Events: The 2021 Rapha Festive 500 Day Eight

Ride Distance: 26 Miles/ 202 Remain

(2021) There was a desire to log some significant miles regardless of the fact that the Rapha Festive 500, a challenge to riders to cover 500 kilometers from December 24-31st, had long moved out of reach. This year our goal was to discover as many schoolhouses as possible across the challenge, and today’s route was supposed to ride past numerous ones, but the remaining balance was too much to inspire us to ride heavily. With a misty morning and thick humidity, we rolled out of the service course with ambitious goals. As with the underlying message of the Festive 500, today’s route was plastic and ever-changing.

There were numerous routes considered for the final days of the Festive 500 where we tried to document the antique schoolhouses of Bucks County. Prior to riding the route was established before adding a couple of other stops. Then other school houses were remembered. Then the stops were added. How was this possible after all these scant miles into the Festive 500? 

L’Ecole on Greenhill Road dates back to 1858 according to records.

Today’s route dropped down to the banks of the Delaware River. Nearly ten miles into the ride we came upon the first schoolhouse on Greenhill Road. Hidden behind remarkable bushes and piled into a ravine that plunged to the Delaware River, L’Ecole as it is signed is an historic building. Per records, L’Ecole was built in 1858, but today it is hidden behind high bushes and fences. This stop was added at the last minute to the route to pass by as many antique schools as possible.

Up through Carversville, an older town that showcases a church, a restaurant, and an historic road, a slice of Americana as it were, the ride put the Delaware River behind it and climbed back to the central part of Bucks County. Here the route bisected state road 413 and turned north to visit another schoolhouse that once featured a County sign in front of it. One of the first structures to draw our attention to schoolhouses in the area, this one serves as a living space. With updates, the schoolhouse on state road 413/ Durham Road was one of the first schoolhouses we noticed to send us searching for antique school buildings.

To avoid the heavily traveled Durham Road, the route wound through Gardenville, a town where we finished our first successful Festive 500 years ago. Slogging along Point Pleasant Pike and pausing across from the quarry, a schoolhouse that has been making improvements over the years stood sentinel near the busy road (cover photo). The belfry, the long windows, and the student entrance betrayed the status of an old schoolhouse. Simple yet easy to pass, the schoolhouse on Point Pleasant Pike was an enjoyable sight on the schoolhouse tour.

Turning onto Valley Park Road, the upcoming Plumsteadville Schoolhouse was about to be finally photographed. Having passed the building three times throughout the Festive 500, it was finally about to be logged into the experience proper. Regularly passed on routes, the Plumstead Public School house, opened in 1878 per the facade, is an off-white building that is easily passed by on any given ride. Today it was passed to add to the total of schoolhouses after many miles of effort. With an added on garage, the schoolhouse has been updated over the years but still remains on a quiet plot of land that resembles the setting over a century ago. 

Plumstead Public School house, dated 1878, is located on Valley Park Road.

And that was the last schoolhouse of the 2021 Festive 500. There were four more scheduled to explore today but family members riding around the area took our attention. The misty weather wasn’t exactly inviting despite the above-average temperatures. To be honest we were relieved to deviate from the final schoolhouses for this year’s exploration. With 200 miles remaining, what did it matter if two local schoolhouses reserved for emergency were not included in this year’s collection? 

Perhaps the 2021 Rapha Festive 500 were possible if daily totals were prioritized. There were two schoolhouses that have been updated to serve as ice cream stores that were not reached. There is the Wrightstown Octagonal Schoolhouse, a structure on the National Historic Registry that was not visited. Along the way, there would be many other buildings that could have been categorized as schoolhouses that were not because of canceled rides. That’s the allure of the Festive 500: weather, priorities, time, luck, and support all have to come together to roll the distance. This year, our seventh attempt, looked favorable, but we struggled to complete the 500 kilometers. We’re ok with it, because 2022 will still show up despite having biffed the last four days of the challenge. We still got to see some cool school structures in only about 100 miles. That equated to nearly one schoolhouse every five miles.