Sun

This picture was taken of Philly last November when I was visiting. Didn't quite make it into the city, nor do I intend to. Yesterday, we went to an old friend's house in the suburbs of Philadelphia (near Norristown) and spent the entire day relaxing by the pool in the beautiful late spring weather. A great day and with lots of catching up and reminiscing with friends that I've know since the early eighties. It was also a day of replenishing my bosy of the much depleted Vitamin D of the Bellingham winter.

Off to visit family today, and tomorrow is the final leg to Pittsburgh, and then home and back to my mellow life in Bellingham. Five more days of travel, and I changed my flight today to come back a day early. Not much more to say here. Sunny and beautiful.

Humid

"River gonna take me
Sing me sweet and sleepy
Sing me sweet and sleepy
all the way back back home
It's a far gone lullaby
sung many years ago
Mama, Mama, many worlds I've come
since I first left home"
- R. Hunter

A night that turned a bit warmer with a brief half hour shower this morning. The sky turned soupy with the summer humidity and the sun disappeared into the white sky. But I pulled up camp and moved on without incident. Back to the donut shop in Tunkhannock - about five miles up the road. Same people drinking the same coffee; same (or probably fresher) donuts in the trays of yellowing labels of Cake and Sour Cream and Iced and Glazed. I wonder if there were donuts in the Blueberry or Chocolate trays within memory; the majority of the trays were missing. But the two I had were just great. And the coffee, although not the world's best, was quite good. I love these vestiges of simpler times.

Visited Steamtown to buy a postcard, this morning. I read somewhere that Scranton was never even a big railroading town, so having this national historical site here is odd. But fortunately having a congressman with good connections in Washington helps.

Tonight ideally will be spent at a friend's house in the country with a big yard an a place to pitch my tent. Again, another friend said "sure she'd let you camp there." We'll see. The three prior nights placed luck in my favor. Pulling up stakes to move on to Philly tomorrow. I feel like I've been traveling forever but the trip is winding down.

Endless

Mama said, "Don't go near that river"
"Don't be hanging round old Catfish John"
Come the morning I'd always be there
Walking in his footsteps in the sweet Delta dawn

Catfish John was a river hobo
Lived and died by the river's bend
Looking back I still remember
I was proud to be his friend
- McDill/Reynolds

Here is a picture of the place I camped last night in the Endless Mountains and likely will again tonight. This was a bit more legal camping site than the night before. Although technically, I didn't get the owner's permission. But I did back in 2006. It is a beautiful, quiet site and conducive to a great night's rest. Another star-filled night nestled in this sycamore grove by this old lazy river under a waxing gibbous.

It is remarkable to sit on the banks of the mighty Susquehanna (the longest non-navigatable river in the US), and spending countless minutes looking at the teeming life of fish fry, tadpoles, insects, birds, crayfish and snails makes you see how intricate a web we live in on this planet. I canoed this river many years ago and always seem to return to it.

Currently, I am having a yerba mate in a little coffee house on Courthouse Square in Scranton. On to a series of social events this afternoon.

Earlier this morning when I drove through Tunkhannock, Pennsylvania, I saw a sign that read "The World's Best Coffee." I pulled in for a sixteen ounce and two of the remaining donuts.
"Any sign the says 'The Worlds Best Coffee' is worth a stop," I said.
"That's what I do," he said. In the self-induced vicissitudes of my life, I sometimes wonder what I do. At least he knows.

And the donuts and coffee were splendid on another great (although getting warmer) day in Pennsylvania.

World's End

In spite of the getting up at 5:30 this morning (the sun wakes you up more readily when sleeping in a tent with no fly), it turned ito another glorious day. It seems the place I camped at twenty
years ago (World's End State Park) no longer has any individual tent camping. So what turned out to be a fine day ended up with me pitching a tent in near darkess on same questionably legal land near the Loyalsock Creek. I still slept like a baby, as the smells and sounds of being in a tent quickly brought back great memories and made me realize why I am drawn to this area on my trips back east. Here is a picture of the Loyalsock, where we camped many summers.

And although I no longer go to the weekly Vippasana sittings at the local dharma hall, I find these gurgling streams to be very calming and spent a half hour (or hour?) in a hope to seek some meditative clarity. But I am also somewhat grungy today and I feel as though I am living the carefree days of yore with all my worldly belongings in the trunk.

I am still more than a week out from returning to Bellingham, and spending time alone is both refreshing but causes homesickness. More soon.

Grand

I spent much of today on the Grand Army of the Republic Highway - US Route 6. The (mostly) two-lane ribbon of concrete winds through the Allegheny Mountains of Northern Appalachia. Beautiful old towns that dot the landscape nestled amongst the beautiful hills. And perfect weather. Maybe I unleashed some Bellingham summer weather on these wondrous old hills (much older, I've been told, are the Alleghenies versus, say, the Rockies or Cascades).

But it is nice to get out of the cities and off the interstate and on the back roads, meandering by the relics of a bygone era: small cafes and town squares are the norm, versus today's homogeneous crap...oh, never mind.

The next few nights will be spent camping and the weather is predicted to be perfect. I just took this picture of Warren, PA, a town near the Kinzua Dam where I camped a few times and sailed my little wooden boat when I was living back here. Pictures help, but the smells of life and rejuvination are remarkable and cannot be captured by these little pixels.

The highway calls me on this perfect day, and I will drive east a bit further and find a place to pitch my tent and lay my head.

Cleveland

So the weather is not quite this sunny today in Cleveland. And last night's thunderstorm reminded me of the fury of the Great Lakes' storms. I spent many years sailing Lake Erie west of Cleveland near the islands. Evidently a cold front blew through just after dinner, and today it is fortunately much more mild.

Not much more to say. Tomorrow I head into the Allegheny National Forest and Endless mountains to camp for a few days. As wi-fi is not always readily available in these parts, my posts may be sporadic for the next few days.

Queen

"And this Song of the Vine,
This greeting of mine,
The winds and the birds shall deliver
To the Queen of the West,
In her garlands dressed,
On the banks of the Beautiful River."
- H. Longfellow

Here are two pictures (one of the fire station across the street) from the coffee house where I write today in Hyde Park Square. When I lived in Cincinnati, this was one of my favorite places to come and work. Many of the neighborhoods have these small fire stations nestled into the community. And Hyde Park is considered upscale, so I also get to watch the beautiful people of Cinti. A great time was had here, but it is time to move on.

I-71 lies ahead and the next leg of the trip takes me to Cleveland. I do not find the heat too bad here; I find the air conditioning inside to be much less tolerable than the temps outside. Not being used to A/C, I find the temperature swings from inside to outside to be quite dramatic. I miss Bellingham ("Oh, why was I tempted to roam?") and the connection to the outside world that open windows bring. (And I thought the days of wearing fleece inside covered with down comforters were behind me for the year.) Enough complaining.

My sustenance for the trip north will be some donuts from Busken. Mmmm.