Tour De Camden County

Slept in again. In fact, I slept longer than I'd planned. I didn't get out of the apartment until almost noon! I was going to go to the Haddon Township Library first and then take the bike to Haddonfield to get the tire fixed, but since I got up so late, I decided to reverse it. I walked to Collingswood and took the PATCO to Haddonfield, bike and all.

(Yes, you can take your bike on the PATCO. I don't normally bring it along on the train - it's easier to walk in Philly - but I didn't feel like hiking all the way to Haddonfield. And both the Lindenwauld and Philadelphia trains were running on the same track today. I don't know why. Maybe they were doing repairs on the other track.)

The bike shop is two blocks from the Haddonfield PATCO/Bus Station, so I was able to get there right away. Freeride Bike Shop is smaller than the Cherry Hill store, but they're just as knowledgeable and a lot easier to get to. Not only was the boy there able to replace the inner tube and the very thin tire, he found the reason the inner tube kept deflating every couple of months. There was a small bit of metal stuck in the skimpy old tire, which I've had since I bought the bike over 12 years ago. (Wanna know how old the bike is? I bought it from Ames shortly before they went out of business.)

I went for a short stroll in Haddonfield after I paid for my new tire and a couple of inner tubes and the tire was back on the bike. There was nothing interesting at the toy shop and I didn't need anything else, so I next decided it was time for a late lunch. I went to the Italian deli/sandwich shop a block from the bike shop and the PATCO and had a tasty cabbage, tomato, and meat soup, two oatmeal-raisin-nut cookies, oyster crackers, and hot chocolate for lunch. The hot chocolate was watery and tasted like it was from a mix, but the cookies and soup were home-made and tasted divine. The soup had lots of big cabbage and tomato pieces and was just spicy enough to keep me warm.

Headed through Haddonfield to Westmont and down to Cuthbert Road after lunch, finally ended up at the Haddon Township Library. There actually wasn't a lot to do there. There were no kids' books to put away and no DVDs that needed to be shelved. They have a lot of kids who volunteer on weekends. I organized the kids' DVDs and some children's books and headed out.

I made a quick stop at Super Fresh next for carrots and grits, then rode home. It had been sunny, breezy, and warmer than it has been (though still fairly chilly) earlier, but it got cloudy after I got out of the deli. I headed straight home after I left Super Fresh just in case the weather got uglier.

Thankfully, it never did. I spent the remaining afternoon and evening at home, watching more Danny Kaye movies and working on the blanket I'm crocheting for the American Girl dolls. The two I did tonight are among Kaye's lesser-known vehicles. Knock On Wood had Kaye as a troubled ventriloquist who seeks help from a lovely female psychologist to find out why he insults women with his dummies every time they get marriage-minded. There are spies after him, too, looking for the top-secret blueprints hidden in the dummy.

Other than the really cute dance number to the title song, this was the only Kaye vehicle so far I wasn't crazy about. It came off as a poor attempt to cross the troubled nervous Nellie involved with conspiracies of Walter Mitty with On the Riviera's nightclub routines. I really could have done with more of Kaye's genuinely sweet relationship with the woman psychologist and less of the spies.

On the Double, which I ran while having Turkey Cutlets in Lemon-Yogurt Sauce and roasted Brussels sprouts for dinner, was much better. Once again, Danny is back in On the Riviera/Wonder Man territory, a nervous guy impersonating a high-ranking hero. This time, however, there's a lot more than just a gangster going to jail or an airplane contract at stake. Kaye is a very nervous officer in World War II with a flare for impersonations, including one of a high-ranking British officer. When he and his buddy are caught trying to sneak off their base, he's brought back and told to either play a decoy for the Major...or be jailed for impersonating an officer. He has second thoughts when he discovers that the officer is involved with the Allied invasion of Europe...and the Nazis are after his head!

Basically, this is a variation on On the Riviera...but replacing the nightclub backdrop with the war story was a smart idea. There's a lot more riding on Kaye's impersonation this time, and it makes for a far more interesting movie. I liked the wife here, too - she was a bit more passionate.

Also helpful was the premise that this was a semi-realistic "documentary" of how England really won the war. It gave it a look closer to 70s movies like Caberet than to Kaye's earlier Technicolor vehicles. And speaking of Caberet, you've never lived until you've seen Kaye in Marlene Dietrich drag pursued by a drunk and love-lorn German officer!