The past few days we have traveled from Gettysburg to Breezewood, crossing, and camping in, a portion of the Appalachian Mountains along the way. In this time, our love/hate relationship with Caddy became pretty clear to us. Unpacking our gear, and retrieving our food leaves us ever grateful for her, but lugging a loved one up 2,000 feet would put a strain on any relationship.

After camping in state forests for the past few days, and getting a better sense of the mountains, we hope to arrive in Pittsburgh sometime around April 1st.

For now, check out the slideshow from South Central PA below!

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The past couple days we walked from Downingstown, PA to Hanover, PA stopping in Christiana, Hallam, Lancaster and York. While in Lancaster we stayed with couch surfing hosts Sheldon and Naomi. After hearing we had done Americorps, Sheldon and Naomi invited their family friends Amy and Kerry over, who are both NCCC Americorp alums. Amy now works for an organization building affordable housing in Lancaster, and Kerry will be biking across part of the country, and building affordable homes along the way, with a program called Bike to Build. Stay tuned for a blog post to learn more about the affordable housing issues affecting Lancaster.

We owe a big thanks to Sheldon and Naomi for their hospitality, and for connecting us with their friends, Roger and Donna, who later hosted us in York.

We head to Gettysburg today, and will be camping in state forests for the next few nights!

Danny taking on a huge hill east of York

Outside Hanover, PA

Downtown York, PA

It takes five minutes to drive through a town like Coatesville, Pennsylvania, but in the forty minutes it took us to walk, we were struck by the simple beauty of it’s design, and the warmth and hospitality of the residents we encountered.

Take Tom, for instance. Our first interaction in the town, Tom had a handsome, white beard, a round face, and United States Army veteran hat atop his head. Tom was outside his home, shoveling snow, when we came walking by with our massive pushcart and neon safety vests. We helped him shovel his walkway, he shared stories from his childhood in Coatesville, and from his experience in the army, and soon we had developed a rapport with this stranger. Before we parted ways, Tom made a donation to JOIN, paid for our lunch, and urged us to be safe on our journey with the sincerity of a close friend.

Or take the man shoveling outside the massive brick building, who saw our cart, and, assuming we were homeless, invited us inside for a warm meal. “It’s not much, but it does the job,” he said, motioning us over from the street. Even after we explained we weren’t homeless, and talked about the walk, he still invited us in, eager to help out a neighbor. They may not have had much, but the soup was warm, we rested our legs, and the one man working exuded a gentle grace and humility that would welcome any stranger. “Quiet dignity” was how we described it afterwards. With a quiet dignity and calming grace, they were serving those most in need in their community. We left that building frustrated by the evident lack of resources available for them, curious what homelessness looked like in a city so small, and grateful for the beautiful, humbling experience they invited us into.

Or take the woman driving past us towards the freeway, who slowed her car down, and shouted at us “where ya going?” When we replied San Francisco, she grabbed a $20 bill from her pocket, raised her hand to the sky, and waited for us to cross traffic to retrieve it.

Often people see our cart and assume we are homeless. They avoid eye contact with us, looking away before reading our sign. What has struck us about some places is how friendly people are to us, despite thinking we might be homeless.

Quiet dignity. A community like Coatesville was ready to embrace a stranger as if they were neighbors, even if that stranger was actually just two crazy kids, trying to walk across America.

I’d like to see Rocky try conquering these stairs with a 70 lb cart to push!

After following two days of rest in the great city of Philadelphia with an unnecessarily strenuous hike for this photo-op, we are headed out of the city towards West Chester. We are incredibly grateful to our hosts the past three nights, Conor and Elana, who let us tend to our blisters in their apartments, fueled us up on cheese-steaks and Thai food, and watched us plan the next leg of our route towards Pittsburgh. As always, many thanks to all the beautiful people we’ve met and interacted with along the way!

We have received a lot of questions lately about our gear, and what we have brought with us, so we unpacked our cart and laid everything out for this post.

Pictured above are all of the supplies we bought before beginning our journey. With everything from our camping equipment to the electronics we’re using to communicate with you, we worked hard to keep our equipment to only the essentials. And while this is everything we packed into our cart, it is important to note we are both carrying our clothes in our individual packs.

Below we have also included a picture of our trusted cart, Caddy. We often refer to her as the Cadillac of carts to the people we are meeting, and soon the name Caddy stuck. She might require a lot of effort to go uphill, but she has provided us with ample storage for all the necessities for our trip.

#InCaddywetrust

We crossed the Delaware River today, officially leaving New Jersey and entering Pennsylvania! While it was our longest day yet, at 23 miles, we felt some extra motivation after seeing this sign directing us towards our goal, San Francisco.

Thank you to our couch surfing host Zak, as well as his roommates, for letting us stay with them at Princeton  yesterday, and to Lauren and Tim for hosting us tonight in Holland, Pennsylvania!