Day 1: King of Prussia, PA, to Doylestown

May 04, 2025

Day 1: King of Prussia, PA, to Doylestown

Today is my first day of my second attempt to bicycle around the world. After putting my panniers on my bicycle I noticed there was a leak on the valve of the front tire. I tightened the valve nut and tried my best to fix it. It either stopped leaking air or just has a slow leak. I don’t have a spare tubeless valve to replace the faulty one so I guess I’ll just have pray that the bike can get me to my Warmshowers host’s place in Doylestown later today.

The forecast indicated rain starting in the afternoon and will go on for the next several days. I wanted to get on the road before the rain so at around 10 AM I bid farewell to my housemate Brooks and my landlady Merritt, along with the three dogs and a house chicken.

I caught the Chester Valley Trail about a mile down the road and took it to the Schuylkill River Trail in Norristown. I rode on the SRT to the house that used to be a bicycle shop in Conshohocken. That place is special to me because that’s where I started my 2018 across the US bike tour. This time, I’m riding on the Adventure Cycling Association’s Atlantic Coast Route starting at that house.

While taking a break there, I met a cyclist named Ed. I told him that I’m riding to Canada first then around the world. I told him meeting him is a good sign since one of my best friends’ name is Ed. He admired my bicycle since it’s a belt driven bike.

From the house in Conshohocken I rode on the shoulder on the local roads, following the direction on the Ride with GPS app. I arrived in the town of Ambler around noon.

Since I’ve never been to Ambler, I walked my bike along the main street of the town to see what this town has to offer. It’s a cute little town with a theater and many restaurants. I ended up getting a double chocolate brownie and a strawberry watermelon iced tea at Pie and Plate Cafe. The owner chatted with me for a bit. He told me about his friend who drove a car all over the world and met his French wife in Thailand. There are some very interesting people in the world indeed.

As I was sitting in the cafe, it began to rain heavily outside. I texted my Warmshowers host Shary and told her my arrival time would be later, around 3 to 4 PM.

I waited for the rain to die down before I left the cafe to continue my ride. Soon I was wet so I put on my rain jacket. Shary called me to offer me a ride to her house if I needed it. That was very nice of her, but I declined since I was going at a good pace and didn’t want to get a car ride on the first day of my tour.

At around 3:15 PM, I reached her house in Doylestown. I rode just shy of 33 miles today, which is more than I expected. I wanted to ride only about 25 miles on the first day to prevent body aches on the second day. I guess I’ll have to see what happens to my body tomorrow.

I met Shary, who is a painter. Her website is SharyArt.com. Her husband Fred is a patent lawyer. After changing to dry clothes, I chatted with Shary about traveling and bike touring. She showed me two photo albums of her other property in Costa Rica and invited me to go there. The only issue is that it’ll be hard to cycle there.

Fred, Shary, and I then played my favorite board game, Settlers of Catan. I haven’t played that game in over ten years. We had a good time and Fred won the game by a large margin.

For dinner, we ate at Baci Ristorante where I had a plate of linguine with chicken. Over dinner, I learned that both Fred and Shary have traveled to many places and seemed to have lived multiple lives. I wish that I can be like them when I get older.

We came back home at 8 PM and as I’m writing this blog post I already feel tired. I will take a shower soon before I go to bed. Tomorrow, I will only ride about 12 miles to Lambertville, NJ, to another Warmshowers host’s place.