June 24 - Iron Masters Mansion Hostel (Day 97 – milepoint 1073.0)

Hiked with Achilles today: “A real ladies man who can fill his shirt.”

We made excellent time and conquered the 17 1/2 miles by 2:30, arriving at Pine Grove Furnace State Park poised and ready to join the “1/2 gallon club.” We each bought the required 1/2 gallon of Hershey Ice Cream (Achilles – mint chocolate chip; I – chocolate) and sat down for what we anticipated would be an easy task.

Achilles‘ 1/2 gallon quest went like this:

• 10 minutes: “Man this might be harder than we originally thought.”
• 20 minutes: “I am definitely going to finish this.”
• 35 minutes: “Remember when I said I was definitely going to finish this? Well, that’s right back up in the air.”
• 40 minutes: “Maybe if we sit here long enough, it will evaporate.”
• 50 minutes: “I hope they don’t make me drink the melted stuff at the bottom.”

Well, we did it, but I was not proud. As a reward we were given a tiny, little wooden spoon declaring us Members, and we got to sign the “members only” register.

In less than an hour, Achilles was talking about dinner. I was talking about conspiracy.

We hobbled over to this hostel/mansion and checked in. I caught a much needed shower and we are about to pick out a couple of 80′s movies to zombie out to. My intestines are not happy.

Aquaholic