Bits and pieces!

May 28th Since I usually don't have lots of time to sit in front of the screen and there are just things I forget. Here they are!
On my bike ride part that seems like months ago I met with Don the motel owner in Meyersdale and had a lengthy conversation with him. I always like to find out about the backgrounds of the people I run into. Don's grandfather was Amish but couldn't get into the whole control thing of that sect. He left the order but they didn't shun him since he was loved in the community. He also never bought a car and walked everywhere.

When we visited the Wagner Sugar Shack I found out that the Wagners went up into Vermont and brought back super sugar maple trees. They planted them 25 years ago and will have to wait another 10 years before they can tap them. There was already century old trees on the property that is tapped.

The resort at Rocky Gap State park in Md was very nice and all by itself. The dining room had a view to die for of the lake.

There is not enough that can be said about Pa's countryside. When you're in the mountains the trees may be growing close togethor but green plants grow all around the floor under them. Lots of the plants you would see in your house. When the trees are far apart the ground is covered with ferns, a green blanket of tender ferns. Along the roadsides are fields of wild flowers. Like a fella said yesterday about the Amish, Pa wouldn't be Pa without them. Their farms had long lines of clothes hanging out to dry, the barns filled with horses and mules sticking their heads out as I walk along the building, the Amish men as they tip their straw hats driving their buggies by you. The buggies are very quick with retired race horses as the horse power.

The Pa state parks are as clean as a pin. The information board has boxes with lots of items, including rubber gloves.

Everybody and I mean everybody has told me to look out for coyotes, rattle snakes, bears and poison ivy. The number one thing is coyotes with wild stories like the coyote that has breed with a wolf. They are big enough to pick me up with my pack in their jaws and still have room to put a small child under their arm to be carried off to the den! I am thinking if the coyotes breeding with a wolf and a rattle snake. The Army could use them in Iraq.

With all the industries going everywhere except here I have found a company going full bore. The natural gas industry. In State College I met up with 2 dump truck drivers two of the hundreds that were hauling gravel 80 miles for the pads. Now I have met the guys that use the pads. A group of men here at the motel who travel around settting up temporary buildings for the gas drillers. Thousands of wells to be drilled according to these fellas.