Date: 2012-06-30
From: US 30 at Wind Gap

To: Delaware Water Gap
Miles today: 15.8
Weather: overcast clouds

Not one of my better days...we checked out of our cozy room and drove to the start spot. Hillbilly was there so SOS hiked off and I drove Hillbilly to K-Mart after giving him food for breakfast. He was worried that he "smelled" and asked me if I could smell him...I just smiled and told him I was so used to hikers after 3 3/4 months that it didn't bother me one bit. I recognized him immediately this morning although we had never met because SOS told me about him doing a face plant yesterday and he had the scars on his face. I got a few "surprises" for the grandkids and then found a post office to mail them off. I also visited a shop that was a combo antique, consignment and local artist store. There was a beautiful round table cloth all hand stitched with flowers, leaves, and vines. It was selling for $1.00 so now I own it and will use it for tea parties with my grandbabies (I still call them babies even though they are growing up...way too fast!) We got a call from our neighborhood friend, Jim, who does lots of work at our house...he had been down to the house to check on things since a huge storm went through yesterday and knocked out all power. He called again and has everything under control...we REALLY APPRECIATE all he does for us...THANKS JIM!!Next stop was in the next little town called Pen Argyl. The library is in a house. It is small and has no computer system...they still use cards and a hand stamp. However, a local man is trying to raise money to get computers for them. He is running for his fundraiser and has done several 50 milers. I wish him good luck! Here is where my day deteriorated...the drive to our next home at the Mohican Outdoor Center was nerve wracking to say the least. The roads deteriorated in direct proportion to my deteriorating frame of mind! Between the interstate, the road work, the detours, and me missing a turn, it was downhill literally and figuratively...when I got to where Edith Chloe told me was the spot...there was nothing there and I was in the woods on a deeply rutted narrow dirt road. So I called the number of the place and they told me to just keep driving forward and I would find them..and I did. Our cabin was a disappointment on many levels but here we are so we will smile and make the best of it...I didn't stay in the cabin long before I decided I would be better off driving to get SOS even though it meant going back on the same roads I had just survived. By the time I got to Delaware Water Gap, I decided that I wasn't driving one more centimeter today. I called Nancy (Taginalong) because I knew she was supposed to be in the area. Well, as we were talking, I saw her husband cross the road and there she was talking to me from a few feet away! I usually drive SOS back after picking him up but I just couldn't do it today so he drove us back. I fixed some dinner (chicken sausages, baked beans and salad) and we came up to the main lodge where we are the only two people enjoying the music by a man playing a guitar and a woman singing. They are good and are doing "oldies" so I am writing and singing along...best part of my day!! ROAD Name of the DAY:Can't remember the name and don't want to go to the car and find it....so maybe tomorrow....SOS here:The rocks are nearly gone! Praise the Lord. Pennsylvania is nearly gone. I have three tenths of a mile to hike before I reach the New Jersey border. We did decided to sleep in New Jersey tonight.Because I was hiking North, today it was a very lonely - I did not see anybody besides Hillbilly right at the start - until I was three miles from Delaware Water Gap and that was a ridge runner and a lady hiking with him. Shortly after that, right at the vista, I met two gentlemen who had just hiked up for the view and a southbound backpacker who was sweating profusely and appeared to be exhausted from the hike up.I missed a turn on the way down and when I realized there were no blazes for awhile I backtracked to find them and proceeded down to Trail Mama. Before I hiked the last mile, I was passed by 4 northbounders including Snagglepuss. My thoughts turned to my grandparents today. My mother's father, James, died in 1930 when she was six so she barely remembers him. What I do know is that he was a World War I veteran who married my grandmother just before he left for the war. Four days short of being married nine months their first daughter, Virginia, was born. They had six children together Virginia, Betty, James, Carol (my mother), Richard and Dorothy (Dolly). Grandma Jolly lived just two blocks from us in Rome City IN and when I was very little she gave me two prized possessions - the first was a plaster motif of the End of the Trail. It now hangs in my bathroom. The other was an Aunt Jemima syrup dispenser - I have not been able to locate it. She passed away when before I turned 10.I got to know her second husband. I mowed his yard and he lived in a very small little house in the next block from where we lived. He lived to be almost hundred and died while I was in college attending Indiana University, Bloomington. I think he took a shine to me or at least I felt he did because he would take me fishing with him. I remember one time he told me how he could tell time by looking at the sun - I was impressed. I was also impressed that he remembered soldiers going off to fight in the Spanish American War - that is a wow for a history major. He gave me a crossbow he made by hand - I wish I still had it.My father's dad died when I was only four. I just barely remember going to my Grandpa and Grandma Summers' home near Kalamazoo MI. What I remember about the Summers is that there were alot of us and we got together every year for a Summers - Capman reunion at Sand Lake MI. Everyone came to those reuions except Aunt Vera who lived on the West Coast. My father had 6 brothers and 4 sisters. I believe the order was Vera, Leon, John, Ronald, Roy, Wayne, Vivian, Jim/Eldon (my dad), Virginia, Margaret and Carl. Uncle Carl is the only one still living.I have two fond memories of Grandma Summers. The first is how good it felt to sit on her lap and have her hug me. The second is her playing the harmonica on a summer evening in our front yard in Rome City IN. I was impressed. I felt blessed that she always remembered my birthday even though she had 40+ grandchildren. I did have the advantage because I was born on February 14th - Valentine's Day.Thank God for the blessing of grandparents who make you feel loved!