Date: 2004-07-04
From: Budget Inn, Front Royal, Va

To: Dr. and Mrs. Erdman's Hostel, Allentown, Pa.
Miles today: 0.0

Dr. and Mrs. Erdman's Hostel Allentown, Pa.I woke up in the motel room with Hippie and Tripod in the bed next to mine. It was still only about 6:30am so I was as quiet as I could be. I went in and took a shower and got ready to go and meet Hellbender for breakfast. She called last night and since I wasn't going to be able to make her 4th of July party, we decided on breakfast.I left Hippie instructions to give BearBait on where to meet later. She is also doing a creative flipflop in her hike and I am driving her north and dropping her off in NH so she can walk north through Maine.I drove around and found Jimbo's, the restaurant that I was meeting Hellbender at. When she got there we decided to go to a different place because we were looking for a good cup of coffee and she didn't really like the coffee there. She rode with me and we found a nice little coffee shop in the historic district of Front Royal. We ordered coffee and croisants and she wouldn't let me pay. She felt sorry for me because she's read in my journal how none of my other hiker friends, EXCEPT Liteshoe were coming through with any trail magic yet. {All my trail friends please take note} We both had a busy day ahead of us, but we sat there talking for about 2 hours. Hellbender, I had a great morning....thanks!!!I took her back to Jimbo's and gave her a hug goodbye and went back to my motel room. Bearbait wasn't there yet, but Hippie said she called and would be along soon. We all got packed up and when BearBait showed up, we took Tripod's car to the trailhead on Rt 522 and parked it and they rode with me. I took them to Linden, Va so they could slackpack back to their car today. BearBait and I headed north for The Erdman Hostel in Allentown, Pa. For those of you that haven't heard of that place, it is Rainbow Slick and Goosebump The Snow Princess' home. For anyone that wants to go, I can highly recomend it. You would take I-81 north to I-78 east to Rt 22 east to 7th st south to right at the Dunken Donut, go up the hill and make a right after the second speed bump and just lay on your horn until they come out.I stopped in Port clinton, Pa on the way up just to see if there were any hikers I knew there. I ran into a hiker by the name of Ole Smoky who was having to leave the trail due to an injury. Bag-Of-Tricks was also there. We looked at each other and knew we had run into each other somewhere before, but couldn't remember where. We got to talking and laying in his car was a foam mat that had some magic marker writing on it. It said; "Bag-Of-Tricks, Thanks for a great night. Your ALDHA sista' Jan Liteshoe class of '03." Boy, that girl really gets around!! I drove on to Goosebump and Rainbow Slick's home. It was really good to see them both again. Goosebump came running out and gave me a great big hug...I love hugs!!! That was my 3rd hug today!!! One from Hellbender this morning and then one from Hippie when I dropped her and Tripod off and then this one from Goosebump...what a great day!!!I went in their house and was really dissapointed when I didn't see any food. I thought to myself, she knew I was coming, where's the food??? All she wanted me to do was read a trail entry that she took a picture of and posted on the internet. It was from last December when we were all at Kincora Hostel. I read it. It said that I had never before seen a girl eat as much food as Goosebump had put away that day and then something about how she might be pregnant. Well, I read it and I went out into the kitchen and looked all around and still didn't see food. She wanted me to come and read another entry I had written last December and it said something about how if she was pregnant that the baby would probably come out wearing a backpack with Ramen Noodles and lightweight bckpacking gear in it and already have a beard and baby Leki poles. I went and peeked around the corner and looked in their bedroom and still no sight of any food. She wanted me to go back over by the computer where they had set up a pair of Leki poles with a baby backpack. I didn't see any food over there either. As I was leaving to see if there might be another room where they hid the food she said "Stumpy, look at the baby backpack" and she kind of twisted her head to the side and her eyes got big. I was beginning to think that just maybe there wasn't going to be any food. She kept making references to the baby backpack when I realized that there must be a clue around that somewhere. I started studying the baby backpack and thought for a minute and looked back at her. Her eyes were getting even bigger and she kept looking at me and then back to the backpack...it was just about then that I said..."YOU'RE PREGNANT!!!! I gave her a big hug and waited for a proper amount of time before I said..."I'm hungry, got anything to eat??" Rainbow Slick started up the grill and we all had a fiest and talked about baby hiker names. I was told that I coundn't write any of them down in my journal, but maybe she won't see this about the name I thought of...RainbowSlipped. Now I'll be able to stop at Dr. and Mrs. Erdman's Hostel next year and visit with Rainbow Slick, Goosebump The Snow Princess and Rainbow Slipped.I didn't remember how good home cooked food was. We had a great meal. They had their friends that were here and while we were eating, Underpants showed up. He's another good friend from last years sobo hike. That made seven of us here for dinner.I called and left a message for Dr. Dolittle to call me because I had something important to tell her. She's another close friend from the sobo group last year and Goosebump said that I couldn't write about Rainbow Slipped until we told Dr. Dolittle on the phone.Goosebump said she thought about what we could do in the shower...no, wait, that doesn't sound right. While she was taking a shower, she thought it might be fun to climb to the top of the mountain at Lehigh Gap and watch the fire works all around in the valley. I drove the five of us down there, her town friends couldn't come along. We climbed up to near the top and had a really good view of everything below. It wasn't quite dark yet when Dr. Dolittle called and I got to tell her the good news about our new hiker buddy.The wind was blowing about 10 to 15 mph and it really felt nice up there. Goosebump even had to put on a jacket. The fire works were awesome. We could watch all the fire works going off for miles all around. We stayed up there until almost 11pm and then started the climb down all those rocks. We got back to the hostel, I meen their home and talked until almost 1am before hitting the sack. Trail people are the best!!!