Duncannon, PA

Yep, laid up for a day or two here in Duncannon, PA taking antibiotics for a couple of infected insect (we're thinking spider) bites. Little bit of swelling and a good bit of oozing yellow pus! Hehehe, hope no one's eating right about now ;)

But anyway.. I'm through most of PA and I'm assuming its infamous rocks. While they could be a pain at times, I have to say that with everyone hyping them up to be the worst thing in the world, I'd built them up in my head to be alot worse than they ended up being... Gotta love the power of the mind to make things either bigger or smaller than they really are. .. And I did much of it through a couple of good days of rain! ;P Which also resulted in finding that my pack liner leaks... again. I'd already returned one for this replacement, but oh well. Will try another alternative. Opted this year to do pack liners rather than covers, because a pack cover can never really completely cover (and keep things dry) a pack because of the straps, etc. But the liners do need to work!! But luckily, I am anal, and had most things that really needed to stay dry (clothes, sleeping quilt, camera stuff) also wrapped up in garbage bags or heavy duty zip locks that did work. So while annoying to have stuff wet that shouldn't have been, I survived w/o too much problem.

Let's see.... passed the 1,000 mile mark a little ways back! And soon to be half way point in a couple more days. Really looking forward to pulling into Harpers Ferry and knowing that I've completely the trail, even if not yet the thru-hike I'm still set on doing.

Oh yeah - fun memories of an excursion with another hiker friend, Cold Feet, to a mega outdoors store (Cabela's) just outside of Port Clinton. This thing was H U G E. From the outside it looked like a mall in itself. Inside it had all kinds of stuffed animals on display and heads all along the walls - any animal you could imagine.. there were displays of bears (griz, black, POLAR!), dear, moose, just about anything you could think of seeing in a forest... or I guess of hunting. When I say outdoors store, this place really catered to the hunting/fishing sports mostly. Even had HUGE aquariums full of all kinds of fresh water fish and an area where you could feed them! There was a 'safari' display with antelope, lions, even an elephant (though this was actually fake) !? So anyway after gawking at some of the spectacle for a bit, I went in search of a pair of smartwool socks. And was in disbelief when I couldn't find what I was looking for. It was apparent that they really only catered to 'old-school' hiking if anything.. all the socks were of the heavy long variety, while I only wanted some thinner, lighter, ankle length ones.. the women's socks were closer to what I wanted but not quite. Funny. But Oh well, will use a backup pair 'til I can have some from home sent in my next mail drop. We then at at the restaurant inside this place which featured a variety of meats such as angus beef, vennison, elk, buffalo, and even ostrich. Then a trip to the 'general store' for some of the fudge that they made themselves - not too bad! Then walked around a good bit more of the store (they had a map you could take with you) seeing a shop/museum of guns (some for $11-16k!?), knives, bows, etc.. huge fishing gear section. But the kicker was on the way out of the store! Happened to notice that they had a mechanical bull set up for people to ride - and if you wanted, you could try and have yourself timed and possibly qualify to ride in some rodeo somewhere! So after a few rounds of "I'll do it if you do it"'s, Cold Feet said she'd do it, so I signed up as well. I rode a mechanical bull on the Appalachian Trail! :) I'm still laughing, heehee! Even if I'm still feeling a little bruising and skin/hair folicles that were rubbed raw (from being in shorts) on the insides of my thighs! I can bet that I was the only clown that rode that thing in Crocs (the official off-trail shoe of the AT thru-hiker)!! Nevermind that I wasn't in bluejeans like everyone else there! But yeah, crazy.. I'd always wanted to try that and here I am 'hiking' the AT and getting my chance. Good times, good times.

Ok, I need to get out of here - feel like I'm hogging this pastor's laptop a little too long and I need to elevate my leg anyway.

Check in later!
Fool.