Day 60: Back in the South!

Thanks to those dumb boy scouts last night I had to cowboy camp it.  I hardly slept at all and here is the reason: rattlesnakes mainly but also bears and porcupines.  Pennsylvania is slap full of timber rattlers and copperheads.  Guess what?  They hunt at night.  They are also cold blooded and i was a huge warm spot on the top of a very rocky ridge (rattlesnake friendly area) that had no protection between me and a snake.  So i was on full alert but i eventually fell asleep around 1am.  I set up booby traps around me so in case a snake did come in my proximity i might hear it coming.  The traps consisted of garbage bags and plastic grocery bags lying around me.  I'm still alive though and never saw a snake so that's good.  Today i did a total of 20 miles.  I wanted to go farther but i had trouble hitching into town for resupply.  I spent 30 mins trying and needed to take a break to eat and get off my feet and right then Redbeard and Sardine walked up so they stuck their thumbs out.  15 minutes later a guy in a jacked up diesel f250 pulled over and I was like "heck yeah this is my kinda hitch."  He gave us a ride to Walmart.  After resupply we went to Applebee's for lunch and to watch football.  Sardine and Redbeard are huge football fans and every sunday they nero or zero in a town to watch football.  So after lunch i said my farewells to my two buddies i had just spent the last however many days with which stunk to leave them but hey we all hike our own hikes.  I was able to hitch out of town within 5 minutes of putting my thumb out so that was nice.  My goal was to do the 20 miles and hopefully get to the shelter before it rained but the rain came 2 hours earlier than predicted so i got soaked.  Whatever i'm used to it i guess.  Speaking of weather though i feel very blessed in that i have had mostly phenomenal weather in terms of rain since leaving Vermont.  This afternoon i crossed the Pennsylvania/Maryland border and the Mason/Dixon line.  Thats right, this boy no longer has a Johhny Reb target on his forehead.  I am on home turf now.  Hahahaaaa just kidding i dont care about that sorta thing.  But I do look forward to actually being able to order a real glass of sweet tea again.  No more waitresses looking at me and saying in their best southern accent imitation, "now Darlin, we aint a servin that sorda thang round hare."  Ahhh its gonna be nice to be in Virginia in 2 days i really look forward to that state especially after how boring PA was.