Friday, June 27, 2008

Unscrupulous Motel Owners...

I made it to the Baltimore, MD. area yesterday morning.

The trip has been great so far, with excellent weather, fantastic scenery and wonderful people.

But. This will be as far as I am going for a while, due to an unscrupulous motel owner who placed fraudulent charges on my debit card and wiped out all of my funds!

I am now trying to locate employment in this area before my on hand cash runs out.

Sunday, June 22, 2008

June 22, 2008, in Reamstown, PA

I made it to Reamstown, PA yesterday, where I am holed up for a couple of days to let a strained stomach heal up a bit. I had hoped to be here the day before but the hills here in PA were killers. I ended up pulling or straining a stomach muscle trying to get up one of them. I walked the rest of the steeper hills after that.

Cut the day short just east of Bowmansville, PA. Another 10 miles and I would have been here but didn't want to risk making it any worse so I stayed at the Sun Valley campground. Very nice camping area and I was so relieved to be there, where I could rest. But much to my dismay my tent site was at the very top of another very steep hill. I barely made it.

Next morning I got a visit from an older gentleman who noticed my sign on the back of my trailer. He had worked at a refinery for one of the major oil companies and retired a while back. He confirmed what a lot of us have suspected. The price we are paying for fuel is inflated. The oil companies will sell their own oil pumped from their own wells to themselves at whatever the going price of oil is, regardless of the actual cost to pump it from their own wells. That so called higher priced oil is used as the reason to raise the prices of the refined products. Diesel fuel is a prime example. It takes LESS refining to make it and it was always lower priced than gasoline. Why then is it now higher priced than even premium grade gasoline? Simple greed and the belief by the oil companies that no one will challenge them.

That is what I hope to change, if of course I can survive the grueling hills still to go here in PA. I'm sure I will. I just wish everything here wasn't always uphill. Even this motel is uphill from the road.

Other than the large volume of rather steep hills, all is going well. Weather has been excellent. Scenery is spectacular and have had quite a few folks honking their horns and waving in support. Of course, there have been some honking because I was in their way and they had to slow down until they could get past me. I even had a few others ride along with me from time to time. I expect to make it to Mt. Joy, PA tomorrow at least.

Mr. Bill at the hotel where he is staying to heal (Can you tell it is ALL uphill???)

Mr. Bill in Pennsylvania

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

I'm Off And Going

Well, I'm just leaving now to go. I'll update when I can from the road as I can.