Date: 2003-07-23
From: Kirkridge Shelter

To: Delaware Water Gap, PA
Miles today: 6.4
Weather: light rain

Despite the wild rain of the night before, our tent was still standing & we were A-OK the next morning -- our tent was soaked, but who cares, we were going into town! Packed up and got on the trail. Had some great views along the way. Saw the Delaware River and, across the way, our home state of New Jersey! How exciting -- pretty neat to think we've walked from Georgia to NJ. Met some nice day hikers (mom & kids) from Tampa and talked to them for awhile. Then the trail made its way down into the gap & wound its way around a beautiful lily pond, which reminded us of the lily pond at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden where we got married -- almost 9 years ago!!! The trail let us off in DWG by some houses. One of them had a street address of #42, so of course Moo took a photo of 42 by the number sign in the front yard, and she held up a gnome that was on the lawn by the sign.Stopped by the post office to pick up mail and birthday goodies for 42 (woo-hoo! but she didn't open them until her actual birthday the next day), then got a ride to the Ramada Inn from Sandy, a nice woman at the PO with her kids who foolishly engaged us in conversation, not realizing it would lead to our asking her for a ride. Hope we didn't stink up her van too much.At the hotel, ran into Bingo & Trucker, great to see them. Took showers then decided to go into Stroudsburg (since DWG had no laundry facilities) to the laundromat. Moo ran to the outfitter across the street, or so he told 42, then we met up in Bingo & Trucker's room to grab a cab with them, Slip & Trip, Steamboat & Singalot, and Sleepy Floyd. Turns out the cab company was not so concerned about timeliness (it's pretty much the only show in town, demonstrating why monopolies can be bad) and we had to wait 1.5 hours for a 7 minute cab ride. Finally got there, did laundry. Moo again went to the outfitter, or so he told 42. Then we all went to the Marita Cantina for dinner - muy bueno! Hadn't had mexican food in a while and it was excellent. Pipes, Phlegm, Torch & Superman? joined us for dessert. Had a nice ice cream birthday thing for 42 and embarrased her with a rousing rendition of happy birthday. We were just starting to think about how all of us would get back to the hotel w/o giving the crappy cab company our business, when a guy came over to ask us if we were hikers. Turns out the guy, Drew, had hiked Katahdin & the 100 mile wilderness in Maine just back in late May/early June. He offered us a ride -- he even ran to his parents' house to get a van to fit all of us -- soooo nice! The van was a fully loaded Chevy conversion van, pretty sweet. When we got back to the hotel, we all decided to go to Bingo & Trucker's room for a few beers. First we ran up to our room, though, to put some stuff away. After a few minutes Sleepy Floyd called to see where we were, telling us to get our butts down there. We went down and when we walked in, they had a cake complete w/ 34 candles (it was so bright, you could barely tell the lights were off) and everyone sang happy birthday. There were also some goodies for 42, including a pink fuzzy crown, a pink scepter that lit up and made noise, a green boa, and a bag of peanut m&m's (read: gorp). We hung out, had some beers, then played Mafia -- very fun game, esp. when 42, Pipes & Phlegm were the mafia, girl power rocks. Fantastic celebration on the eve of 42' b-day! By the way, when Moo was "at the outfitters," he was actually getting the cake and other things together for the b-day party. Thanks Moo, you're wonderful!