Vermont – Mon. Sept. 17
HELLO VERMONT!!
I decided to enter Vermont at its northwest corner, on a bridge over Lake Champlain. I then started the pretty drive down through all the islands in the center of the lake, and found a spot to park so we could get out and do some walking – did the first 2.8 miles of Vermont walking right alongside the lake on a lane with pretty houses on one side, and water on the other. My legs were happy for a flat walk after the steep one of the morning. And Tula was happy to get out – she didn’t have much of a walk in the morning. Last night in the mountains of Lake Placid was chilly (37 degrees), but here at a lower elevation, it was in the mid-70s. So I decided to take advantage of the nice temperatures and Grand Isle State Park was still open for camping, so I chose a good campsite (none of them were right on the water) and we camped out again. No one was in the office – they just had a note saying choose the spot you want, and settle up in the morning. So I got set up, and then we went for another 1.8 mile walk to explore the campsite. Cheese, crackers, yogurt and a green pepper was the simple dinner. A very pretty and peaceful start to my visit in Vermont! I didn’t make a donation today because nothing came up in my short hours here so far – so will do one next Monday before I leave.
New York – Mon. Sept. 17
I stayed in Lake Placid last night, because I knew I wanted to go back to the Olympic Sports Complex. One of the guys there had said there was a 3.3 mile round trip trail that started off along the bobsled run. And since I needed 3.4 miles to finish off my New York walking, I knew that’s what I wanted to do – and I would get an up-close look at a world-class bobsled track that is still used for championship racing and Olympic training.
I took Tula for a short walk in Lake Placid because dogs were not allowed on the grounds at the sports center. I gpt my $4 ticket and was told to follow the gravel road up the bobsled track, climb a little more, and then the trail in the woods would start. So I started the climb, and it was steep! It was kind of strange to see the outside of the bobsled track, and the fiberglass, and the refrigeration pipes so they don’t have to depend on Mother Nature to keep the ice at optimal levels. It didn’t look like any world-class sort of place – but, it’s not the view that most people see. There’s no ice in the track now – they’ll start getting that ready at the end of the month, and bobsled, luge and skeleton athletes have already started reserving track time. I had to stop and rest a few times on the steep trudge up, but the mountain views were pretty – and about 4 miles away those ski jumps dominated the skyline. I finally got to the top, climbed another steep hill, and found the other trail, which was a loop, and also uphill for half of it, but not so steep. It was pretty and peaceful in the woods. Walking back down went quicker for the most part, but some of the steep parts still made for some slow going to not slip on loose stones. When I finished the walk (and my legs were feeling it despite all the walking I’ve been doing), I discovered I had lost my ticket, and it was a really interesting one that I wanted for my journal/scrapbook. But I was not going to retrace my steps to look for it! Since it was the last day of my NY visit, and I had a few extra dollars, I decided to just go pay for another one (I already tried seeing if they could give me a duplicate, but no)and they told me that as long as I was paying another $4, I could join the guided tour that was leaving right then, and that was in a little bus to the top, with a couple stops for some info, and then I had the choice of either taking the bus back down, or actually walking down the bobsled track, so I had to do it! Those bobsleds (2- or 4-man), luge (going down footfirst) and skeleton (going down headfirst) all share the same track, with different starting locations. The bobsled can get going faster than 70-80mph, and when I was walking through the fastest curves, there wasn’t much room for normal walking because they’re all going so fast they’re on the wall on the curves. It was really cool to be able to walk down that – I can’t imagine what it’s like on ice. But, in the 12 years since the combined track has been in use, there’s only be 1 injury – a broken collar bone. They make it as safe as they can. So, all in all, I’m happy I lost my original ticket!
At that point, I had more than completed my walking for New York, and was ready to sit in the car for a bit to head for State #3 – Vermont! Mission accomplished in New York – 7 donations made; 56 miles walked; 810 miles driven; and lots of wonderful memories! I used the last of the New York funds to fill up the gas tank for a new start in a new state!
