Thursday, July 11, 2013

7/9: Windsor Furnace Shelter, 1219.1

Hello everyone! How is everybody doing on this fine day? Sadly, I don't have to tell you who it is anymore :( Well, let's begin, shall we?

So I pull into Eagles Nest Shelter late on the 8th to find my new friend Beer Goddess already set up. Yeah...her name is Beer Goddess. Super modest, right? She got her name because early on apparently she had a knack for sniffing out all the beer trail magic and breweries near by. One of her goals on the trail is to try and hit every brewery the AT comes near. This is all pertinent information because we were only 9 miles away from the city of Hamburg, PA. There isn't much interesting about Hamburg except the fact that it is adjacent to Pottsville, PA, the home of The Yuengling Brewery! Beer Goddess runs up to me all excited and asks if I want to go with her to the brewery for a tour. Well how am I supposed to say no to that?! When a girl named Beer Goddess asks you to go to a brewery...well you go to the brewery! We make plans that night to leave camp in time to resupply at Walmart before the tour at 1:30.

Ok, I'm taking a break for a moment. Sorry, but I'm writing stream of conscious, and if Billy Faulkner can do it then so can I! I would just like to mention just how tired of trail food I am at this point in the trip, and honestly, eating so much in general. Don't get me wrong, it used to be really cool to walk into a Chinese Buffet and eat 7 plates of food, or order an All-star with a side pork chop at Waffle House. But man, I just want to eat normal portions like a normal person! Also, if I see another protein bar, honey bun, or tortilla shell, I'm going to throw myself off a mountain. Lol I know I'll feel better in a few days, but this time when I walked into Walmart I vowed to change things up! So I got bagels and cream cheese for breakfast, hotdogs (with buns) and cheese for lunch, and containers of chili for dinner. I can't say I'm super light...but at least it's different!

Anyway, back to the main plotline. We get our shopping done and start looking for a hitch around 12:30. That's a little later than we had hoped, but I didn't panic. I just knew everything was going to work out. I was with the Beer Goddess after all! Fate wanted me to visit America's oldest brewery!!

...............

We didn't make it. We asked everyone we could for an hour straight. Rejection after rejection after rejection. The most painful part is when someone would say, "No, I'm not headed that way, but definitely check it out if you get the chance! It's amazing!" Well golly gee wilkers, mister, thanks for the advice!!! Ugh... We went to a local pub to drink a Yuengling. It helped sooth the pain.

The good news is that thanks to my inability to get a ride, I was able to catch up with a really good friend of mine on the trail, Aquaman! The AT giveth and the AT taketh away.

Breeze

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