July 4, 2004

Today as Bear and I were breaking camp, Bear said, "Ugh."  Inside his shoes were ants...lots of them!  The 4th of July picnic had begun!  We hiked only seven miles today planning to stop in Port Clinton to take an easy day and stay at the town's only hotel, The Port Clinton Hotel.  Our supplies were shipped to the post office so we planned to stop by the post office on Monday.  As I hiked into town, I found The Port Clinton Hotel and hiked towards the front entrance.  I was met by a local man named Fred who, with Bear, told me that the hotel was closed.

"What?" I said. "Has it been shut down?"

"No," said Fred. "The hotel is closed for the holiday weekend."

"Oh shit," I thought.

Fred drove Bear, Roadrunner and me to the town's pavilion where we scrambled to figure out plan B.  As we did, Fred and his wife, Anna, drove up and treated the three of us and Ephiphaneous to hot dogs, cheese, pretzels and sodas.  Fred and Anna were dressed in matching American flag shirts.  We shared trail tales as we celebrated the 4th of July with trail angels in the tiny town of Port Clinton, PA.  I then used a neighbor's phone to make reservations at a Microtel in Hamburg, PA.  Fred drove Bear and me to the Microtel and as I was checking in, Bear was loading our backpacks onto a luggage cart.  "Why carry them any longer than we have to?" he reasoned.  I laughed and the desk clerk took a picture of us rolling our backpacks to the elevator.  As we were riding the elevator, I commented on the gross smell.  We were reeking!  As we exited the elevator, many employees greeted us with friendly hellos.  As they entered the elevator, we could hear..."Wow...this smells!"  I was reminded of how badly we do smell and felt rather embarrassed.  And then, I took a very long bath. Ah...the freedom to stink!  God Bless America.