Today I headed south into the Allegheny Mountains. There’s a little more color to the trees here – reds and yellows starting on the outermost leaves. My first stop was in Saranac Lake – a fun town to walk around, and a little quiet on a Sunday morning. The lake in town was Lake Flower (with a ‘Lake Flour Cakerie’ selling cupcakes across the street!). I didn’t actually see either the Upper or Lower Saranac Lakes. We walked about 2 1/2 miles around part of the lake and all through town, and then up to the local train station. I could hear the whistle of a train off in the distance, so we stuck around to watch it pull into the station – I’m not sure why I’m so fascinated with trains! It was the Adirondack and St Lawrence Railway train, bringing people up from Lake Placid on a day trip. I watched the engine be disconnected and chug along to the other end of the train to be re-hooked up to make the return trip. A couple of young guys took care of switching the rails to accomplish this. We were able to be pretty close to the train the whole time, but I’m not sure Tula thinks too much of the Iron Horse!
Then I was off to Lake Placid, which was one of my favorite towns to walk around in. I got there about 1:00 and there were tons of people out and about on a beautiful Sunday afternoon. The town has both a northwoods and alpine feel to it, and shops were busy. I walked through the whole main part of town, and then out by all the resort areas by the lake. They have pretty brick sidewalks that continue on well past the main part of town, and there were lots of people out walking. I think it’s a very outdoorsy, activity-oriented town with some of the Olympic training venues still in use, and signs along the highways reminding motorists to share the roads with the athletes in training. One of the motels I drove by even has a canoe or kayak as part of the amenities! So I got a couple more miles of walking in. Then I wanted to see some of the Olympic training sites, so I drove out to the ski jump area, and I simply can’t imagine any sane person wanting to leap off such a steep, long ramp! They’re pretty intimidating. Then I drove a little farther on to the Olympic Sports Complex where they have training facilities for bobsled, luge, skeleton, Nordic combined shooting and cross country skiing, and although I didn’t actually go into the complex today (I have some morning plans!) I got a couple more miles of walking in on the roads inside the grounds.
Since I wanted to go back there in the morning, I decided to stay in Lake Placid, and I found a
On Saturday I pretty much stuck around the town of Malone – I think it’s the first time since I began this adventure that I stayed in one place all day. Of course, part of the reason was my “rule” that I need to stay 2 consecutive nights in one place once a week, to catch up with writing and laundry and stuff. And I desperately needed to do laundry – I hadn’t done any since I left. So I found a laundromat and got everything started, and Tula and I walked a couple miles in town while the clothes were washing. It’s a good-sized town, and a pretty one, so it was good for walking. After the clothes were all dry and put away (a relief to have that chore done!), I went to Wal-Mart to do the shopping for the big animal shelter north of town, which was going to be my donation for the day. I got similar stuff like the last time I did an animal shelter donation – dry dog food, puppy food, cat food, and canned dog food and treats. We had to drive out of town a ways to the animal shelter, and it was along a pretty winding road that I was going to walk on, until I passed 2 correctional facilites with lots of shiny barbed wire and concertina wire, and little guard towers – so I changed my mind about that walk! We got to the facility, and it seemed to be busy – they were in the middle of a pet adoption (the kids getting the new pet were literally jumping up and down with delight!), and a dog was loose in one of the buildings, and the phone was ringing – busy place! I got all the food carried in – so that’ll feed a few of the critters for a little while.
