Southern Sojourn

Riding in southern Jersey is different than riding any where else in the state. Its very rural, flat and a little strange. There are a lot of empty roads with almost no traffic. I try to get down south a couple times a year just to explore a little and revisit some of the nicer roads I have found. This past Saturday I decided to do my Fort Mott ride again. This ride starts just north of the Delaware Memorial Bridge so it's easy to get to. I had done this ride a couple of years ago and wanted to come back and explore the area again.

There is really nothing special about this area. It is mostly composed of a lot of farmland an rural roads as well as some wet lands in and around the Delaware. There aren't a lot of towns in this area and the ones that are, like Salem are a little old and run down. Still it is a nice place to ride especially if you like flat roads with no traffic.

From our starting point at Fort Mott State Park it took us about 7 miles to get through the town of Salem and out to the farmlands. Along the way Mary picked up a hugh spike that went through her tire and stuck into her rim tap. Needless to say the tire when flat instantly. At least it was easy to find out where the hole was. A quick tube change and we were on our way again.

Once we got into the farmlands there was a lot of nothing but it was a good nothing. No cars no hills just quiet roads and easy cruising. We had a little bit of a head wind but this was a good sign for the return trip. Last time I rode down this way there was a house that had hundreds of polka dot pots strewn on the lawn. It was one of those strange things you see down here. This time most of the polka dots pots were gone. The weather was a little overcast so I didn't take a lot of pictures if you want to see the pictures from my last trips down here you can see them here and here

Our first rest stop was in the town of Alloway at Bud's deli. It's an old deli but is has all the usually stuff and a nice table to sit at. There aren't many places to stop down south so you don't have a lot of choices.

After Alloway we continued south and ran into some rolling hills. Normally I won't have notice the hills but the flatness of the first part of the ride make them seem steeper then they really were.

We made it down to the town of Roadster (yea, I never heard of it either). This was new territory for me and although I new exactly where I was on my map it felt like the middle of no where or actually we where 10 miles south of no where in to the territory of "where the heck are we"

Once we started heading back we had a really nice tail wind which felt good. The deli/bait & tackle/liquor store that I wanted to stop for the second rest stop was abandon so we just continued on. Luckily about 7 miles later we found a post office/deli to stop at. It was a real post office on the left side with a small deli on the right. When I say small I mean the entire deli was about 10 square feet. You take one step through the door and you hit the counter to your left is a cold case with drinks. On the counter is a box of doughnuts and to the right is a small two person table. That's it. But is was a perfect unexpected stop and after a quick break we were one our way again.

We had a tail wind all the way back which made the return trip back easy. All in all it was a good ride and something I will do again in the future. Maybe in the fall when all the farms are full of crops.