We left Chicago and headed east, spending a single (forgettable) night in Cleveland before ending up in Wellsboro, Pennsylvania.

Our initial plan had been to spend the next week in Philadelphia, but after Omaha and Chicago we were sick of cities, so we opted for this small, rural town instead, just 20 miles from the border with New York.

The place we found was a beautiful cabin in the middle of the woods, complete with a fire pit, a great covered porch, and some hiking trails.

We were a bit bummed to miss out on all the history that Philadelphia had to offer, but we were even more bummed to miss out on our friend Mike, who lives in Philly. But fortunately, Mike was nice enough to come to us instead and stay with us for a couple nights!

On the first night the three of us made a fire and ate dinner outside. Winnie was scared of the fire, but the humans enjoyed themselves.

Once back inside, Mike showed us a new toy he had just bought - an acupuncture mat. Ellie quite enjoyed it.

The next day we went for a hike in “Pennsylvania’s Grand Canyon”. It was a beautiful hike with a pretty intense amount of elevation gain, but we all made it out.

Hanging out with Mike for a couple days was one of the highlights of the trip so far.

The rest of our time here was fairly uneventful due to another relatively minor medical issue of Ellie’s. This time we actually did end up at the ER (not just a 7-Eleven), and she was more-or-less bedridden for much of the remainder of the week. But she’s entirely better now!

Here she is giggling at something on her phone during our many-hour wait at the ER:

• How much we’d like to visit again: 3/10. It was a very beautiful area, but we wouldn’t go out of our way to come back here.
• How much we’d like to live here: 1/10. Way too rural and far away from basic services.