Date: 2010-09-21
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Miles today: 0.0

Second entry of the day! I can't believe this rain. There is a large dome sunlight on top of this shelter (501). The rain is unrelenting as is the carpet bombing of acorns falling and hitting the roof. It's not even possible to go out and pee without getting soaked, the options being to pee in a bottle or stand in the door. Wolfman bought a blow gun at Cabelas the other day (acorn) so that was entertaining for an hour or so, as we shot at an apple across the shelter. I keep up with news on my Iphone as much as I can. The story about the mega church pastor intrigues me. How can these guys be real if they are driving 350,000 Bentleys, wearing 5000 dollar suits and living in Mansions. Not how Jesus rolled but that's my opinion. Was thrilled to see the Phillies clinched the division....Again!! I miss baseball games; usually I would have gone to 20 or so by now. I also miss golf and the beach. My Golf game is gonna be hurting next spring for sure.I actually like the PA woods. Alot of hikers are discouraged or bored by the monotony of the mid Atlantic states but it hasn't been bad. We get awesome views of farm lands from the ridges. I do miss the overall nature experience though. For the past 2-300 miles we have been hitting towns and roads all the time, even hiking near busy highways. We don't go more than a day or two without getting into a town. I might have actually gained weight since NY!! They call it the deli state. We are looking forward to Virginia and fall in the Shenendoah promises to yield hiker satisfaction. We may do the Quad state challenge. A 47 mile trek covering (acorn) PA, Maryland, WV, and into Virginia in less than 24 hours. Reset did the Conneticut challenge (57 miles) but he has 6 foot legs and was lacking common sense that week. 57 miles is nuts, and I warned him of potential medical consequences. Mainly kidney failure (acorn). But he made it. Reset is a solid dude and we all love him a d his 70's Afro.I've haven't seen this much rain since I was in a monsoon in Korea. My third day stationed there, and my 21st b-day spent powerless and waterless in a five day terrential downpour.So Stokers friend Mike goes to Lehigh University about 30 mins from the trail. He picked 5 of us up from the trail in a Subaru compact. He took us to his buddies house who lives with a bunch of his boys all on the swim team and in the same Frat. We were going to sleep in the basement on couches, although neither his friend or any of the other 6 guys that lived there knew. If you could see their faces when they walked into their living room to find it filled with 5 shirtless bearded men. They were so down though. They welcomed us like old friends, and were thrilled to hear our stories. Conviently they had a pre-game kegger that night and we brushed up on our beer pong skills. The house next door was also having a party and we were invited to that as well. When students found out who we were and what we were doing they were absolutely fascinated, intrigued and perhaps even jealous. Lehigh is mostly really affluent kids, and they had a romantic fascination with our journey. At one point a bunch of Frat boys walking thru from the other party made a scene by getting loud and confrontational. Reset on his comical southern accent had been yelling (acorn) "hi" and "bye" to everyone when this group started yelling "who the hell are you freaks". After a shoving us a bit, we tried to explain and apologize although we had done nothing wrong. After 5 minutes they were still loud and just being bully punks. I left chill hiker mode.....I morphed back to Army Scout mode, to Philly with my boys mode. I was pissed and believe me not one of these dudes was anything but talk.   I stepped right into the face of the instigator and said "enough talking my man, if you really have that much of a problem, quit your talking, clench your fist and throw it at my face and we'll just see what happens". I'm sure he realized he was not dealing with a freaky hippie type when I stared him in the eyes. His bluff was called. I said we are appalacian trail hikers, and the most chill people you'll ever meet". With that they all smiled and blew it off. He shook my hand and we hugged it out with a shoulder bump. Thank God, getting in a fight on the AT would make me bitter. I'm usually a good diffuser, and I'm glad that's as far as it got. The next day the swimmers told us those guys always cause trouble and nobody likes them. On Sunday after a zero day at college it was back to the trail. It made me miss college, and a trip to the college bookstore to get a coffee reminded me of those good old days. It also reminded me that part of my hike is supposed to be figuring out my future which will certainly include more college. I had been floating these ideas....medical school, nurse practioner or nurse anesthetist. I've pretty much cut out medical school. Doctors are too serious, and I enjoy the holistic nature of nursing. Nurse Anesthetetist make doctor money but slave in the OR with patients that are under. I think some kind of nurse practioner job, and perhaps a teaching gig on the side. Anyway I've strayed, but I spend alot of time thinking about this. It's almost time for our next pizza delivery of the day......gotta go.