“I get bored easily, so any time I saw an opportunity to take a new street, I would.”
These are the words of Doug Anthony, F&M professor of history and director of international studies program. During Pennsylvania’s stay-at-home order in the spring and summer, riding became the professor’s primary form of exercise. He lives in Chestnut Hill, in the northwest part of the City of Lancaster, and would ride through downtown and the southeast, toward County Park. He got a feel for the city streets very quickly.
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Image Credit: Charles Beyl
As he developed more biking stamina and strength, the hills in the southwest part of the city started looking good. That’s the part of the city he knew the least, and once he started running out of new pavement there, it was a short step to thinking about hitting every block of each street and named alley inside the city limits.
And so he did.
“In May it was time to check a map, so I downloaded the city zoning map and looked for what I missed,” he says. “There were a handful of subdivisions I had assumed were outside the city limits, out Pitney Road and Lampeter Road, that were pretty straightforward once I knew to ride them. But a couple of spots I would never have found without the map, one of them a few streets tucked in between the southern tip of the city and County Park, and part of a little enclave near the Catholic Cemetery in the southwest.”
Once he hit those spots, he had to go back to the map to check his work. He found a couple of spots he had missed, but knocked those out the week Pennsylvania eased its restrictions.
“I’ve lived here for almost 25 years but only now do I feel like I have a decent handle on the lay of the land,” he says. “I’m glad I did it.”