Climbing Bald Eagle Mountain

Pennsylvania has some roads, E I E I O.
And on them roads there are some hills, E I E I O.
With a hill hill here, and a hill hill there,
Here a hill, there a hill,
Everywhere a hill.
Pennsylvania has some roads, E I E I O.

I’m sure there’ll be more verses. Today we did the stretch from Allenwood to the top of Bald Eagle Mountain. It was quite a hilly approach (both up and down) combined with a stiff north wind. 15 to 25 mph. My face may thaw sometime tonight!

One of our rest stops was at Hidden Creek. A nice sized pond with some huge overfed ducks was surrounded with vintage trailers and shacks. I think one has to own an old pick-up in order to qualify for residency. It was the best version of hillbilly Pennsylvania we have yet seen.

Margaret was a bit concerned about me being a pedestrian while passing the Allenwood Federal Prison but I didn’t see anyone running, or any officials with machine guns.

A few comments about infrastructure. In Ontario it seems that most rural roads have gravel shoulders and a sizable ditch. Beside most of the roads we’ve experienced in PA, the shoulder is paved varying from 12 inches to ten feet wide and have no ditches. Mostly there is level grass beside the road and in many places the fields are ploughed and cultivated to within inches of the pavement. Only in the hilly parts, the roadway is down to two lanes and little or no walking space beside. This might a problem next week when we’re in the bush for a while.

Despite the cold there are many flowers and flowering shrubs/trees in bloom. Some tulips are out. In fact in one garden there were tulips that looked like peonies. The best displays are still daffodils and magnolia trees.

One of the parking spots today was right by a chocolate factory outlet that was doing a brisk business for Easter. We weren’t customers. Margaret said no!

Tomorrow’s Easter - - - Happy Easter to you all.

Pictures:

A neat garden swing at agarden centre

The pond with the big duck

A highway sign