Day 019 - Pratt to Cumberland MD

The forecast for the day was for a winter weather advisory with temperatures near freezing and 1 - 3 inches of snow. The forecast was dead on.

It made no sense for Tom to make a three hour round trip to position my car so I headed down on my own. Shortly after I positioned my car a friendly snow plow operator offered me a ride to my start point. Riding in a snow plow on the interstate is really interesting. The cab is so high that I felt like I was the copilot in a 747.

I love walking in the snow and would have been disappointed if I did't get one "winter wonderland" walk. Everything was covered in a blanket of white.

First up was Polish Mountain. Joan was Polish, Slovak and Ukrainian and proud of it. At the top of Polish Mountain on the south side of the old National Road was a stone marker. On the north side of the road was a tattered American flag flying from a pole next to a small pine tree.

I walked down into the valley thru the town of Flintstone. For those old enough to remember the cartoon show I thought it was interesting that there was a Dino Drive in Flintstone. Next I walked over Martin Mountain. There was a stone marker at the top but it was completely covered with snow. I finished up at the entrance to Rocky Gap State Park where the snow was really starting to pick up in intensity.

For the past 6 days I stayed at the home of Tom and Lorraine Jackson who live in a picture postcard perfect log home on a heavily wooded lot surrounded by a state forest, two state parks and apple orchards. Tom described it perfectly when he said that he has to drive at least 15 minutes to spend money.

I should hire Lorraine out to write my blogs. When I was at Nelson's house I saw Lorraine's blog about the arrival of spring on the night of the alleged snow storm on March 6th. It was poetic.

Lorraine was away at work. I found out that Tom is a man of many talents. He is a gourmet chef and baker, an outdoorsman who navigated me thru the mountains on what was some of the most confusing parts of the walk. He is president of the Keystone State Volkssport Association and knows more about beer and what glasses it should be served in than anyone I know.

The Liberty Bell Wanders sold T-shirts to raise money for the walk. When I arrived I dropped off the final 3 of 7 shirts that I delivered during the walk. Talk about snail mail. In order to lighten my load I left my snow shoes at Tom's house. I am looking forward to having the final piece of apple pie he sent with me that he baked with local apples.

Tonight is the first night I will be staying at a hotel and not with friends. The hotel clerk at the Holiday Inn in Cumberland said his family had been heavily impacted by cancer. He gave me a really low rate. Brenda Maxwell a two and a half year ovarian cancer survivor had contacted me and said that she did not live along my route and could not put me up for a night but wanted to pay for the first nights lodging so she gave the hotel clerk her credit card info.