Delaware Water Gap, PA,  June 6

Deer came to call during the night, each time waking me. One even nosed the tent until I slapped the wall.

What a wonderful day for riding—cool temperatures, sunny skies,  easy directions and well-signed roads, the river on one side of me or the other as I wove back and forth from NJ into PA. Tomorrow I cross back into NJ before rolling into New York.

On the outskirts of Philipsburg I came upon a discard pile belonging to the Philipsburg Marble Co. The shop was cutting and polishing huge slabs of the stone cut from the quarry above us. The color and pattern of some of the broken pieces were identical to Betty’s kitchen countertops.

Riding along quietly allows me to roll almost right up to wildlife before they realize I exist. Today a deer standing on a rise on the road ahead was silhouetted in the mist. Another noshing on tender soybean plants took to panicked flight when it finally noticed me. It made great leaping bounds across the field. A groundhog bumbled back to his burrow after seeing me.

My slow pace through Portland, PA gave me chance to notice Alexandra & Nicolay Chocolates. This was an interest beyond my passion for dark chocolate; the rest of the village seemed to be populated by smoke shops or empty stores. Curiosity piqued and mouth watering, in I stepped.

Nicolay Mazhirov and his wife Alexandra moved to Portland several years ago after operating a chocolate shop in the Bensonhurst section of Brooklyn for nearly 20 years. They had moved there from Odessa, Russia, where they operated a small shop.

“It gets too crazy there (New York) and I wanted to be where I can sit on my porch and see all the beautiful greenery that is here,” explained Nicolay with a Russian accent.

Alexandra earned a degree in Chocolatology from the Institute of Chocolate Technology in Odessa. Using recipes from the court of Russia’s last Czar Nicolay, they create premium, all natural, hand-made chocolate products that are individually wrapped.

I was given three samples—a candied lime rind enrobed in dark chocolate, a candied plum stuffed with an almond and washed in dark chocolate and a dark chocolate almond cluster. Absolute chocolate Nirvana.

Nicolay then explained the difference between how Hershey makes chocolate and how he does. Where Hershey may fold/stir chocolate for 12 hours, Nicolay takes 24 hours to make the chocolate smoother, silkier and to deepen its intensity. That was but one of the many differences between mass made and hand-made.

But how can you make a living in an unimpressive little town like Portland on the banks of the Delaware River in upstate PA? I asked. He has two very big accounts, one of which is Bloomingdale’s in NYC, plus he has a very big Internet business.  www.alexandraandnicolay.com

The other gem in Portland is right next door to the chocolate shop—Frederick Duckloe & Bros., Inc., family-owned American furniture makers since 1859. The quality of their work is such that they were commissioned to reproduce a chair and settee in Independence Hall. In 1980, the Smithsonian asked Duckloe to reproduce a circa-1800 chairs from its National Museum of American History. All of that museum-quality furniture is produced in a small building in a small Pennsylvania town that most people zip through in a car.  www.duckloe.com

Yet another claim to fame
from tiny Portland.


To understand why I'm riding and raising money, please go to the first post--April 26.
To make a donation to the ALSA, please go to: http://web.alsa.org/goto/deirdresride