The laundromat I was at in the morning happened to be across from the big local fairgrounds, and I could see they were having some sort of event there – it turned out to be their local Fall Harvest Fest, and dogs were welcome – not only welcome, but had been encouraged to participate in a “dog blessing parade” – but we did not participate in that because we were up at the animal shelter. I parked a good 3/4 mile from the fairgrounds to get in some more walking, and it was fun to wander around the different booths. Tula met a lot of new “friends” who were still around from the dog blessing, and there was a giant box of dog treats, so that was fun. Someone had set up one of those big black smokers and I got a pulled pork dinner with a side of macaroni/tuna salad for $4. That’s 2 Saturdays in a row I’ve had a good BBQ meal at a community event! Then I wandered around some more, and just before I was getting ready to leave, I saw a fundraising table set up by the Drew Crew Cloggers, who were doing raffles for raising money. Any dance group fund-raising effort is certainly going to catch my eye, so I stopped to talk with them about what they were doing, and it was fun to hear their story. Turns out the group has been invited to perform in Pearl Harbor in December in honor of all the veterans during the anniversary festivities, and the group is trying to raise some funds to go toward travel expenses. Well, I couldn’t resist this! Even though I’d already made my donation for the day, I decided to do another one, and it would take care of Sunday’s donation. But I didn’t have my stuff with me, and I told them I would be back. But I had parked a long ways away in order to do walking, and it took time to get back to the van to get my stuff, and they probably thought I wasn’t going to return. But I got back as things were winding down, and they were still there putting things away. We got to talking some more, and we each enjoyed the others’ stories! $56 isn’t going to help much with travel, but it’s still fun to be a part of it all, and I’ll be following them on Facebook! They were so gracious about the donation, and so supportive of what I’m doing that it really made my day!
I still had some walking to do, and decided to explore the area around the fairgrounds – it was a big one! I started walking up one of the side streets, and all the gates were open so I walked into the part with all the barns and arenas, and they even had a 1/2 mile racetrack and big grandstands! We walked up the row of barns – literally a whole street long, and still other barns for saddle horses, race horses (I’m curious what races they do on a shorter track – quarter horse maybe?), dairy cows, sheep, goats – it must be one lively place during fair season because there’s a LOT of barn space, and they’ve been having fairs there since the mid 1800s. We even walked around the race track – there was evidence of recent use, but no humans or horses on the track except me – and Tula running off-leash in front of the empty grandstands! She actually came back and nosed her leash rather soon – in new and strange places (which we are in every day) I think she likes the security of knowing I’m on the other end of her leash, even though she is always walking ahead of me. She’s very good on the leash and knows the distance she has with it, and the only time she ever pulls is if we see another dog. We finished up at the fairgrounds and walked through another part of town, and then called it a day. I walked 7 miles today, and decided to use the extra mile I had from Chimney Bluffs so that I could get some other stuff done at the motel. I ended the day with some microwave popcorn from my stash.
After enjoying the pretty views as I packed up, we started off with a 1.4 mile walk around the campground, then drove to the other side of the island to see the little village there. We did another 1.2 miles of walking around the west end of the island, past big homes overlooking the water. Most people seem to get around on golf carts. We walked out to a gazebo to watch another ship pass by. There’s little islands all over the place (it’s called the Thousand Island Region) and some of the islands have single houses on them – so people must own islands or something. Then I drove back over that bridge, and noticed a guy walking across it. I hadn’t noticed the sidewalk yesterday. I had to walk across! It was a pretty steep bridge that went up pretty high, and the sidewalk was kind of narrow. Once I was on the suspension part of the bridge, I could feel it rumble and bounce a little when semis drove by – a bit of an uneasy feeling…I had a few butterflies in my stomach. I decided that once I got to the top I would enjoy the view, then go back down the side I just walked up – no need to walk the whole way over and back again! When I got to the top though, the view was spectacular, and there was a freighter about a half mile out. All butterflies were forgotten as I watched the ship approach and realized it would pass right under my feet – a bird’s eye view of a freighter.
The next good-sized town up the river was Alexandria Bay, and that’s where I wanted to make a food pantry type donation since I’d enjoyed so much time in this area. I didn’t see anything online, so I called the Chamber of Commerce, and the lady told me of 2 churches that are always in need of donations for their food pantry programs. Neither phone call was answered, so I called the Chamber of Commerce lady back again, and she gave me the home number of one of the ladies who deals with food donations. Never mind that I got her neighbor first; I finally got the right person, and she told me they always seem to run out of canned corn, peas and soup. So I went shopping for canned corn, peas and soup! And I threw in a few other veggies and some ramen noodles too – it was a cart full since there were some good sales. I had to drive about 8 miles to the fellowship hall of St. John’s Lutheran Church in Redwood, and the lady met me there. She said the community is definitely in need of food donations. Then she suggested I walk down the hill to the lake if I had time, so we did.
