Pennsylvania - Day 11 - across PA

Laurel Hill State Park, PA

Wednesday, 11 April 2018

This campground has almost no amenities: no wi-fi and my hot spot can’t get a signal, no TV signal, no heat in most of the bathrooms (which matters when it’s 37° and you want a shower), no alcoholic beverages allowed.  On the plus side, I seem to be the only guest here, besides the resident campground hosts and deer.  And there are many deer – I’ve already seen several just getting to my space – and when we went for a walk, Dexter was absolutely beside himself with the desire to catch them.  He didn’t see them but he could sure smell them.  And I don’t have to worry about any loud parties going on till late.

We were on the road for 8 hours today. Almost all of it was on interstates, much of it was the PA Turnpike, both of which I’ve been working hard to avoid.  But they were built to take people quickly over long distances which, today, is what I needed.  When I left Philadelphia, I had to go back to Allentown first to see if my mail had come after I left the KOA.  On the highway, that should have been a little more than an hour trip, but adding in morning rush hour traffic in Philly, it took me 2 hours to make the trip.  From Allentown to the campground took more than 5 hours driving plus I stopped several times, for gas and for stretch breaks and for lunch.

At one point, I saw construction on the other side of the highway bring traffic to a crawl by narrowing the road from 2 lanes to 1, which squeezed all the truckers into one lane.  I counted 32 semis piled up there, with more coming down the highway and counted myself lucky not to have been stuck like that.

I figured if I had to drive across the state I might as well see what I could see from my window.   And what I saw was that PA is primarily a rural state, and a farming state.  Everywhere I saw family farms with farmhouse, barn, silo, and outbuildings.  Many of them were color-coordinated – all the buildings were the same color – red and green being the usual, but there were also quite a few with the traditional white farmhouses, red barns, and whatever color silos.

There are real hills in this part of the state – some actual mountains, in the east coast sense.  I went through 2 tunnels at Kitatinny Mountain – one .8 miles and the other .9 miles long, a tunnel at Tuscarora Mountain .9 miles long, and one at Allegheny Mountain 1.2 miles long.  Those tunnels were a little weird.  They were completely lighted but the 2 lanes were very narrow and there were no shoulders, and were so long that after a bit I had trouble staying focused.  I don’t know how to explain it, it was disorienting – maybe almost like being hypnotized.  I was just glad to get out of them.

I saw a billboard that said "Discover why Jesus created you," with a phone number to call.  I wondered where in the Bible they’d found that piece of information.

In the area around Allentown I could see a strong Dutch influence in the names of the towns: Tolenhacken, Rehrersburg.  Further along I could see the Amish and German influence: Lebanon, Fredericksburg.

I had to deal with a strong cross wind almost the whole way.  When trucks passed me they created a backwash that magnified the effect of the winds, and I had some trouble hanging on sometimes.

I wonder why the exit for Grimes insisted “no tractor trailers.” If I’d had more time, I’d have gone to check.  Of course, I could have ended up caught in low-hanging branches or narrow streets, but you don’t ask, you don’t learn.  Maybe another day.