PA, a moderate 41 miles down the road. The lesser distance will be a welcome rest after the initial day of the tour. On Day 1, the NJ countryside, presented me with far more hills than I had ever thought to imagine. For my next tour, I have already decided upon the following:

• Learn to read a topographical map
• leave myself more time to pause and enjoy the countryside
• train more on monster hills.

All that aside, though, the ride from Newark to Stewartsville was a wondrous exposure to the breadth of terrain and architecture along the way. From the busted grit of Newark, past Rutgers and Seton Hall, into the palatial estates in Millburn and Chatham, on through the townships of Mendham and Chester and the downtown strip of Washington, NJ with its pubs and movie theatres, and all the vast areas in between which ranged from marsh and grasslands to wooded mountains. More on that later, as I've got to be out on my way. All thanks again to Kim and Russ for their warm welcome and hospitality.

Cheers,

--rz