I got a Subway (and put the other half in the cooler right away so the dog didn’t eat it again!) and just drove farther north along the St Lawrence River. It’s so pretty. The leaves just have a hint of color here and there, but nothing major yet. When I was driving over the the Oswegatchie River in one of the bigger towns, I saw a walking path by the river, so I turned around and we got out a got a couple more miles of walking in. I knew at this point I was going to drive all the way up to Massena, where there appeared to be some locks that the ships go through. There was a really long walking trail along the river on the approach to town, so I finished off my walking for the day. Even though dusk was approaching, I went to look at the locks to see what the visitors’ viewing area looked like. And there was a ship headed toward them – pretty far away, but several other people were already waiting. It had been a very warm day, but temps dropped quickly and wind picked up, and there was thunder in the distance. More people pulled in to watch the slow approach of the ship, and storm clouds rolled in closer. It started to rain heavily, but the ship was lit up and I decided to watch it go through the locks anyway. It took a while to get itself positioned correctly – very little extra room on the sides of the lock and I don’t know how they get the big ship in. I had a view right in the middle of the ship and could see the big black hull and 4 stories of the white tower in the back. It was still raining, and the lock workers and ship workers all had yellow raingear on, which made it easy to see them bustling around. Once the locks were closed, it only took 7 minutes to lower the ship – it sank down gradually and gently; as though someone was just letting the air out of its hull. By the time it was lowered, all I could see was the top 2 stories of the tower and a smoke stack. A huge freighter entered, and it looked like only a little white square building glided out. None of the rest of the ship was visible. By now it was dark, and still rainy, and I drove another 30 miles to Malone, where I called it a day.
I was incommunicado yesterday. I ended up camping in the Wellesley Island State Park on Wellesley Island in the middle of the St. Lawrence River. Apparently since I was off the US mainland, AT&T thought I was out of the country, and said there would be additional fees to use my phone or anything else…
I didn’t travel many miles yesterday. I headed out to Cape Vincent, where Lake Ontario meets the St. Lawrence River. Along the way I got sidetracked to the Long Point State Park on a little peninsula of land sticking out in Lake Ontario. We got a couple miles of walking in there, and I was literally the only person in the park aside from a couple of maintenance workers cutting grass. While I was walking around the whole park, I came upon a tree with a big yellow sign tied on with a purple cord. What the sign said was “How You Can Help Save New York’s Ash Trees” and listed several options; what I saw was “Hello Nancy! How’s This For An Obvious Hint for Your Donation Today?” New York, like many states (Michigan was one of the first), has a bad problem with the emerald ash borer, and that’s why they don’t let you bring your own firewood to campgrounds and all. After such an obvious hint, I mailed a donation to New York’s Department of Environmental Conservation, with a note saying I would like my donation to be used either for the purple tree traps to catch the little varmints, or for educational purposes.
After that visit, I began the drive back to the main road leading to Cape Vincent. As I rounded a bend, I saw a cute, tiny little building with a sign on it that said Cottage Bakery. Having only had a granola bar earlier in the morning, I was hungry and had to check it out. No one was around inside or out, and I noticed a sign asking people to use the honor system to pay for their goodies. There were a couple tables filled with baked goods, and coffee and water and t-shirts. I got a little box with a couple Very Berry Puff Pastries – it was a fun little place and very unexpected out along a country road.
