Date: 2007-08-02
From: Lake Lodging Greenwood Lake, NY

To: .3 miles north of 17A, NY
Miles today: 2.0

As I woke up feeling like death; I thought how I was going to have to curtail my drinking, if I am going to finish this trail. It is amazing the excitement that is around me when I go into these local taverns. I always hear people say, "oh, you have to go to Ireland, Scotland, and England and hike from tavern to tavern." I tell you, you can do the same thing from the Middle of PA through NY. And the people are awesome. Now, It has a little bit to do with me being from "The Big D"; hiking 1400 miles on the AT; and the "studly"(that's a dig) guy that I am; but, it is usually bedlam. I didnt really get into the night at The Palmerton Hotel, PA; but, here is an example of how it goes. I met a local guy that is basically a white supremist that is dressed like a person of color from the ghetto. He does his "thug" routine and finds that I am not really "buying it". He starts doing some inappropriate sexual moves that has his buddies saying, "oh, he is just drunk." I think to myself that this guy has some major issues as he acts like he has a knife and acts like he cuts his own throat. The thing is that he is doing it towards a table of 6 of Palmerton's finest ladies. I dont want to be associated with this; so, I go over to the table of ladies which the local "gangsters" have not approached for some reason; and tell the strawberry blonde amazon, Vanessa, that I want to disassociate myself from these guys and that I am hiking the trail from Ga to Maine. Well, of course the girls dart me with 1,000 questions with some "starry eyes" which I am loving; then every "hip hopper" in the bar comes over and engulfs the table. The comments are mostly uncouth and then the guy that I met gets thrown out for grabbing another guys "junk" as he says. I actually keep this encounter from being an outright brawl by sliding a large barstool between the 2 guys "bumping chests". I should have let it go to see what the Al Capone "wannabes" had in the line of fighting. Well, the bouncer/bartender comes over and looks at me and Im like, "hey, it aint me!" He then escorts the grabber out of the bar. The local guys keep coming to the table and I tell you; for about an hour this place is complete bedlam. It was so crazy that one of the ladies, Heather, look at her friend and said, "what is going on?". I said it is me. Some like this happens nearly everytime I go into one of these establishments. A new rule of mine is trying to be cool in these taverns. OK, back to Aug 2nd. I walk down to a local bagel shop that advertises having the internet around 7am. I go in an talk to the owner for awhile and then before I know it, there are about 15 New York small town women shooting questions at me. I kind of pride myself at being a good flirt; but, these women have coquetry down to an art form. Every question and comment had an underlying meaning which could have been taken as a come or could it? I caught myself blushing and speechless several times. One example was when I said to them that I was down at the beach yesterday and was the only single man on the beach and all the woman were married. One woman around 40 with a big rock on her finger said, "oh, that doesnt matter!" I did not respond to this and many other comments that were similar. Know granted most of these women were older; but, there were a few that were just right; but, they were not saying a thing. They were just letting the older women teach them how to handle a long haired man from "Tex-ass"(their word). Well anyway, The owner mentioned that I could go to the library to check my e-mail and she would give me a ride back to the trail to show me that not only does the south have hospitality. She also said that she would do my laundry which I said was not necessary. I went to the library and came back and the owner took me up to the trail as the other women teased her about, "really showing me some northern hospitality." I must admit that I was a little shy on the ride back to the trail. I got out of the car and walked about .3 miles north; set up my tent; and spent the rest of the day in the shade and light breeze. It must have been around 100 degrees. The night before I lost my sunglasses and my hair tie. I also left my tent stakes outside my hotel room. I love NY! I thought that I would never say that.