Date: 2015-06-23
From: Campsite 1259

To: Wind gap
Miles today: 18.8
Weather: overcast clouds

Happy 31st anniversary to us. Yes, 31 years ago we were married. Who would have thought we would be celebrating our 31st anniversary on the AT? We will certainly remember this day.   Count is experiencing several new blisters. He tended to those this morning hoping to have some relief from the pain. He started using Injini socks. Hopefully this will help.   We hiked for miles over rocks. That was the norm for today - rocks. It sure didn't make our feet feel any better. But, at least the rocks were dry.    Lavender was having a tough day mentally. It isn't always the physical challenge of the trail. Anyone can push through the physical aspect. The mental aspect is tougher to work through. Just as she was coming to grips with having to hike another day over rocks, Count stopped. There to the side of the trail was a bear. It looked at Count and hurried down the rock it was standing on. That actually gave Lavender's mental attitude a boost. Strange how one minute you want to quit and the next, because of something you see, you can continue. We were taking our morning break when who bounces along? Outlier. We haven't seen her since Caledonia. It was great to see her. So we caught up a bit with how she was doing. We had decided we were getting off the trail in Wind Gap. The weather was to be bad storms in the early evening. Since it was our anniversary, we decided we needed a break. And, it was humid, humid today.   We all sarted hiking again. It was nice to have conversation with someone while hiking over rocks. Even though the trail was the same, it seemed a bit better when shared with a fellow hiker.   Count was leading us up the trail when he stopped suddenly. He almost stepped on another snake. It slithered off the trail and we continued on.      We had a few drops of rain two times. We could hear the thunder. Somehow, we skirted the rain. We arrived at Wind Gap crossing. We could see the rain coming. We had to walk 2.5 miles to our hotel. We had to get to our hotel fast. We didn't want to get soaked.   Did you know, hitch hiking in Pennsylvania is illegal? Well, Lavender saw a work van pulling out of a development. She saw the van had its turn signal on the direction we were heading. So, Lavender asked the driver if he would take us to the grocery store. He said yes. Count didn't see her asking for a ride. So he had continued walking. He hurried back to climb in the van with Outlier and Lavender . Off we went to the grocery store. We bought some fresh fruit, salad, cold drinks and Epsom salts. Now, we still had 1.5 miles to the hotel. Lavender saw a young man getting into a pick up truck. She asked him for a lift to the hotel. He said yes.   We crawled into the back of the truck. Off we went.    We checked into the hotel. We turned the air conditioning on high as we were hot and sweaty. We took off our sweaty boots and socks. And we took showers. Then the rain started. The wind blew. We were glad we were in a hotel. Then, the electricity went out. Who would have thought we had to use our headlights in a hotel? It has been 4 hours, we still have no electricity, no air conditioning, no water. Guess we should have stayed in our tent. But, at least we are dry. We had pizza delivered along with our salad for dinner eaten by candle light. Oh, the stories we have from hiking the AT. Oh, it did storm again. So, we are dry - hot but dry!