Then we headed to Cape Vincent which was a fun place to walk around. After walking through town, I started down the narrow road following signs for a lighthouse (the signs didn’t say how FAR the lighthouse was!). After we’d walked a good mile or so, I asked some people and discovered it was still quite a ways away. So we turned around, having put in almost 5 miles of walking for the day already. On the walk back, I stopped and watched a freighter steam by – heading up the St Lawrence River from Lake Ontario. Then I followed the river north for a ways, and came to a cool bridge leading to Wellesley Island. It was a suspension bridge like the Mackinac Bridge, but steeper and higher (and only a mile long instead of 5 miles). I had to drive across it – the views were great. After I got on the island, I was going to do some walking in the state park, and discovered the campgrounds were still open, so I decided to stay. I was able to get a river-front campsite since it wasn’t crowded, and was hoping to be able to watch the freighters from my campsite, but they passed along on the other side of the island. There were plenty of other boaters out though. They have a big nature center with about 9 miles of trails, and Tula and I went and walked on 3 miles of them to complete our walking for the day. I also did some writing at the table in my campsite both before and after the walk. It was very peaceful listening to the water and watching the other boats. Once again, things got quiet very quickly after the sun went down.
The campground at Cayuga Lake State Park was a beautiful place to stay. It’s big, but since it’s the off season, about 2/3 of it is closed to campers, which made it a nice place to walk all around with Tula. I slept well – gettin the hang of this “car camping” – and the van is really quite spacious when things are rearranged.
I started the morning off with a 2 1/2 mile walk thru the state park and down by the lake. Thers’s a police post right there, and there were a lot of police officers and other people with a bunch of jet-skis. I think they were doing some sort of training.
When I had seen enough of the state park, I got the urge to head north to Lake Ontario. Before we had gone too far, we came to the town of Seneca Falls, where I got my history lesson for the day. Apparently Seneca Falls was the birthplace of the Women’s Rights Movement back in 1848, and I stood on the very corner where that gathering was held. The whole town is focused on this history with memorials, a museum and a statue walk, and there’s even a national park site – The Women’s Rights National Historic Park (it’s really a building with a lot of exhibits.)I took the time to go through it and although it was focused on women’s rights, it also had exhibits on child labor and slavery. I ended up walking 3.2 miles – through town and around, crossing a couple bridges (I thought it was part of the Erie Canal, and one of the boats tied up at the waterfront said something about Erie Canal cruises, but the map shows the Erie Canal being a little farther north.) I also walked along quite a bit of the wide canal. Because of the time I spent in town, and the historical significance of it, I made my donation today to the Women’s Rights National Park – we’re all better off for it!
Then I headed all the way north to Lake Ontario and found the Chimney Bluffs State Park. Part of the shoreline is a big bluff, with unusual rock formations; some with what appear to be razor-sharp edges along the top. It’s all there as a result of long ago glacial activity and wind and rain and is very spectacular. I have some good photos, and although I’m at a motel with wi-fi, it’s an older motel without the 3-hole prongs I need for my computer battery charger, and the battery doesn’t last long at all without it. So, photos later.
I ended up doing the whole loop trail; first the long climb to the top of the bluffs, then a long walk back through woods and a mowed path through a meadow (complete with small snake – I somehow stubbed my toe inside my shoe in my sudden halt – I thought it was a stick!). There were quite a few fallen trees to step/climb over on the way up, and Tula proved to be a very graceful hurdler of logs! Who knew! We walked over 3 miles doing the whole loop, which put me at 9 for the day. I’ll reserve that extra one for one later in the week.
After all the exercise, it was then very nice to get in the car and just mosey along the roads near the shoreline, still heading north.
I passed a lot of apple orchards, and these apple trees were unlike any apple trees I had seen. The orchards looked like vineyards, and the trees were were sort of flat and 2 dimensional; and they almost seemed to be growing on trellises between posts. But there were an amazing number of apples on each tree. When I first started passing these orchards, I almost wondered if they were vineyards with some kind of super giant grape, and I actually stopped and got out to make sure because there’s also vineyards in this area. But they were definitely apples!
