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Favorite Pastimes in Pennsylvania:

• Fishing

• Scraping and Painting

• Replacing rotting wooden siding

• Taking pictures of rotted-out old barns

• Complaining about the traffic

• Talking about rotted-out old barns

• Worrying about rotted-out old barns

• Making fun of somebody else's rotted-out old barn

• Restoring rotted-out old barns

• Watching restoration programs on TV

• Making fun of people from anywhere else


Question of the Day:

"Howcum they have so many old rotted-out barns here?"

 

Sparky's New York Trip, September, 2003, Page 2
by Sparky

Pennsylvania

September 9, 2003.  We left Columbus that morning and blasted along on Interstate 70 till we crossed the border into Pennsylvania, where we stopped at the welcome center shown in the picture at right.

We headed for the Ohiopyle State Park, which is in a rural Sign on the side of the Ohiopyle station area of Pennsylvania, but it had a great bike trail so the old folks went for a bike ride along another abandoned railroad bed where the tracks were gone so bikes could go reel easy without having to bump and grind along on a bunch of them railroad ties that hold the tracks together.  (Ohiopyle is no relation to Gomer Pyle).

The bike ride was 12.1 miles, so that meant that us guys had a little over an hour to get into mischief, but we all fell asleep after getting into some candy that we found in the snack bag in the back of the van.

Sparky's Photo Album of the Ohiopyle Park  Trail

Parking lot at the Ohiopyle State Park
1. Ohiopyle parking lot

Bridge over the River Youghiogheny
2. Youghiogheny River Bridge  

Ohiopyle Department Store
3. Ohiopyle general store

Bike trail along the river
4. Ohiopyle bike trail

You can click on the website below to find out more about this beautiful State Park, and they have a lot of reel cool pictures there also:

Ohiopyle State Park Information 

After leaving Ohiopyle State Park we headed for Somerset, Pennsylvania, which is probably only 10 miles from the park as a crow flies, but we had to follow the crooked country roads, so it was closer to 50 miles.  We eventually got there and got a motel.

That motel had something weird going on, cuz somebuddy had stolt all of the signs off of the walls, so somebuddy else had to write the signs back in with a red marking pen.  I don't remember if they had a marking pen sign outside on the front of the building, but they probably would have used some spray paint to make a big sign like that.

Sparky's Photo Album of Cool Motel Signs

Reel cool sign on the wall outside our room.

The cool wall sign outside our room The cool hallway sign showing us the way to our room

Another cool hallway sign showing us the way to our room


Harrisburg

September 10, 2003.  We blasted off in the morning for Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, which is the Capital of that state.

We drove around for about an hour looking for parking near the world famous bike trail that runs along the Susquehanna River, but it seemed to be hard to find, and we were getting ready to jest leave and go up the road to another city, when Gloria saw the parking lot of the City Island Park, in the middle of the river, then she found the bridge that took us over to it, so we found a cool place to park, in the shade of lots of trees, even, and the old folks went fer a ride.

Photo #1 shows the nice, shady place where we parked.

Photo #2 shows a sign about the Walnut Street Bridge, which is shown in photo #3.  Photo #4 shows the west end of the bridge, but it is closed cuz a big iceberg hit it a long time ago and knocked a bunch of it into the river, so it isn't very safe anymore.  Me and Sniffy went to check it out, but it was reel scary cuz there are all sorts of weeds and bugs all over it, and lecktrickal wires hanging down on one side.

Photo #5 shows some of the many bridges that carry trains and cars across the Susquehanna River.

Photo #6 shows an old, crumbling, railroad bridge support that used to take trains across a valley and to the bridge shown in photo #7.  The bike trail now follows where the lower track used to go.

Photo #8 shows a "Welcome to Harrisburg" sign along the tracks of the commuter railroad that brings folks from outlying areas into the downtown area, where they might work, or maybe somebuddy might have got sent there as punishment for doing something bad.

Photo #9 is of the Deluxe Restaurant, where people used to eat, but right now, I don't think Jim would even park the van outside of that building.

Photo #10 shows the National Civil War Museum, high on top of a hill overlooking Harrisburg.  We didn't go through it, but we parked in their lot to eat lunch.

Photo #11 shows a sign on the side of a restaurant warning folks not to eat frozen fish, probably cuz it might be hard to eat and you could probably break some of your teeth.

Photo #12 shows some very complicated and dangerous-looking scaffolding around the tower behind a church.

Sparky's Photo Album of Harrisburg
Shady parking lot on City Island
1. Parking lot at City Island
Sign about the old bridge to the bike trail
2. Sign about the old bridge
Old Walnut Street bridge to the bike trail and downtown
3. Old Walnut Street Bridge
West end of the Walnut Street Bridge, closed
4. West end of Walnut Bridge
Lots of bridges over the river
5. Lots of river bridges
Crumbling concrete bridge support south of downtown
6. Crumbling bridge support
Rusty railroad bridge over the bike trail
7. Railroad bridge over trail
Welcome sign along commuter train tracks
8. Welcome sign along tracks
Picture of the Deluxe Restaurant
9. The Deluxe Restaurant
The National Civil War Museum
10. Civil War Museum
Seafood sign, "Friends don't let friends eat frozen fish"
11. Frozen fish warning sign
Lots of scary scaffolding on this church tower
12. Scaffolding on church tower
After the old folks got back from their bike ride, we blasted off for Hershey and spent the night in a cool motel there.  Our Hershey adventure is detailed on the next page.

 

Pennsylvania
"The Keystone State"
Claysville, Pennsylvania Welcome Center
The picture above shows the Claysville, Pennsylvania Welcome Center, on I-70, where a young man was very nice and recommended a number of bike trails in the area, and gave us lots of good information and maps to make our trip easier.

State Capital:
Harrisburg

Area:
45,308 square miles

Population:
12,281,000

State Tree:
Eastern Hemlock

State Flower:
Mountain Laurel

State Bird:
Ruffed Grouse

State Mammal:
White-Tailed Deer

State Insect:
The Firefly

State Fish:
Brook Trout

State Candy:
Hershey Kisses

Click below for more information:

Pennsylvania Website

 

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Copyright (C) 2004 by James J. Meagher