DQ always saves the day.

July 7, 2011

Start:  1174 Days Inn Lickdale, Pa.
End:   1185.7 Applebee campsite
Total:  11.7

The Days Inn in Lickdale, Pa is the quietness hotel that I have ever slept in.  I got to sleep in until eight.  Then there was even a waffle maker included in the continental breakfast.  The waffle maker wasn't even located in a spot messy with waffle batter, syrup, and butter.  The breakfast bar was clean.  After that was a rerun of the Daley Show, and Robert Report.  I did some homework to today which took hours.  I finished one assignment, and got a start on my final two.  Overall a productive morning. 

I hit subway, then as I'm leaving a storm hits, so I go to DQ and get a Blizzard.  It passes in fifteen minutes, So I head over to the road that I need to hitch, and start thumping it.  A glamorous dressed lady walks by me on the sidewalk, I'm perplexed at why she's dressed so nice.  I say hello, and am greeted back with a very deep and masculine hello.  Looking closer, I see that she isn't really a she, but a transvestite on her way to either the DQ, or the truck stop next door.  I don't get a chance to see where she heads, as a pickup is pulling over for me.  Small town people are an interesting bunch.

I get a ride back to the trail and cross a nice 131 year old iron bridge while Bonnie Tyler's, Total Eclipse of the Heart is stuck in my head.  Both Subway and DQ had awesome 80's xm stations playing, and I can't get it out of my head.  A quick cross under I-81 makes me realize, that under interstate bridges is often much nicer then on them. 

It's poison ivy from hear on out today, but I make great time on flattish trail.  Some gnarly rock sections are present though, where the trail literally turns to a pile of rocks.  Darkness comes soon and I camp at what's named the Applebee campsite. An odd name considering that there are no Applebee's nearbye. 

I head on another trail to water from the Pilgrim's Rush spring.  According to a stone monument placed like a large gravestone in the woods was, "named by Count Nicholas Ludwig Von Zinzendorf.  Who with Conrad Weisser and Moravian missionaries rested here on their way to visit Shawnee Indians in Wyoming."  That was back in 1742.  What were they doing?

Applebee camp seems like a nice spot, near some old mine, in the forest.  The ground is even, and holds only a few small roots to camp on.

The picture is a rocky stretch of trail, that I encountered today.