BIKE RIDE

       A bike ride! Pick a beautiful, sunny Spring day, find an old abandoned section of the original American superhighway, and what do you have? A perfect Frystown Assembly outing in a remote section of rural Pennsylvania. 

    What really made this bike ride a kick was the sheer enjoyment of being in Yahweh's creation, surrounded by the beauty of the nature He created for us. That, coupled with some of the greatest manmade marvels, made  this a special day indeed.

     There were ten of us that went on this dry run. As we had only learned of this experience from the Internet, we decided to give it a try.

     Pennsylvania's Turnpike is the original American four-lane, limited access highway in America, upon which our Interstate highway system is modeled. Built on an abandoned railroad right-of-way from the late 1800's, the original Pennsylvania Turnpike, opened in 1940, sported seven single bore tunnels. 

     As  traffic increased on the toll road throughout the 40's, 50's and 60's, it became obvious that a tunnel built for each direction, rather than the original single tunnels, had to be built to alleviate congestion. I can remember as a kid sometimes sitting on the Turnpike for what seemed like hours waiting  for our turn to go through the tunnel.  Channeling four high speed lanes of traffic into one lane each direction in the claustrophobic old tunnels created some serious problems.

      As a consequence of these mounting problems, the PA Turnpike Commission decided to build a second tunnel through most of the mountains. However, it was deemed cheaper to bypass the mountains altogether in three of  these instances. And so, this is where our bike ride comes in. Abandoning these three tunnels, the Turnpike Commission also abandoned  the roadway in which they fell. We rode an 8.5 mile stretch which contains two of  these tunnels, Rays Hill (the shortest tunnel on the old turnpike system) and Sideling Hill (the longest tunnel on the old system). The Sideling Hill Tunnel is so long (1.25 miles) that you cannot see one end from the other!

      This  was a walk down memory lane in many ways. It was a reminder, due to the remoteness of the mountains through which the old road passed, of a simpler time. It also brought to mind thoughts as to how it would be in our society today if suddenly all our superhighways were emptied of all traffic. What a different world it would be! We hope you enjoy some of the pictures we took on this ride, and perhaps you can plan to come with us when we do the "full ride!"

      One of the sisters from our assembly met us at the eastern terminus of the ride with a great lunch of sandwiches and drinks. Thanks! We needed that.

Ready to Go!		The Road Ahead
We have some catching up to do, Alex!
Short Break.		The long road ahead!
What we came to see!
Almost there!		The light at the end of the tunnel!

   We hope you enjoyed the photos and we all are looking forward to doing it again!

HalleluYAH!