Hi ho, hi ho, it's off to Shenandoah

More on the last part of camp later.

Since then: New York was... big. The hostel that about 10 of the English counselors stayed in for the first 3 nights was good... I did have to point out, even to the pair who stayed there last year, it's in the fringe of New York's gay district. It took me about 5 minutes of exploratory wonder before a "Free HIV Testing" sign in a pharmacy window triggered the connections. 8-) Went on a free (Camp America voucher) speedboat around the Statue of Liberty, watched sunset on top of the Empire State Building, got served in an 'Irish Bar' and stuck my hand into a ceiling fan. Ooops.

Andy (English counselor from my bunk) and I are currently staying with one of the American counselors in rural Maryland, experiencing the real, ignorant countryside America. Sarcasm is considered rude and irony sounds like something from a chemistry class she slept through. [Edit 29/8/05 - She got quite offended from that. Twas only me being my usual obnoxious self :p. Sarcasm is considered rude though.] Top stuff. There's actually a compulsory two years before you can do a 3 year degree course which is spent learning at uni ("college") what should have been learnt in High School. Sigh.

Went to Washington with her, her friend and Andy today. I persuaded them to go on the tour of the Library of Congress and Andy got scared by the sheer volume of knowledge and had to go outside. Also went to the White House, Capitol, Lincoln Memorial and various other interesting things along the way, including the Korean War Memorial which was... something other than awesome, but my vocabulary has become limited over here. Emotive, evocative and other stuff besides. Pictures will show why.

Tomorrow (today) Andy and I are setting out on...

Travel plans: The new version:

Shenandoah National Park.

Its north end is about 90 miles from here and we're hopefully getting dropped off there. We then plan to walk along the Appalachian Trail which runs through the park for about 105 miles from North to South. This should take us until Friday the 2nd of September (10 days) then bus back to Baltimore to be picked up and stay another night with said Maryland residing counselor. On the 3rd we bus up to New York, out to JFK straight from the bus terminal (Port Authority) and fly home in the evening.

As far as camping supplies go, fortunately the aforementioned counselor's "Mom" is an outdoors type and has a tent to lend us. Rations etc are being bought on the way tomorrow.

For those doubting my capabilities, Andy did a 3 month Raleigh International trek/building in the Malaysian rainforest, so I should be reasonably safe.

As the US commander at Bastogne replied to the German demand for surrender:

To the German Commander those who said I should have planned ahead:

Nuts!