Pennsylvania

We couldn’t flee the rat race quickly enough and by 4pm we had crossed through Connecticut into Pennsylvania. Stopped in at the Welcome Centre to pick up the essentials like a State map, tourist brochures etc. When we told the guy at the desk we were bikers and more interested in finding good roads to ride he was really helpful. So helpful that he began to find other tourists a bit of a nuisance as it was interrupting him tell us all the neat riding roads in this north eastern corner. Tried to get on line to check our emails etc only to discover xtra was unavailable due to the fact it was making wonderful improvements for us. We have not been able to access our web mail site since. Very frustrating as we have lots of important stuff in there. But never mind it hasn’t stopped us traveling. It is best to send emails to us at chrispy57@gmail.com at the moment.

We booked into Promised Land State Park for 3 nights and due to the high bookings meant we had to change sites each day. Bit of a hassle but we coped. This State park had two lakes and only one very small area where you were allowed to swim. The lake we were by was a non swimming one but we were told we could paddle if we wished. We didn’t bother.

We had a couple of days of magic riding. One day saw us head up the Delaware River on the Connecticut side before cutting back into Pennsylvania. There was more traffic on the river than there was on the roads. There were canoes, rafts, and kayaks everywhere. We stopped for lunch at a small town called Rileyville which consisted of a couple of houses a real estate office and a diner. The diner was packed. Marty had to help an old bloke get his truck going before we left. Poor old bloke was in a bit of a state. He told me that he had just got divorced after 49 years and now he didn’t even know how to make his truck go. Marty got him going (was a bad battery connection) and told him to go to a garage and get a new terminal, but he didn’t seem to understand so we left him to make his way home. Hopefully he knew where that was.
Next day we headed off to find the Nicholson Bridge. This was the world’s biggest concrete bridge. It was built in 1915 and is an amazing structure. It has a baby brother a few miles further up the road but no mention is made of this in the tourist brochures. We ambled our way back to camp through wonderful scenic back roads.

The temperature had dropped considerably that night so Marty decided we would have a campfire. It was great. We sat and drank our very average Cranberry Wine purchased earlier in the trip and tried to decide where to head to next.

We decided on heading towards Armish country and having a look around that area. Travelling through a wooded area we both smelt the lovely smell of percolated coffee and thought it quite strange in such an isolated area. Not strange if you’re tin of coffee in the cupboard has lost its lid!! Thankfully none had spilt and the mystery was solved. We had no more excitement that day and ended up in a small RV park just into“Armishville”.
Next morning we hit the road and headed to French Creek State Park which we figured would be quite a central location to get to places we wanted to see. Also has a non swimmable lake!!
After two days of rain it was nice to wake and find it just foggy so we hopped on the bike and didn’t go anywhere because it wouldn’t start. A wee bit of pushing on my part and words of encouragement for me like “Can’t you push a bit faster” from Marty and it soon fired into life and we were off. Ended up in the town of Intercourse. Yes a very Armish name!! Lots of Old School Armish here, who still drive buggies, have no electricity in their homes and stick to themselves as much as possible. We spoke at length to the Armish guy in the Information centre and learnt quite a bit about the varying degrees of Armishness that now exist. There are 30,000 old school Armish in the Lancaster county alone and according to our source it is continuing to gain strength. I gave it a great deal of thought and eventually had to concede that I could not become an Armish wife as there is no way I could hang my washing out in the very very orderly way they do. It was very easy to pick an Armish clothesline!! We sampled Shoofly Pie, a renowned Armish dish. Was rather tasty but I think it would have been much nicer heated with a bit of ice cream.

Having fled the city areas only days before we plucked up the courage and headed into Philadelphia stopping off in the Valley Forge National Park to have a look at George Washington’s headquarters during the Civil War and more importantly so I could use the facilities!! We passed George W (that’s Bush) and his entourage on the motorway. He felt it was necessary to be escorted by 20 odd motorcycle police and even more patrol cars. I’m sure if he just put a personalized plate on that said “Paris”or “Britney” he could have saved the taxpayer millions as nobody would pay the car any attention at all. We took the scenic route into the city via the very industrial petroleum and propane areas, followed by the usual suburban tour of both upper and lower class areas before finally ending up in the downtown area. Marty had to concede and use a parking lot. $14. They make no distinction for bikes, despite putting them all in the same car space. We wandered around for a while, strolled through a couple of the parks, visited the Liberty Bell and decided that the only thing we needed to do before we left was have a Philly Steak Sandwich. We’d been told that the smallest street vendors were the best to buy these from so this we did and it was delicious. It put the lobster roll in Maine to shame.
By 3pm we were on the freeway home and even at that time it was nose to tail so we were very glad we left when we did.

There was only one thing left to do and see before leaving Pennsylvania and that was to visit the Harley Davidson factory at York. They offer free factory tours on a first come first served basis and there are no shortage of takers. We arrived about midday and the first available tour was at 2 o’clock. To occupy those waiting for a tour they have a big display area showing the various manufacturing and assembly process involved in making a Harley plus they had the 2008 models available for you to sit and pose on. If that wasn’t enough to keep you occupied you could go into the shop and buy all sorts of Harley merchandise including items for your dog, like bowls, bones and bandanas. (These came in assorted sizes and designs). You’ve got to hand it to them they are excellent at marketeering (that’s a cross between marketing and racketeering).
The tour itself was pretty good but too damm fast. We were tail end charlies again and along with another couple were continually getting told off for loitering, going outside the yellow line and not keeping up with the group. We got to spend too much time watching the robots feed the metal into the presses than looking at the more interesting stuff - like actual assembly which they almost had us run past. All very interesting but I still don’t want to own a Harley.

Loaded down with our free goodies, magazines and tour badges we hopped into the camper and pointed ourselves in the direction of Washington DC.