Pennsylvania roadtrip

So, the intention of this roadtrip was to get to different areas of PA from those more Amish influenced areas that we’d been to before. The aim was to take in Philly and some of the surrounding towns and cities and countryside to get a wider perspective of the state.

We started in Colonel Denning State Park, where, the many signs warned us, there were bears and rattlesnakes. And hunting. And if you were walking in those hunting areas you were supposed to wear orange, and of course not one of us had anything orange (unless you count my fake tan), so, um, we scrapped that walking plan in the hunting area and stuck to the bear and rattlesnake paths instead.

Ain’t that a gorgeous park!

Off we went on our merry way until ‘ ‘What the chuffing Nora is that!’ or words to that effect…..

Now I don’t know what a bear paw print in the mud looks like cos I’ve never seen one, but all of a sudden we think we’ve seen one and promptly turn back, winding our merry way down the hill as fast as our quivering British legs would carry us to the rattlesnake path.

Is this a bear paw, or a dog paw…? Now I think it’s the latter. So, now I feel proper daft. Laugh all you like 🙂

Um, think it might just be a dog paw, but hey ho!

During our trek we mentioned to each other that these were the sights and sounds of the great American outdoors that we would miss greatly. Love those state parks, I really do! It’s a wild slice of America that I truly love – the UK parks will feel so different. I feel very at peace in the real American wilderness. I suspect a three-month trek across some American trail won’t be out of the question for me in the next few years (any excuse to return!).

It was also the hottest day of the year so far, but blow me down if there wasn’t some snow on the beach!

Snow on the beach

Driving through Pennsylvanian countryside was mesmerizing too.

Though we do have this roadtrip conversation a lot when we drive along and see those ramshackle barns and houses: ”This is the sort of place in movies where a truck follows you along the road and then you end up hanging inside a barn…..’ Practically every time we say that, actually!

Next up: We visit Centralia…Bill Bryson said this was the saddest town he’d gone through in America. It’s eerie…and nutty!