Date: 2009-08-23
From: Palmerton, PA

To: Boiling Springs, PA
Miles today: 615.0

So we've made it through the famous or infamous Pennsylvania Rocks. Our time in PA has been AMAZING. PA like NY for us was a state that we decided to take our time to enjoy. One of the great stops of PA was in Port Clinton. Port Clinton itself was not a booming town by any means. In fact it was quite the depressing town. However, our fellow hiker Homeschool picked us up. We hiked with Homeschool through most of Maine and part of New Hampshire where at Crawford Notch he had to get off the trail due to food poisoning and dehydration. Not good. However, since he was home he and his family took us in and really gave us the royal treatment! As you know one of the things we hikers most crave starts with F and ends with OOD. Homeschools parents hooked us up. Homeschool cooked us an amazing Pennsylvania Dutch breakfast of eggs, scrapple (i'm not sure how to describe this, but it was VERY yummy), butcher sliced bacon (double yum) and homefries. Talk about an awesome breakfast!The same day we headed off to the Yeungling Brew Tour, but before we could go we really wanted to go to our fellow hiker Fiddler's farm. Fiddler's family owns a Dairy farm that had a ton of cows and some awesome family! We got to ride with his brother Randell in the high class tractor and chat about the AT with him. As we're standing out in the field with him, his dad jumped off of the tractor and came over and said he'd go up to the house and put an order in to his wife to cook us up some sweet corn! Randell told us to have a good time and climb up their silos and we did! Man what a view! We went in the house and there out on the table was sweet corn, deer bologna, melon and Randell would soon bring in some fresh icecream, not to mention the raw milk we had earlier when we got there. Fiddler's family really gave us the full Dairy farm experience. We hated to eat and run but we wanted to be able to make the Yuengling Brew Tour. We darted into Homeschool's car and took off to Potsville where we walked right up to the tour by shear luck! We got to see all of the bottling equiptment and even got to see the underground caves where they would store their beer at a cool 52 degrees. We then got to taste some of the brew and sit around and talk with each other.Brewer had tried to arrange a meeting with the Sibs while they were home but we failed to make that happen but it was OK because Homeschool's Grandma and Mom (and I sure some sibling help too) put together an AMAZING meal and we got to eat with all of his family there and listen to his uncle jam out on the drums! To say the least he was great! It was good to just be able to hang out with Homeschool at his house. It was a different feeling than you can get at any hostle or hotel. It was a feeling you only get when you're at home and I'm thankful to Homeschool's family for providing such a great place for us to stay and being so hospitable!After leaving Homeschool's we headed out and tried to meet up with the Sibs by pulling some big hiking days. We did! It was good to hang out with them but we soon lost them again when Brewer and I stuck with Hiker tradition by staying at the Doyle Hotel. (http://www.doylehotel.com/) Now the Doyle hotel would have been a 5 star Hotel in the 1940's but now is a pretty dumpy place. They cater to hikers and charge very little ($30) for a double room! We hung out in their bar eating thier yummy homeade food and drinking cold beer. We celebrated Brewer's 23rd birthday at the Doyle with dinner, beer and a football game (Brewer's favorite, sorry it wasn't GT football) Great time nonetheless. On the day of our departure we went to this place called Goodies where their pancakes were the size of Hubcaps! So yummy! We decided to take two short days to get out of Boiling Springs because of a camping restriction and so we could sleep in. We're now at the Allenberry playhouse where we scored a $25 room but it's a resort with pool, hot-tub, and super nice rooms. Man, thanks to NOBO's for letting us know about this little jewel. http://www.allenberry.com/ Until next time!