Well, today was quite a day. It started out at about 9:00 AM when I took off from a local ice cream shop with three Boy Scouts, and two leaders (their dads). By the time we went a mile, I picked up five more scouts and another leader. They just kept coming out of the woodwork. BSA Troop #200 from Annandale, NJ joined me Sunday and walked a total of 10.7 miles with me. This enabled those Scouts who were there to earn credit towards two merit badges and the good time we all had was thrown in for free. Thanks go out to Leader Tom L. for setting up this event (he actually emailed me about it in June) and thanks to all who showed up and partook. After the 10+ miles, we all chowed down at a local pizza restaurant. I want to thank the troop for the money donated to Gateway through ‘money found’ along the route, and for the nice donation to Valda’s gas fund. Also thanks for the pizza lunch and the great company 😀

After the walk on Sunday morning, I decided to visit a local ER to see if I could get rid of an intestinal bug I’ve been fighting a while. Well, we all know what ER’s are like, and about six hours later, I finally got out of there. It turned out to be a little more than I was expecting, but hopefully I’m on the road to better health. More later on this adventure.

Miles Covered: 12.25
Total Miles: 3,116.5
Money Found: $3.83
Total Found: $90.77

So, we are in New Jersey and I’m taking today and tomorrow off, and on Sunday I set out with 15 Boy Scouts from Troop 200 and their leaders, and head toward Washington, NJ on Hwy 57. We have currently stopped at the intersection of Hwy 57 and US 22 about 3 miles inside the state. I want to thank Tom and Kathryn L. for letting us camp out in their driveway. Tom and Kathryn saw an article on me in Highways Magazine last June and have been corresponding with us ever since. It is surely gracious of them to extend their hospitality. We’ve started finding campgrounds and state parks are now closed in this area of the country and having a place to land for a few days is very helpful. Many thanks to them again and it is much appreciated.

I can’t sing like Frankie Valli, but boy did I like to listen to him. I wonder if his high notes hurt his throat as much as it hurt my ears? Well, as you might have gathered, I’m in New Jersey. We crossed over at about 3:45 PM yesterday and though I didn’t get a picture of a sign welcoming us to NJ, Valda did get a picture of me crossing over the bridge at Easton/Phillipsburg. I talked to Charlie, a policeman on duty at the bridge to keep overweight vehicles away, and he told me the bridge is one of two identical bridges (the other one is in Budapest, Hungary) and that it was built in 1895. It is still in use today and is a rather nice looking bridge compared to a lot of others I’ve seen. Anyway, I crossed over it and then I was in state # 12 and PA was behind me.

I ask everyone I run into how far NYC is and most everyone says it is an hour away, so that means it can be anywhere from 50-80 miles away, depending on how fast you drive. An hour for me is 3 miles, so I guess my answer doesn’t apply. I’m going to look closely at the map today and just see how many days away it is and hope I don’t use all six days allotted to get there. It would really be nice to have next Friday off.

By anyone’s measure though, the walk is winding down. I probably have four or five days walking in NJ, and then the two in NYC. Next Monday I’ll probably wake up and wonder what I’m going to do next. I don’t have a definitive answer to that one yet, but I’m working on it.

As soon as I get it all figured out, we will get the Pennsylvania stats on the blog. Other than that, there will be no more blogs till Sunday night. The pictures are of me leaving PA and a couple of shots of country I just walked through.

Miles Covered: 15
Total Miles: 3,104.25
Money Found: $0.88
Total Found: $86.94

As the title suggests, I believe tomorrow I will end the day in another state – New Jersey. I believe we are that close and if I miss it, it won’t be by much. We had a good day of walking today and are currently in Bath, PA. I have found another short cut on my map and will check it out with locals tomorrow morning. If it is a viable route, it should save me another couple of miles. It is very similar to the Snake Road shortcut out of Mount Carmel that I took last Sunday morning.

Not a lot happened today. It was a bitter cold day with a biting wind and I wore my toboggan and hood on my sweatshirt almost all day. The ‘money found’ took a bit of a hit today, but what do you expect? Today all those round spots on the road were chewing gum or washers, where yesterday they were coins. There was a lot of loose corn on the road today too and that didn’t help. Now I know what you’re thinking and yes I know the difference between a kernel of corn and a penny – the corn is worth more.

I didn’t take too many pictures today (too cold), but the one showing the barn with the white truck is interesting. The driver of the truck said the road was put through in 1937 and when they did, they tore down half of the barn. As far as he knew, the barn had never been hit, but I find that hard to believe. That corner was in pretty good shape though, but it would not surprise me if it has been rebuilt a time or two.  The other picture was taken last night where we spent our dinner break.

Tomorrow it on toward Easton and then the Delaware River. We are going to try to get to Hwy 57 in NJ. The route we are taking in NJ is Hwy 57 up to where it connects with US 46. We take US 46 all the way to the GW Bridge. Simple, and it keeps me from walking through Newark.

