October 1

An uneventful, boring, Pennsylvania day. The weather is warmer, and that makes the odors of the farm country stronger. Corn and soybeans, dairy and beef cattle. The odor is the same for all of them, and I suspect pesticides and herbicides. There were a few goats. No hex signs on the barns. Plenty of Christians, though. Lots of churches including the LCBC, a huge place that I mistook for a shopping center when I first saw it, half a mile away. Its parking lot was proportionately huge, and full. LCBC stands for Lives Changed by Christ.

The country is fairly flat, and interrupted by merciless hills. I did more than fifty miles, and was headed for a campground (which nobody I asked could say for sure was still open) when I found a good-looking site off the road in a cut for a power line. Never again. Pitching the tent, I could feel the aluminum poles vibrating, with what I think would be induced current.

There are a lot of plants here I've never seen before. I started seeing opossums among the roadkill in New York, and a rattlesnake yesterday. Om mani padme hum.