Date: 2016-07-14
To: View Entry
Miles today: 16.0
Weather: broken clouds

Day 93- July 13, 2016Dregs here,I woke up still not feeling too well. We hiked the 4ish miles to Wind Gap and hitched in for a day of rest. We picked up a package from Chicken Hawks best friend at the post office and it was awesome! Thanks Jenny, Ellie and Daniel! First stop in town was a diner where I ordered a meal called the "hungry man" even though I hadn't been hungry in days. I somehow was able to finish my meal and almost enjoy it. Next was a hotel room and showers. Our first room reeked of smoke so we asked to be moved to another. The second room had a jacuzzi tub! I raced through all of the usual town errands with stormtrooper and even found some great cigars for cheap. By the end of the night I felt much better. Cheesecake at StormTroopers room was one of the highlights. A soak in the tub cleared up the last remnants of my illness! Chicken Hawk had the day off she dreamed of by resting in the hotel all day. Day 94- July 14, 2016We were late this morning to meeting trooper at the dunkin doughnuts before getting back to the trail. Dregs was still not feeling well and I had not gotten a great night sleep. We did make it there eventually yet when we went to order, our credit card was denied. I checked our balance on my phone and it looked like nothing strange was happening. Dregs called the card company and found out that a few weeks ago they had sent a letter to our house informing us that due to a security breach, our card would be deactivated and replaced. Go figure they only sent a letter to our home while we were on a thru hike. No call or email about our money source no longer working. Either way, dregs was able to convince the guy on the phone to overnight us a new card. This would mean that we would be taking two more half days of hiking in order to be in the next town where the card would be. With that situation figured out, we set out to find a hitch back to the trail. We stood out on a corner near a road for 20 minutes watching all of the large SUVs and trucks pass us by unwilling to even look our way. I tried doing a little dance and singing, but nothing got their attention. Eventually, a couple drove up to is in an orange element. The man said that him and his wife had been watching us from the Wendy's across the street where they were having breakfast. They said they were surprised that with all the vans and large cars going by, none of them had stopped. They helped us load our packs into the car and drove us the two miles up to the trail head. We were thankful that this couple helped us out! It would be our final full day in PA and the rocks were said to be the worst here. We headed up the only hill of the day and not long after were met by the trail of rocks and boulders. Dregs checked the whether and saw that it was supposed to rain. We booked it to a near by shelter and waited out a severe thunderstorm with trooper, karma, and a few other hikers. Once the rain stopped, we slowly made our way through the wet rocks and at one point, we got to a section of large slippery boulders that are probably the most dangerous surfaces we've faced. Toward the end of our day, dregs got stung by a bee as we apparently walked through a swarm. PA just had to throw in a thunderstorm and angry bees before we left. We finally made it the 16 miles to Delaware Water Gap where we heard a church would be doing a hiker feed as well as had a hostel and tenting area. The people there were super friendly and many of the congregation showed up for the potluck. They brought hotdogs, corn, Mac n cheese, beans, coleslaw, salad, desserts and much more. They said a group welcome and prayer before letting the 17 hikers grab food first with the congregation following. We all sat at tables together and shared our journeys with the people of the church. It was a really cool way they have connected with this hiker community. After dinner, we showered up and dregs went to hang out with trooper and stick, who had just hiked 30 miles to catch us. It's been a good day and we are happy to be out of PA.