Melissa wanted to visit an alpaca festival up near Lock Haven, PA, so we bundled up Kamryn, loaded the RV and headed north on the PA turnpike, heading for Interstate 80. We left late in the day, and headed north up I-295 towards the Commodore Barry Bridge and into Chester. A short run up I-95 through the slums, and then we hopped on the Blue Route, heading up towards the interchange with the PA Turnpike known as the Mid-County.
We’d get on the Northeast extension of the ‘pike and head towards Interstate 80 about 80 miles up. PENN-DOT was working (as usual) on the roadway, and the narrow lanes were quite exciting – somehow, we got a 10 foot wide RV through a 10 foot 1 inch wide alley…The sun went in and out as we headed north, up and over the little hills that mark the southern edge of the Poconos.
We hit I-80 as the sun was going down, so the fifty mile jaunt westward towards Lock Haven was done in the dark, but we found our destination with little trouble, and I parked for the night. The fairgrounds actually had water and electricity hookups, so that wasn’t so bad. We settled in for the night. The next morning, we got up and I took some shots of the spot, before we hit the show. Turns out that an alpaca show only takes about an hour to do…
To kill some time, I wandered round the fairground area, and found some spots that seemed to suggest an old Led Zeppelin song, “Misty Mountain Hop”
Since there was no reason to linger at the show, especially after we wandered through the exhibits a second time, we decided to take a leisurely drive down towards Lancaster, and try to find a nice little campground. From the fairgrounds, we headed south along the famous PA 222, known locally as the “Frank D. O’Reilly Junior Highway”. Once we struck Interstate 80, a simple turn left, and we were astonished to find it the “Z. D. Confair Memorial Highway”. I don’t know if Z. D. knew good ol’ Frank, but they both did enough in these parts to get chunks of pavement named after them.
It was nice to see the I-80 that we’d travelled in the other direction, the night before in the dark. This is, of course, just the beginning of the cross-country Interstate running from the George Washington Bridge at Fort Lee, New Jersey, all the way west to about 20 miles east of San Francisco. My other vacation pages found elsewhere in this library document other travels on I-80, between Iowa and Salt Lake City.
Southbound Route:
Our route would take us east to an intersection with US Highway 15, which is almost an interstate now, and in fact IS an interstate, I-99, northwards now. But the southbound route is kinda nice, it’s divided four lanes much of the way, and parallels the Susquehanna River for a good portion of it, all the way the Harrisburg, hence the name “The Susquehanna Trail”. You get to pass through the exciting riverfront towns of West Milton (where the hoi polloi who are too good for Regular Milton, on the east bank, all live), and surviving that excitement, don’t pick up hitch hikers near Lewisburg, especially if they’re wearing orange jumpsuits… I found it interesting that Google Maps street view stops just outside the main gate, and Lewisburg Federal Penitentiary is, indeed, The Big House
The first couple miles of US 15 South, are easy, and then all of a sudden, you hit the traffic light just outside of Lewisburg.
The road runs through a half dozen little tiny burgs along the banks of the River, each one with a stoplight or two, a Burger King, maybe even a Target or an Applebees. So the scenic drive is a bit of a stop and go, but the stop is only for moment or two, and then there’s 10 miles of Go.
We stopped somewhere along the line, I think it was Hummels Wharf, or it may have been New Buffalo, to pull off into a Walmart parking lot and make lunch.
Weary travelers are well advised to stop at Hilsher’s General Store as they transit Port Trevorton. . .
The houses in Liverpool are literally right next to the highway. But before you know it, you’re on the outskirts of Harrisburg. We had to zig a little, and zag a bit as we navigated round the Keystone State capital.
