Monday, June 8

We find ourselves a day ahead of schedule: as of this morning we were only four hours driving time from our 'base camp' for the next week, and not due there until Tuesday. So I looked at the map and zoomed in on a green spot about midway. Thus, we find ourselves at Delaware Watergap National Recreation Area. We checked into a nearly-deserted private campground within the federal area. After choosing a campsite we went back to the office to register, and I remarked to the young clerk, "The bathroom looks like the last time it was cleaned, Jimmy Carter was president". My comment must have had an effect, because by the time we got back to the campsite, an unhappy-looking man was headed to the bathroom, and spent about two hours cleaning it. Fortunately, we have facilities aboard our little trailer if a campground's bath house isn't acceptable.  After lunch we took a hike of about three miles through the woods paralleling the Delaware River. The "water gap" is a geological feature where a mountain chain is gradually uplifted but a pre-existing river keeps washing away the uplift so it can continue to flow. The result is a river which cuts directly through a mountainous ridge. We remember visting this place many years ago when the kids were very small. After the hike we drove to a nearby visitor center to get information about possibly using our canoe on the river. The logistics of finding someone to shuttle us upstream may not be practical, and the river looks too fast to simply launch and land at the same spot. We learned that we are in a tornado watch for this evening. After dinner it did start to rain, but with no wind at all. We have no wifi or cell signal here (I'll save this and post it later) so we can't check on the weather. If you are reading this, assume we did not get a tornado. Meanwhile, we are snug and dry and glad we are not tent-camping.

We must have seen a dozen dead dear along the interestate highway yesterday. We nearly hit one ourselves on an on-ramp. Over the last few days we have seen about six wild turkeys and a couple of live deer. Even turkeys are smart enough to stay out of the way of cars. Wildlife spotted on today's hike was limited to two toads.