Miles Covered: 18
Total Miles: 3,089.25
Money Found: $0.47
Total Found: $86.06

Today might just have been an important day, but I won’t know for sure until tomorrow, and then maybe not until I get into NJ. I think I walked up and over my last mountain on the whole walk. Now if that’s true, wouldn’t that be a hoot? I vividly remember coming out of the Rockies just north of Ft. Collins and looking back at the jagged peaks behind me, then looking in front of me at the flat prairie ahead. This was not quite as awe striking, but it ranks right up there as far as accomplishments go. I took a picture of the mountain, and the second picture is the hill which I had walked to take the picture of the mountain (got that?). The third picture is a neat little paved road that Valda took – no significance, just neat.

We are currently in Pleasant Corners, PA, a small town on Route 309 just about 35-40 miles west of the NJ state line at Easton, PA. We are hoping to be in NJ on Thursday evening, but who knows. I tried to figure my schedule last week and got off the first day and then it compounded daily as I didn’t hit 18 miles. So, I’ll get to Jersey when I get to Jersey. We plan to walk Wednesday and Thursday this week and take Friday and Saturday off, but that isn’t etched in stone either. A lot depends on the next two days.

Today started off cold, but sunny and quickly went downhill from there. Within about fifteen minutes of taking off, it started raining and did so for the next 2 hours. Not a hard rain, but a cold sprinkle. It was very uncomfortable, but I need to get somewhere and I don’t have the luxury of sitting it out. We managed to get in 17.5 miles today and that wasn’t too bad considering the day. Tomorrow we head toward a small town named Egypt and then Bath. I don’t think we will make Bath, but we should get really close.

Another good day in the ‘money found’ department. Valda found a laundromat in a small town and now I have some clean clothes. That’s always nice. I think we are under ten days walking. Let’s hope so.

Miles Covered: 17.5
Total Miles: 3,071.25
Money Found: $2.30
Total Found: $85.59

We got to Hometown, PA this afternoon and I had a choice to make. Head northeast on Hwy 54 and eventually have to deal with a 6 mile stretch of limited access highway, or turn south on Hwy 309 and have a four lane (so I was told) to walk on. I chose the four lane and immediately started down an 8% grade for about a mile or so. Now this type of walking isn’t as easy as it sounds. Every joint in the knees hurts, you’ve got to really watch your step (don’t want to stumble out into the traffic, or roll down the hill), and you have to watch starting to go so fast that people will confuse you with one of those runners. I got through the downhill and entered the rather large town of Tamaqua, a town that desperately needs bypass surgery. The highway splits into two one-way streets and they aren’t any bigger than a minute. Here are all these big rigs snaking their way through the narrow streets in this town where the houses are built about 5′ from the street curb. Crazy. But, we got through that and finally made our way out of town on the south side and picked up the four lane again.

Now, I started walking after dinner and it was about 5:30. The sun hadn’t set but it was behind the large mountain to our west, so it was getting pretty dark. I walked about a mile and was just about to call it a day when I stumbled on a 12′ wide shoulder. I couldn’t believe it. I got all the way over to my left and walked another thirty minutes and ended up with 18 for the day. I could have walked till midnight.

The ‘money found’ improved today also. For some reason (economy maybe?) I lately haven’t been able to find as much money on the road as I thought I would. Today was different. As Valda said, we had a banner day: good weather, 18 miles, and a bunch of roadside change. I hope tomorrow is just like today, I should be about three more days in PA and then I’m going to cross the Delaware like old George did a couple of hundred years ago. Think someone will paint a picture of me?

The bottom picture shows another typical ‘coal town’.  The top picture shows one of those mountains of coal I blogged about yesterday.  Makes you wonder what kind of nourishment the trees get from the coal.

Miles Covered: 18
Total Miles: 3053.75
Money Found: $1.81
Total Found: $83.29

We’ve stopped for the night about 2 miles east of Frackville and are heading toward Hwy 54 just east of Mahanoy City. We will then head toward Hometown and points east. This morning I started out in Mt. Carmel and took a windy mountain road named Snake Road. The only life on that road this morning besides myself was a bunch of wild turkeys. They were all over the place. Valda tried to get a picture of them, but they wouldn’t strike the pose. When I got over the mountain, I arrived at Ashland and looked back at a sign that said Mt. Carmel was 6 miles, on Hwy 61. The mountain road was only 3 miles and thus saved me 3 miles of walking. I like that. 😀

New Jersey is in sight, and we may have another route change. I’ll keep you posted.

Miles Covered: 13.5
Total Miles: 3,035.75
Money Found: $0.01
Total Found: $81.48

We spent today at the Locust Lake State Park near Mahanoy City and I want to thank Jamey, Deb, and camp host Mike for their generous help in making our stay pleasurable. Also, thanks again to Jamey for her donation to Gateway and kind words in a blog comment. We won’t forget it and it was much appreciated!

We were visited by long time friends, Cammie and son Chris who live about 30 miles north of the park. We hadn’t seen them since 1983. The top picture shows Valda enjoying her day off.