B was my second student at Lafayette, she grew up in Zimbabwe and was educated in Singapore. She was already a world traveler and didn't really need a host family. But she stayed. At the time I still had the first student and most of the time they were fast friends from two different parts of the world. Shortly before graduation -- with two bachelor's, there was a falling out. It hurt my heart.
She wanted to be a doctor, but being an international student there was no financial aid. So she did it the old fashioned way. She worked for it. For about 5 years she taught biology in private schools and earning two master's degrees plus her EMT certification. Teach during the day. Ambulance runs at night. After her brother's death, she said to hell with it, I'm just going for it, and got accepted into a medical school in Poland. She graduated this year. And where did she land for her residency/internship? Wilkes Barre. An hour plus from Bethlehem.
Yesterday was the first time I've actually seen her in person in those 10 years. She chose Nine Tubs Park outside of Wilkes Barre. Her colleagues told her it was a great place. I had never been there.
We were to meet at 8. As I sat on a rock in an almost empty parking lot and waited all I could see was litter. The parking lot was a mess.
We took the yellow loop trail. It was a difficult trail and we were probably halfway around when the trail disappeared. We never saw the seven tubs or the tunnel. It was disappointing. We turned around. There was some litter on the way out. And at a few places a few trash bags full of litter. I did my best to explain why Pennsylvania is called Rocksylvania. The rocks were evident. She'd like to go to Boulder Field and Ricketts Glen. We'll need to take the teen. And her mom.
Her fellow residents are hikers so I bet I hear about a lot of cool places I haven't been before.
In Pennsylvania over the last couple of years, we've been having issues with out-of-towners taking over our parks. I thought it had slowed down, but apparently, it hasn't. Or maybe it's the pandemic. People just want to get outside.
We were about halfway back and lots of people started heading towards us. They were walking creekside carrying grills, charcoal, chairs, coolers, and tons of bags of stuff. One even had a water cooler bottle of water. In the forest! The closer we got to the parking lot the more people we saw. They were in the creek. They were in the trees. They were everywhere.
And not a soul had on a mask.
By the time we returned to the lot it was overflowing. I couldn't get out of there fast enough.
Driving home there was a sign on the Turnpike that said "Beltsville State Park was closed due to overcrowding". Someone last night said that on Friday they were closed by 9 am.
Miles/Steps: 3 damn hard miles. B looked at her tracker on her watch and said "I burned way more calories than that!" We went to IHop for breakfast.
Weather: Mid 80s, humid, overcast.
PPE Found: 2 masks.
SLF: None!
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