People We Have Met along the Way

We've met some interesting people along the road:
* In Strasburg we went to a restaurant called Good and Plenty - fine Mennonite cooking and served family style at long tables with 12 people sharing bowls of food. We met a chiropractor and an emergency nurse from Arizona but who had both moved to Atlanta. They have a bucket list filled with derring-do for each of their birthdays - hang gliding, para sailing and more. The two have been friends since childhood and team up for holidays. Another couple at the table was from Corning, NY. We told them that we were going to take a break from walking in late April by going to see the glass museum in Corning. They have never been.
* We met other hikers from northern PA who were in Lancaster for a conference. She does endurance hikes once per week. They hike wilderness trails together. They told us a hair-raising tale of hiked during the late winter this year. They have often hiked the route which involves a loop of about eight miles with a corresponding number of water falls. They are experienced hikers but on this trip they almost made a fatal mistake by not taking their backpacks with them. They spent more time than they expected looking at the ice formations made by the falls - the one the furthest out looked like a cathedral. They got caught in the dark and had to hike out in pitch darkness. They didn’t reach their car until 1 am. They said they won’t be so foolish as to hike without their packs again.
* Early in our walk we came across a ‘real country’ farmer who said ‘What are you doing there?’ as we were parked looking at a map near his driveway. We called out that we were walking to Canada. He says, ‘That’s a long way! You better park up yonder. Cars just keep flying over thet hill there. I don’t really mind who parks by the house. Nobody really lives there. The owner lives in New York. I just have the cows in the barn.’
* Ron asked for a tee-shirt be printed ‘WALKING TO CANADA’. He already has one that says more about raising money for the Schulich Heart Centre but wanted a simpler one for the US. The proprietor said, ‘It’s free. Anybody who is walking to Canada doesn’t have to pay.’
* Many hotels/motels include breakfast in their rates. That’s a great way to meet people. We met:
* Pipers from Edinborough, PA going to pipe at the state capitol
* A PhD student who had to work full time while studying. He stayed up until 2 am to write more of his thesis. He has to defend it in two weeks. His topic is the use of technology to communicate between faculty and students. That‘s one thesis I‘d like to read!
* Another pair of ‘former’ hikers. They are now in their seventies and have settled down a bit. In their younger days they hiked a lot including a 1000 mile hike. Then they said that we had some great trails up in Canada. Maybe we’d heard of one - the Bruce trail? (Truth told Ron and I celebrated my birthday in the first year we were dating by walking a very small part of the Bruce Trail.
* And the many, many wonderful people who have stopped to see if we had had a breakdown or needed help.