Following the death of Jim Thorpe in 1953, Thorpe's widow and third wife, Patricia struck up a deal with the town of Mauch Chunk when Oklahoma refused to erect a memorial to honor him. The town of Mauch Chunk was renamed Jim Thorpe and the athlete's remains moved to a monument site honoring Jim Thorpe.
We drove to the Lehigh Gorge State Park, unloaded the bikes and headed up the Lehigh Gorge Rail Trail.
The Reading and Northern Railroads parallel the trail and still carry freight and seasonal tourists.
As the freight train rode by us, I signaled my hand with a pull-down motion and the engineer gave us a "choo-choo" on the horn. :)
It reminded me of how much my dad loved trains...and biking. :)
The trail followed along the Lehigh River...
and then crossed the Northern and Reading Railroad lines.
Old telegraph/telephone poles also followed along the rail lines.
After stopping at a picnic table for to rest a bit and eat a snack, we headed about another 3 miles up the trail to Stoney Creek. When we were out in the sun, we were nice and warm...almost hot. But when we rode through the thick canopy of golden trees, we would get kind of chilly.
The Lehigh River seemed to be higher than normal...
...which made the rapids more swift...
...and more fun for the rafters going down the river.
There were only a few instances where we had an open view of the river along the trail. This overlook was on top of a wall that had been built for the railroads years before.
The Lehigh Gorge was a rainbow of autumn colors.
We turned around at Stoney Creek and headed back because we still wanted to bike the other direction to downtown Jim Thorpe.
When we got back to the parking lot, we ate our picnic lunch on a big rock...
...and then rode our bikes into Jim Thorpe. Chuck took this picture as we crossed over the river. He didn't know until we were looking at the pictures later that some kind of bird that looks like a rubber chicken was flying out in front of him.
When we reached Jim Thorpe, we locked up our bikes and walked to the train station where a Fall Foilage Festival was taking place.
We walked through the town that has been called the "Switzerland of America" by the Swiss tourist Board because of its scenery, mountainous location and architecture.
We walked in a couple of stores but what I was most impressed with was the St. Mark & John Episcopal Church.
We stepped inside where we could see this beautiful stain-glassed window.
We also could see how the church building was built right into the rock.
Bonnie and I walked around at a crafts bazaar that was being held across the street and I found some really cute earrings for $3 a pair! After our walking tour of the town of Jim Thorpe, we rode our bikes back to the car and headed back to the campground. Because it was a long day, we decided to eat out for dinner. We had noticed a restaurant near the campground that had outdoor seating so we stopped there for dinner.
Petrizzo's is an Italian restaurant and we each decided to split their small 12" pizza with our spouses. I don't know what they use for a ruler but the pizzas were anything but small. The pizza was delicious and baked on their own homemade dough.
Each couple could barely eat half of their pizza and it took an 18" box to take home all the leftovers. That was the biggest small pizza we had ever had!
We got back together later that evening for cards at Ken and Bonnie's. I think Lady Luck is starting to fall in the guys' favor now as the only game the girls won for the night was Sequence Dice. Oh well, you gotta let them win every once in awhile. :)
And you know what? After a spectacular day like today including biking almost 23 miles, we were certainly all winners!
We drove to the Lehigh Gorge State Park, unloaded the bikes and headed up the Lehigh Gorge Rail Trail.
The Reading and Northern Railroads parallel the trail and still carry freight and seasonal tourists.
It reminded me of how much my dad loved trains...and biking. :)
The trail followed along the Lehigh River...
and then crossed the Northern and Reading Railroad lines.
Old telegraph/telephone poles also followed along the rail lines.
After stopping at a picnic table for to rest a bit and eat a snack, we headed about another 3 miles up the trail to Stoney Creek. When we were out in the sun, we were nice and warm...almost hot. But when we rode through the thick canopy of golden trees, we would get kind of chilly.
The Lehigh River seemed to be higher than normal...
...which made the rapids more swift...
...and more fun for the rafters going down the river.
 |
| The rafting group pulled over for a break. |
The Lehigh Gorge was a rainbow of autumn colors.
We turned around at Stoney Creek and headed back because we still wanted to bike the other direction to downtown Jim Thorpe.
When we got back to the parking lot, we ate our picnic lunch on a big rock...
...and then rode our bikes into Jim Thorpe. Chuck took this picture as we crossed over the river. He didn't know until we were looking at the pictures later that some kind of bird that looks like a rubber chicken was flying out in front of him.
When we reached Jim Thorpe, we locked up our bikes and walked to the train station where a Fall Foilage Festival was taking place.
We walked through the town that has been called the "Switzerland of America" by the Swiss tourist Board because of its scenery, mountainous location and architecture.
We walked in a couple of stores but what I was most impressed with was the St. Mark & John Episcopal Church.
We stepped inside where we could see this beautiful stain-glassed window.
We also could see how the church building was built right into the rock.
Bonnie and I walked around at a crafts bazaar that was being held across the street and I found some really cute earrings for $3 a pair! After our walking tour of the town of Jim Thorpe, we rode our bikes back to the car and headed back to the campground. Because it was a long day, we decided to eat out for dinner. We had noticed a restaurant near the campground that had outdoor seating so we stopped there for dinner.
Petrizzo's is an Italian restaurant and we each decided to split their small 12" pizza with our spouses. I don't know what they use for a ruler but the pizzas were anything but small. The pizza was delicious and baked on their own homemade dough.
Each couple could barely eat half of their pizza and it took an 18" box to take home all the leftovers. That was the biggest small pizza we had ever had!
We got back together later that evening for cards at Ken and Bonnie's. I think Lady Luck is starting to fall in the guys' favor now as the only game the girls won for the night was Sequence Dice. Oh well, you gotta let them win every once in awhile. :)
And you know what? After a spectacular day like today including biking almost 23 miles, we were certainly all winners!
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