Date: 2006-10-27
From: Windsor Furnace 

To: Port Clinton, Hamburg Microtel Inn
Miles today: 6.1
Weather: light rain

Hiked in to Port Clinton today. Pretty uneventful. Passed by two springs with Indian names: Pocahontas and Minnehaha. Climbed a short hill and then went down the other side to the road and had to cross under the Interstate. A bit eerie that was. And dingy too. Then followed the Schuylkill River to the road that took me into Port Clinton. The church there plays bells on the hour, not just chimes, but songs. Cool. The town is just two streets, but one of them becomes the highway so it is very noisey with traffic. It's lunchtime - I timed my arrival perfectly - and so I head up to the Port Clinton Hotel for lunch. Many nobos have written in the registers north of here that PC is not hiker friendly, but I am going to take my chances as I heard the food is not to be missed. I saddle up to the bar and it takes a while for the bartender to greet me and offer me a menu. I can tell that she is running both the bar and the restaurant by herself, and I have no where to be so I wait patiently. Eventually, she gets to me and I order a Yuengling Black and Tan (I wish this brewery distributed in GA) and then I order a bacon cheeseburger and fries (gotta have a burger in PA so I can compare it to Marlows!) While the hotel has nothing on Marlows as far as flavor goes, they definitely have them beat in portion size. The meat of the burger was as big as a bread plate - it had to be at least a pound and the small fries were as big as a bag of frozen Ore-Idas! And believe it or not I about finished it all! The bartender showed she had a sense of humor when I asked for another (beer that is) when she asked me if I meant the fries! At some point, the other customers in the bar left leaving me as the only patron, so the bartender hands me the TV remote and I get to watch an episode of CSI - Miami. As I am chillin', three men come in to the bar for lunch and recognizing that I am a hiker strike up a conversation. This turns into an offer of a ride to Hamburg which I accept so that I can check out the Microtel Inn. It is supposed to storm hard tonight and the Microtel has free long distance phone which means I can make some phone calls to folks at home seeking advice to an offer that has been made to me.Before reserving the room, I do check in with Bag of Tricks, local trail angel, but given that my pocketmail failed to receive his email in time earlier this week, making plans this late in the day/weekend is just too complicated for this tired hiker to work out. So into the hotel I go. I call BP's cell phone to let him know where I am and to invite him to join me if he can make it. I enjoy a hot relaxing shower and then I set about getting advice from friends and family. You see, when I was in Palmerton I received an offer to go back to work. My principal offered me essentially my same position (that I had before I left for this journey) beginning in January. So all week, I have been thinking about what to do: get off the trail and go back to work or stay on the trail for the sake of completing this journey in one continuous section and pass up this career opportunity? After talking to my close family and friends and dealing with my own thoughts, feelings and emotions, I have decided to take the offer to go back to work. I will hike to Harpers Ferry or maybe further, getting off the trail before Thanksgiving. Then my thru-hike will become a scramble. I'll hike GA and NC on weekends and holidays, complete a longer section over spring break in April and then finish my thru-hike next summer. This will enable me to meet other life goals as well as enjoy my thru-hike as I really want it to be, a leisurely, social experience not a solitary push to beat the winter weather. And for those of you who worried about how this southern girl who knows nothing of snow and ice was going to tackle the Smokies in the winter, you can rest your minds now knowing that I will wait until spring or summer to conquer those mountains.A knock at the door. It's BP! He got my message and has finally caught up with me. Yea! I will no longer be hiking alone.We spend many hours catching up and making plans before drifting off to sleep well after midnight.For those of you keeping score in the Battle of the A.T.: Superstar, 6; PA Rocks, 2.Happy Hiking,Superstarwww.trailjournals.com/happyhiker------------------------------Sent via PocketMailEmail Anywherewww.pocketmail.com