I am happily camping out again at one of the state parks in the Finger Lakes region. Temperature-wise, this is going to be the best night of camping so far. Of the 2 nights I camped out in PA, one was the hottest night of the week, and the other was the chilliest. I can already tell tonight will be comfortable and it’s not nearly so damp out. There’s other people here, but everyone is really spread out, so once again it’s peaceful with lots of pretty night noises.
With a late night last night, I had kind of a late start this morning. Since it was the 11th anniversary of the 9-11 terrorist attacks, I felt compelled to make another donation to the military. This time I picked a helicopter squadron in Afghanistan, and once again had to wait for an email response for an address. This group was requesting sweet snacks, coffee, powdered drinks and basic toiletries, so I ended up getting toothbrushes and toothpastes, deodorant, chopsticks, lemonade and orangeade mixes, coffee, more granola bars and cliff bars and I topped it off with a bunch of Halloween snack-size skittles and starbursts. Even though I had a better idea of what I was doing with the customs forms and all, it still took a while.
Tula had been patiently waiting while I shopped and was in the post office, so instead of heading right out to one of the lakes, we got in about 2 miles if walking in Auburn – a downtown area which turned into elegant museum and art galleries and then into nice homes. It was a gorgeous Sept day. Then I started the drive along the shore of Cayuga Lake – right in the middle of the Finger Lakes. The lakes are long (40 miles or so??)and kind of narrow and only a few boats were out. I imagine it’s crazy busy during the summer. I checked out a couple state parks and found the one I wanted to stay at, but first wanted to drive by the lakes some more. I found a narrow one way lane right by the shore and enjoyed a 2 1/2 mile walk. I don’t know if the homes along the lakes are mostly summer homes or year-round homes – it was very quiet. Everyone has really steep staircases leading down to the water’s edge; I even saw one chair/seat sort of thing on a pulley system going down a particularly steep area, but I certainly wouldn’t want to be the one testing that out! I drove along a a few more roads in the area, then headed back to the campground to register on the honor system, and then I got the other 3 1/2 miles of walking in all around the state park trails and the campground.
Monday evening in New York ended up having some odd coincidences, which inspired my donation for the day….more in a minute.
I left Pennsylvania at 5:25pm and crossed into Waverly, NY. Within half a mile I could tell this would be a good town for walking, so we parked by the community park and got out for a good 3.5 mile walk around town. We got into the neighborhoods adjoining town and it was a welcome change to see looooong almost-flat streets after all the Pennsylvania hills. That’s probably why I ended up on a long walk! Then we walked by the small farmer’s market in the park but all I got was a green pepper for 35 cents!
I was wanting to head to the Finger Lakes region at some point, and because I drove into NY at Waverly, all I had to do was head north a bit so I started off. I made a short stop in Van Etten to get another 1.1 miles of walking in before it got too dark. As far as walking for the day, I finished my 4.3 miles in PA and did the first 4.6 in NY – almost 9 miles for the day! I’ll finish up the other 3.4 Monday miles in NY before heading to state #3 – nice to have a little flexibility with both miles and donations on “state transition” days!
I was planning to stop for the night in Ithaca but it was crowded and motels were full. Don’t know if something special was going on, or if it’s always like that. So I decided to continue heading north through the pretty falling darkness. I was thinking a lot about the studios as I was driving since today was the first day of classes at Dance Arts of Chelsea, and it was strange not to be to welcome everyone back to another year of classes. I was thinking of the dancers, and families, and instructors…including Faith, a lovely 16 yr old dancer, who took her own life exactly 3 weeks ago, and was now missing her first day of dance class. Shortly after that, I passed a sign for Syracuse University and that made me think of my brother Dave, who attended Syracuse for one semester – brother Dave took his own life 13 years ago. Faith and Dave are the only people I’ve known who have ended their own lives. I ended up stopping at a motel that’s not too far from Syracuse, and when I got on the computer I saw a bunch of Facebook messages saying Monday Sept. 10 was Suicide Awareness Day. And I had just been thinking about both Faith (because of the first day of dance) and Dave (because of the proximity of Syracuse U). I wasn’t going to make a donation today (was going to do the Monday NY donation next Monday because nothing had presented itself in the few short hours I’d been in the state) but after the Faith/Dave/Suicide Awareness Day coincidences, I knew what I had to do! The national office for The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention happens to be in New York (another coincidence) so my $56 donation – along with a short note in memory of both Dave and Faith – was written out last night and will be mailed this morning. Always remembering….
