Pennsylvania - Day 24 - Harrisburg

Prince Gallitzen State Park, near Altoona

Tuesday, 24 April 2018

I had reservations at this park exactly a week ago until I heard the forecast for snow and ice. Now that I’ve driven the road that comes here, I can’t tell you how thankful I am that I made the choice to wait. This park is in the forested hills of the Allegheny Plateau, according to the park ranger, and the road winds sharply and steeply for miles and there’s no shoulder at all. Fine in decent weather but no thank you in ice.

Except today isn’t exactly weather you could call decent, since the storm system that’s been dumping rain all over the southern US is moving up here, and what we’re getting now is a nice steady rain. But the nighttime temps aren’t supposed to go lower than the 40s so no problem. Tomorrow I want to go into Altoona to see what it’s got to offer.

This morning we spent an hour or so driving around Harrisburg. I’d wanted to go to the State Museum but it turns out to be closed on Mondays and Tuesdays. The capitol building is pretty spectacular, though.

those windows may be copper

There are several registered historic districts, with buildings mostly built around 1875. But what’s now downtown used to be farmland and there’s still a farmhouse - smack in town now - that was built in the early 19^th century. Not as old a town as, say, Philadelphia, but not an upstart either.

near the Capitol Bldg.

this is the farmhouse in town

I stopped in town (causing a little traffic problem, I think) to take these photos of the Susquehanna River, the banks of which Harrisburg is built on. Based on what I’ve heard on TV and the radio and from people I’ve talked to, Pennsylvania’s rivers define the character of their areas. Allentown and Bethlehem note their location in the Lehigh River Valley; Pittsburgh has its 3 rivers but is considered to be in the Ohio River Valley; Philadelphia sits on the west bank of the Delaware; and the entire Harrisburg area - going a long way toward Philly - describes itself as being in the Susquehanna River Valley. I guess if you live here, you learn why that matters, but just passing through I can’t really tell the difference.

As I drove back down the turnpike, I tried to take photos of some of those farms I’ve been talking about. Mostly the photos didn’t come out because of going 60 mph making it hard to aim at something long enough to snap it. But I got a couple.