Laundry days are full of tough decisions for hikers. What is the bare minimum of clothing you can decently wear while washing the rest? Which of your clothes are least rancid? Usually, hikers will wear their rain gear while doing laundry. (A bit trashy, but precedented.) Today, I could not. The town of Duncannon is so swelteringly, brain-meltingly, oppressively muggy that every minute in this un-airconditioned laundromat has been hell. I have been counting down the minutes until I can fling off my sticky, all-plastic raincoat and put on a tee shirt. A brief excursion to the QuickMart had Honeybuns and I passing a thrift shop. It was a nice thrift shop. A Christian thrift shop, run by volunteers. It had no clothing section. It DID have curtains. I channeled my inner Maria Von Trapp. Accordingly, I have purchased a valance. I do not know what a valance is, but it cost a dollar and it is now a tube top. I am half-ashamed and half-proud. But either way, I am no longer dying from the humidity. Not a bad dollar spent. UPDATE: Have clean shirt! The valance is now torn in pieces to cover the gauze over my horrendous hornet sting. (Explanatory post to come.) The rest is being saved for modesty garments for Naked Hiker Day. Multipurpose!

Published on June 11, 2015