day 74

today we set off to head to newark, delaware. not a whole lot happened on that ride, we basically rode highway 40 the whole way so it was very direct and not too scenic, hence no pictures for today. we did come to a bridge that we were supposed to be able to bike across, but it was under construction so bikes were prohibited. the next closest bridge was the interstate bridge which we couldn't go on either so the next closest bridge was 10 miles north of us and then we'd have to come back down another 10 miles so a total of 20 miles out of the way and that didn't sound to fun to us, we just wanted to get to newark. we finally went to a gas station and asked a couple of trucks if they'd shuttle us over and the second person we asked took us! we loaded up our bikes in the back, as well as ourselves and made the actually long trek across the toll booth bridge (not sure what would've happened if we did bike across and there was a toll booth, do we pay? i doubt it). we got dropped off at the nearest gas station and kept riding on. we arrived in newark around 7ish and had a bit of a time finding the apartment that susan, our couchsurfer host, was at. we eventually met up and susan and her boyfriend, a very kind and funny indian man (sadly i can't remember his name right now) and she lived on the 4th or 5th floor of an apartment complex with no elevator so i carried my bike up the stairs while evan unpacked some of his and made the trek upward. we settled in and enjoyed some good conversation before heading out on a wild adventure to a restaurant. we got lost, even with a gps and 2 smartphones; it was a sad but funny display of technology. my phone took us to a shady apartment complex, shame on you mr phone. we finally arrived at the restaurant where susan's two friends, tarule (to-rule, to-rule the world as he said, from turkey) and his girlfriend (sadly can't remember her name either, from columbia) were waiting for us. we had a wonderful evening just chatting and telling stories until late, then we all headed back to susan's where her neighbors were throwing a party so we just enjoyed more conversations and susan's delicious vegan cupcakes. evan and i always say how surprised we always are with our couchsurfing hosts, every single one of them have been very different and so much fun. we finally had to call it a night after we were all looking like zombies because it was so late. a great end to the day.