The weather has been way the fuck hotter than we expected. It was close to 90 degrees yesterday. It was 35 degrees at night just before we left Massachusetts and we brought clothing more suitable to cooler weather. Fortunately I brought some sunscreen with us. I missed a spot on my neck and have a pink patch to show for it.

So, what have we been up to?
Well, yesterday we toured Gettysburg. We got to the new Visitors Center that just opened this passed Monday (timing is everything) and discovered that for $55 you can get a private tour from a Licensed Battlefield Guide. We spontaneously decided to spring for it and found it worth every damn penny. Our guide knew way more than the 2 1/2 hour tour and he went out of the way to show us a few things not on the tour. He even drove our car for us. Simply awesome!

Last night we spent the night in Carlisle at The Rodeway Inn. This was quite possibly the skeeviest hotel room I've ever spent a night in but it was dirt cheap and we figured at the very least would make for a good story later. As long as there were no bugs we figured it was fine. The TV didn't work and an 8 fingered man who looked a lot like Mike Rowe from Dirty Jobs switched it for another from another room.

Today we explored Centralia Pennsylvania. Centralia is the town with the coal mine fire going on under it. Back in the 1960's someone thought it would be a good idea to use an old mine shaft as the town dump and then someone thought it would be a good idea to burn it. There has been an underground coal mine fire raging ever since and the town has been pretty much abandoned.

We saw smoke venting up out of the ground a few feet from where we were standing, sinkholes and a whole lot of nuthin'. There are a couple of families still living here but the whole place was rather sad.

Tonight we are in Allentown just chillin' out. We're planning on doing a whole lot of nuthin' until leaving here Monday morning.