The Lake Glory campground was really nice, although it got a tad chilly overnight! I was very grateful for the blankets and the quilt (thanks again Sherry!) It didn’t occur to me to check the temp during the night (probably didn’t want to get out from under warm covers!) but it was only 48 degrees at 8:30 when the sun was out and shining. That’s probably about as chilly as I’ll be able to “camp” in the van because I’m not going to turn it on to run the heat at night. But I warmed up very quickly out on a beautiful 2 1/2 mile walk thru the countryside – nothing like a few big hills to get the blood moving!
I got the military package ready to mail after my walk and hit the road north. Next stop was Bloomsburg where I walked nearly 2 more miles to finish off the 4.3 miles needed from last Monday. This town was also very hilly and we walked the whole way up Main Street to Bloomsburg University and then walked around the campus a bit. Those kids get quite a workout – because it’s on steep land, there’s stairs all over the place and hardly any flat walking. I don’t think the walk through campus made the dog or I any smarter – we’ll have to walk thru some more! When I got back to the car, there was a bright yellow paper on the windshield – a parking ticket!!! Oops – I simply didn’t notice the parking meter because it was right next to a tree. It was $10, but if it got paid at the police dept within 30 minutes, it would only be $5. Fortunately, since we’d walked all through town, I had noticed where the police station was, and made it with 5 minutes to spare. Lesson learned…
Then I spent a long time at the post office trying to figure out what to do about my military care package. They no longer accept packages addressed to “Any Soldier” because of security reasons. You now need a full name and complete address and I didn’t have a clue. I hadn’t done my homework and thought it would be easy to just get a generic address online – I wasn’t particular about who the package was going to. I came across the Any Soldier website, but didn’t notice I could get names at first. Toni also suggested I try that. So I looked again, and sure enough, there’s quite a list of soldiers, who represent their units, along with some possible items they would appreciate getting. And the soldier I somewhat randomly chose had listed stuff like jerky and hard candy which was what I already had. It’ll be fun in the future to look through more requests. But, in order to actually get the address, I had to give my name and address and email info, and then I would hear back. And they were pretty clear about the fact if you were requesting an address, that you should commit do helping in some way. So I wonder if they follow up somehow. I couldn’t mail the package from Bloomsburg then, because I had to wait for a return email. So, I just got in the car and headed north toward New York, and it was kind of nice to just be driving all afternoon – I’ve gotten in the habit of looking at towns I drive through to see if they’re good for a walk, and I was all done with Pennsylvania walking. So I could just kind of reflect on the whole past week. I stopped right near the PA/NY border at a town called Towanda to fill up with gas, and I thought to check my email, and sure enough, I had a response and an address for the soldier in Afghanistan! So I was able to finish filling out the customs forms and got the package mailed. I was happy to be able to actually mail it from Pennsylvania.
Since I start with a specific budget for each state, when all was said and done, and the gas tank was full for State #2, I had $19.46 leftover. On my little outline of my journey, I said I would donate half of anything left over, and the other half would go to the extra territory expenses (mostly airfare). So I’m going to mail an extra $10 donation to the Gettysburg National Battlefield Park. I love the national park system, and my 5 miles of walking around the battlefields were some of my favorites. And since there was no entry fee for that part of the park, I figure that’s a good place to send the little extra.
And that wraps up Pennsylvania – at 5:25 in the afternoon. Seven donations given, 56 miles walked and 986 miles of driving and 
the morning walk and exploring – great way to start the journey 🙂
expedition56 