4th week in Pennsylvania

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Sunday: Went and hiked the 1000 step PA challenge again because it was an amazing hike and I really enjoyed the view. There are other hiking trails in the area but there aren't many actually on all trails. The ones I've found have been word of mouth or just luck pulling off a road where another car is parked... kind of odd. Those 1000 steps really do kick your butt going up and coming back down isn't super easy either!

Monday: Ebensburg had a memorial day parade. Copper was feeling extra patriotic with his flag stuck in his harness and got lots of attention for it. Something of note about the northeast and PA in particular is how white it is... especially the rural areas. Ebensburg is 99.55% white, 0.38% black or African american and 0.06% Asian. Which means by the population there are 8 non-white people in this entire borough. Seeing the entire town out for the parade made this very evident and just odd. How is it even possible to have that little diversity? Despite the lack of diversity, the parade was a boring small town parade. Lots of fire trucks from the county and little league teams walking down the street. I'm pretty sure almost every kid in the county was in the parade and not watching it!

Tuesday: A big thunder storm rolled in after work- look at Copper in his "thunder ears". They really help him calm down from loud noises- thunder, fireworks etc. He seems to have learned they help him too because he doesn't try to take them off anymore.

Friday: Time to pack up everything I own into the car! Even though I have things pretty packed down and know where everything will go it still takes me about 2.5 hours to pack everything into the car...

Saturday: Good bye PA! Travel day to my next destination. Sadly this meant I had to say goodbye to Sheetz- a popular gas station in PA and centered in Altoona. They make surprisingly good food and coffee. It's something I've found very different from the west coast to the east coast. Out west the impression of gas station coffee is just some drip coffee that's been sitting for far too long. But gas stations on the east coast will make custom espresso drinks. Sheetz also has delicious breakfast and subway sandwiches 😊 However, it is rural PA so check out that photo of the teenagers going to prom along with the guys straight off the farm- hello rural PA!

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