Date: 2006-07-19
To: The Unfriendliest ÃÂÃÂ¢ÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂHiker FriendlyÃÂÃÂ¢ÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂ town ever
Miles today: 0.0

By Righty OK, now I have a story to tell you about Port Clinton. As I told you in the journal entry, we hiked right into town and to the end of town where hikers can camp free at a pavilion that the church owns. That part was great ---- well, except for the highway above us where the trucks went over a metal plate in the road which vibrated and clanked all night. Posted at the pavilion was a bulletin saying Port Clinton was ¢Hiker Friendly¢ and then listed all the rules and regulations, which was also OK. But also on the bulletin in BIG BOLD letters it said, NO BANK, NO ATM, NO GROCERY, NO LAUNDRY, NO OUTFITTER. It was just such an oxymoron since those are all the services that hikers need. Well, back to my story. Once we got in, Lefty and I went to clean up. They had an old fashioned pump for water which worked OK for me. There was an old milk crate to sit on and dish soap right there. I¢m sure the dish soap was for dishes, but since I was so dirty from my slide down the hill, I soaped up my legs and arms and got them all cleaned up. After, I put on the long pants that I use to sleep in since they are cleaner than anything else. Lefty went to the river so she could get all the way in. She goes in with her clothes on, gets them washed out, then takes them off and washes up and puts on fresh clothes over her wet body. Not my cup of tea, but it works for her. Now that this is done we are HUNGRY. Skywalker, who was a little behind us, has just come into the pavilion and we tell him to hurry up, we want to go to dinner. We were told the Hotel had the best food. So off we go. Lefty gets there first. She doesn¢t wait for anybody, especially when there¢s food involved. She gets seated in the dining room. Skywalker and I meet another kid, thru hiker, and he joins us on our way to dinner. When I get there, I walk into the dining room and look for Lefty. After a few minutes, we realize Skywalker isn¢t with us. Lefty goes out to check and finds that he¢s sitting at the bar. Apparently, the staff caught him before he got into the dining room and told him he needed to shower before he went in to eat. All that sounded great, but his clothes were back at the pavilion. After a little discussion, Lefty and I decided to go and eat in the bar area too. Skywalker was grumpy after his hard day of hiking and a little insulted; but the hotel did have a policy and they were within their rights. Of course, Lefty and I thought it was funny! The bartender, Ed, was less than pleased to have us all dining with him even thought he had no other customers except hikers. He kept throwing things around and wouldn¢t come from behind the bar to bring us anything. We had to get up and get it. He was very gruff and abrupt and border line rude, but he did serve us. The food was good even if the service was lacking. Bottom line was, we ate!The next morning we did have a very pleasant breakfast at a local restaurant, the 3 C¢s. The food was great and our server was delightful. As we were walking out of town, we stopped at the PO because Skywalker and I had packages coming. Lefty had gone in and asked if she could plug in her phone for a few minutes. She was told that that was not allowed. The clerk was very unfriendly and rude without provocation. I gave her my ID and asked for my package. She literally threw my ID back at me. I asked if I had a second package because sometimes my girlfriend sends me some goodies. She said, ¢If there was, I would have given it to you.¢ OK. Anyway, I had to send my old boots back home but they had no boxes. What PO has no boxes?? I was able to fit them into a large priority mail envelope. When I closed up my packages, I had those little pieces of tape that comes off and asked where to put the trash. She said they didn¢t have a trash can ¢¦ it wasn¢t in her budget and she wouldn¢t take any trash home. It was so unbelievable it was almost funny. I left the box that my boots had come in on the table on purpose. I mean, what was I going to do with a box?? She followed me out and threw the box onto the sidewalk and told me I had to take it with me. This lady must really hate her job or just simply didn¢t like hikers. Usually the people in the PO¢s are very friendly and helpful to thru-hikers. I¢m sure this was an exception. But it was ironic that the only services that this town DID have was food and PO and they were not pleasant experiences. The moral of this story is ...... if you¢re planning on hiking, it might be a good idea to avoid Port Clinton.