Today's Blog is Sponsored By....

The Cosmic Bean! Today Zach and I assisted with some very impressive coffee roasting, and Rob tolerated a LOT of questions. Zach and I learned about the importance of first crack and second crack, about the difference between decaf and regular coffee beans and swiss water processing, and about the benefits of shade grown coffee (and if you too want to know about all of these things, you will have to email us and find out! or, you know, just look stuff up online, which is probably easier, but not as much fun). And, perhaps most importantly,

Zach and I were able to taste test a variety of the products, and we give each of them our seal of approval. So, we encourage you all to visit www.thecosmicbean.com. Why? Because it offers a variety of awesome coffees and other products, because the Cosmic Bean tag-line is "the coffee that's outta this world!" and because these people were nice enough to put up with us for several days, so really, you know you want to support them in any way possible.

Maryland

The Haroths of Maryland have been so kind to let us sleep in their driveway, use their wi-fi, and help ourselves to several hot showers and awesome meals. But it came at a price....

only joking, we were actually really excited to help strip down the herbs that will later be made into tea! And then our excellent herb-stripping efforts were rewarded with wonderful egg-nog lattes, mmmmm

Oh yeah, and in case you hadn't noticed, that's a Beard-Net that Zach is wearing in those Hershey Factory pictures, and that is what prompted this to happen.....

The Sweetest Place on Earth

Hershey, PA! It may be corny, but let me just say that we had a blast. Zach was kind of enough to humor me and go on the free

"tour" ride twice. You can't tour the actual fact

ory, so instead they have created a simulated, sort of Disney version of the factory for you to tour via a little moving cart on a conveyor belt with a little announcer who tells you all the different stages of the chocolate making process.

Plus, there are catchy songs and singing cows, and you get free

candy at the end. And then the ride dumps you out in the huge gift shop where Zach and I exercised some incredible self control and only bought two bags of specialty Hershey's Chocolate Kisses (Irish Creme, and Cherry Cordial).

Friends and family, we are sorry to say that you will not be getting any Hershey's treats as Christmas gifts,because we knew that even if we had bought them, they wouldn't have made it to you anyway. And then we splurged a bit and participated in Chocolate Worlds' newest attraction: Make Your Own Candy Bar! We had a blast. We picked out what kind of chocolate we wanted (I chose milk, Zach chose dark) and then we picked out three add-ins, and then we designed our own labels! And we did all this in a special Hershey's lab. But, that also means that we had to abide by certain rules for health code. So, in the end, our chocolate creations looked awesome!

...unfortunately, we did not look as cool.

Nowhere, PA

So, it rained, a lot, throughout Pennsylvania. The Delaware Water Gap was beautiful, although we were really only able to observe it from inside the bus. We stopped at a local library for some free wi-fi, and then we roamed through some back roads and ghost towns. A quick stop in Jim Thorpe for some local color, and some unexpectedly funky architecture. And then we spent the night at....Cabela's! We spent several hours roaming the outdoors superstore, including the awesome aquarium, and then we purchased some beef jerky for a bit of protein. It was my first jerky experience, and I am happy to report that it was gross, but also kind of delicious. We went back to the aquarium the next morning to say goodbye to all of our fish friends.

Mmmm, Chicken Sandwich

Oh yeah, and we stopped at Wendy's for a grossly delicious, and absurdly cheap, lunch. $4 for two sandwiches, a small order of fries (ok, it was really small) and a chocolate Frosty. Rainy days require fried chicken pick-me-ups. Thanks Wendy's value menu!

Oil and Water

First of all, we owe a big thank you to Ned and Garland for hot showers, and to Max at Gourmet Pizza for oil. We enjoyed our last day in New Paltz, when we were finally able to take a hike up the mountain to split rock where we saw some beautiful water falls, and some signs suggesting a surprisingly liberal bathing policy....And we owe a huge thank you to Eric and Molly the dog who gave us 10 gallons of WVO, and let us see their great filtration set-up. Congratulations Eric, yours is the cleanest WVO home set-up we've seen to date, and it was a pleasure to meet you (and Molly). Now we're rolling through the Delaware Water Gap where, rather appropriately I suppose, it is POURING! We camped out by a small stream last night, but got rained out of outdoorsy activities this morning.Oh Pennsylvania, now we're always going to remember you as dreary.

Noodletastrophe

We finally, finally got our little camp stove going at a decent pace and were able to make our first official meal in the bus. The stove sure cooks things quickly, so our soba noodles ended up being more mush than pasta. We did a do-over, and the second batch came out ok. The stove is a bit of work, lots of pumping to pressurize, but we are learning to enjoy it. Zach said, "it's like that cute little puppy that pees all over the house," as in, you really wish it weren't so much work, but you really love it anyway. Since the first noodletastrophe, we've successfully made mac and cheese with tuna and scallions, grits, and oatmeal. And we've eaten a lot of jam-crackers too (homemade jam on graham crackers).