Leg Two

DINGMAN’S FERRY, PA

Arrived in Dingman’s Ferry, PA, 9 P.M.
Jeep Odometer: 191, 321 miles
Trip Odometer: 313 miles

I arrived at the Wilson’s very relieved to see the faces of a sister and a brother, two nieces, and a warm bowl of chicken noodle soup—I have a bad habit of not eating on long drives. As usual, Sarah Marie was standoffish at first, but after roughly five minutes she was all over me. Lucy has grown so much since my visit in May, and not just physically. Her personality is emerging by the day and she even muttered “Pppp….piiii…pppp…a” by the third day.

Ten minutes after I arrived the water shut off. Although I still question the proximity of my arrival and the need to suddenly replace the water pump as quite a coincidence, I’ll take Ali’s word for it, and eliminate the idea of being coerced to northwest Pennsylvania as cheap labor :)

The next day, around one o’clock Sean walked into the kitchen having just replaced the water tank in the crawl space below. He turned the faucet and nothing. I’m pretty sure he muttered something that I won’t repeat, and I can’t blame him, I was muttering those same words just an hour later. “I’m going to need your help,” he said. From the tone of his voice it sounded like it was a tug here and a pull there…fifteen minutes later I’d be playing Chutes and Ladders with Sarah Marie. How gullible could I have been? If someone makes something sound like it’s ‘not that big of a deal’ put your gloves up because you’re going to get punched in the mouth. Nevertheless, I followed him out to the well and peaked in. “See that pipe down there?” he said. “We need to pull that out.” It looked simple; it sounded simple. The top of the pipe was about seven or eight feet from the top of the well casing…

Two and a half hours later I’m sucking wind, as well as second-hand smoke, as Sean and I yank the water pump (100 pounds of dead weight) over the top of the casing and onto the ground. In the yard was five-hundred feet of rubber piping spiraling left and right. The job was halfway done. We had to go to Lowes, buy a new pump, return home, hook it up, and drop it back down in the well. All in all it took us about nine hours to do it, but we had some good laughs, and I found new respect for blue-collar laborers, both present and past. There’s something to be said about getting your hands, forearms, elbows, shoulders, chest, face and hair covered in muck and mud and mountain well water just to insure that your sister and nieces will be able to bathe and wash the dishes. Not to mention, a cold Yuengling and a hot dinner never tasted so good.

Wednesday was much more “chill”. Ali and I took the girls to Dingman’s Falls and went for a walk. We took some good pictures, too. When we got home, Sean called and said he was sent home from work (lower back pain)…that’s the difference between 32 and 26, I guess. So Ali made dinner while Sarah Marie kicked my ass in Chutes and Ladders. Then we played “Party Jenga” after dinner, and I learned some interesting “truths” about my sister and her husband…for the right price I will definitely share. Just kidding. Snitches get stitches where I come from.

Finally, I packed up the Jeep on Thursday afternoon, four hours behind schedule, and said my goodbyes. I blessed the Wilson home as I pulled away, and I started heading in the direction of my favorite place in the world.