July 4: Rest Day (Philadelphia, PA)

For 36 blessed hours in the home of Jason and Melissa Rubin in Center City, Philly, I was no longer Sal Attanasio, bike tourist extraordinaire, feared by men and adored by women and small domesticated animals.  I biked no miles, shot no photos and consumed exactly zero calories of LukOil gas station food.  Instead, I was just Uncle Sal, grateful guest and playmate to the Rubins' cute-as-bugs'-ears daughters, Anya and Chelsea.  For this oh, so brief time I enjoyed a sliver of what most people call "normal life."




The Rubinettes: Chelsea and Anya


My day started bright and early a little after seven when Chelsea climbed into my bed and fed me slices of miniature wooden pizzas topped with plastic pepperoni, tomatoes and potato chips--freshly "baked" in a tiny child's oven. After a more substantial breakfast of (actual, edible) blueberry pancakes with Ma and Pa Rubin, I spent hours on Jay's laptop obsessively recapping bike tour day 1 and struggling to upload camera and Web photos for the edification of my vast blog audience.

In the early afternoon I took a break from digital dorkery to meet Jay and Melissa at a cookout in the home of their friends Dan and Missy.  Dan's a really interesting guy; at roughly my age he's a skilled skateboarder and makes a living selling items on Ebay. I also met Brian, who works in grant development at the Jewish Federation, and his wife Jessica.  In the company of these new friends I replenished muscle glycogen with grilled veggie burgers, fresh fruit and angel food cake. The sight of Jason, my friend of twenty-plus years, splashing around shirtless in a kiddie pool was quite the aid to digestion.    

After lunch, I joined everyone's kids in a few tense rounds of hide-and-seek in Dan and Missy's spacious townhouse.  Then I kicked back and read pretty much every last childrens' book in the place--roughly the word count of the first three Harry Potter novels--to Anya and Chelsea.

Heartfelt thanks to Jay and Melissa for opening their home to this sweaty, stinky cyclist and making my stopover in Philly so memorable.