This is my first thread: these are some pics I took during a weekend trip in easternPennsylvania. It's one of the most interesting regions of the US that I have had the chance to visit so far: there is a lot of history and many different landscapes. I visited Lancaster, Lebanon, Lehigh, and Carbon County (and perhaps touched upon others)so there are no pics of Philadelphia; unfortunately there are also no pics of Allentown and Bethlehem because I visited those at night and my camera did a poor job at taking pics in the dark. Some of the photos are not great but I hope that you find this thread interesting nonetheless. :)

A warm welcome :D :

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y23/sscurbane/Eastern%20Pennsylvania/IMGP1519.jpg

Crossing the Susquehanna:

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y23/sscurbane/Eastern%20Pennsylvania/Imgp1531.jpg

Passing through York:

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y23/sscurbane/Eastern%20Pennsylvania/IMGP1522.jpg

Travelling through Lancaster:

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y23/sscurbane/Eastern%20Pennsylvania/IMGP1536.jpg

Ephrata: notice the stebacks from the street even in the downtown !

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y23/sscurbane/Eastern%20Pennsylvania/IMGP1541.jpg

Ephrata cloister: this was a religious settlement that was founded by Konrad Beyssel: a German nuthead. His followers had to eat very little (only once a day), they couldn't be comfortable so they had to sleep on benches using a piece of softwood as pillow, they had to get up at midnight every night for a 2 hr mass and weren't supposed to sleep more than 6 hrs every day.

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y23/sscurbane/Eastern%20Pennsylvania/IMGP1547.jpg

Entering Reading:

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y23/sscurbane/Eastern%20Pennsylvania/IMGP1568.jpg

Reading from the Pagoda (you can see the Pagoda on top of a hill in the previous picture); notice the density of this town ! :

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y23/sscurbane/Eastern%20Pennsylvania/IMGP1573.jpg

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y23/sscurbane/Eastern%20Pennsylvania/IMGP1570.jpg

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y23/sscurbane/Eastern%20Pennsylvania/IMGP1572.jpg

Rural Pennsylvania:

Farms:

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y23/sscurbane/Eastern%20Pennsylvania/IMGP1657.jpg

Farming Density: 4 farms right next to each other !!

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y23/sscurbane/Eastern%20Pennsylvania/IMGP1550.jpg

Stonehouses:

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y23/sscurbane/Eastern%20Pennsylvania/IMGP1557.jpg

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y23/sscurbane/Eastern%20Pennsylvania/IMGP1585.jpg

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y23/sscurbane/Eastern%20Pennsylvania/IMGP1588.jpg

Covered Bridge:

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y23/sscurbane/Eastern%20Pennsylvania/IMGP1584.jpg

Pennsylvania world of contrasts: Amish farm next to powerlines

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y23/sscurbane/Eastern%20Pennsylvania/IMGP1662.jpg

Sprawl coming to North Whitehall Township:

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y23/sscurbane/Eastern%20Pennsylvania/IMGP1601.jpg

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y23/sscurbane/Eastern%20Pennsylvania/IMGP1602.jpg

Entering Appalachia:

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y23/sscurbane/Eastern%20Pennsylvania/IMGP1607.jpg

Ghost-towns in Appalachia:

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y23/sscurbane/Eastern%20Pennsylvania/IMGP1614.jpg

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y23/sscurbane/Eastern%20Pennsylvania/IMGP1613.jpg

Jim Thorpe:

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y23/sscurbane/Eastern%20Pennsylvania/IMGP1628.jpg

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y23/sscurbane/Eastern%20Pennsylvania/IMGP1631.jpg

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y23/sscurbane/Eastern%20Pennsylvania/IMGP1634.jpg

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y23/sscurbane/Eastern%20Pennsylvania/IMGP1639.jpg

Eastern European heritage in Carbon County:

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y23/sscurbane/Eastern%20Pennsylvania/IMGP1643.jpg

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y23/sscurbane/Eastern%20Pennsylvania/IMGP1618.jpg

Pennsylvania's German heritage:

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y23/sscurbane/Eastern%20Pennsylvania/IMGP1658.jpg

Pennsylvania signs ;) :

God and guns:

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y23/sscurbane/Eastern%20Pennsylvania/IMGP1582.jpg

God and the telephone:

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y23/sscurbane/Eastern%20Pennsylvania/IMGP1586.jpg

A sign coming from simpler times :) (the word Car in this sign refers to Coal-cars)

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y23/sscurbane/Eastern%20Pennsylvania/IMGP1647.jpg

On the way home :wave: :

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y23/sscurbane/Eastern%20Pennsylvania/IMGP1668.jpg

Those are great, thanks for sharing.

Have you posted them on the Cityscape photo page? If not you should. Huge eastern european influence up in the mountain region of Carbon County and NE Pa.

Those are great, thanks for sharing.

Have you posted them on the Cityscape photo page? If not you should. Huge eastern european influence up in the mountain region of Carbon County and NE Pa.

Thanks for your reply. Yes, it was interesting to see the eastern european influence in that area. By cityscape photo page, do you mean the Cityscapes and Skyline photos page listed on the homepage or another one ?

Those are nice picks I guess. I personally find eastern PA extremly depressing and No one is missing the pics of Allentown or Bethlehem and I'm glad you surived being in Allentown at night :). I have more picks of the "Eastern Eurpoean" culture that include alot of cool buildings in Palmerton and Lehighton and more In Jim Thorpe...I will try and find them I think.

and I'm glad you surived being in Allentown at night :).

What does that mean?

very nice pics.. I love Eastern PA..

just a note for anyone who might be confused.. "Reiding" is actually spelled "Reading" and its also pronounced "Redding".. just in case anyone was wondering

"Reiding" is actually spelled "Reading"

I have corrected it ! I knew about the pronounciation but for some reason I misspelled it. Thanks ! :)

PA has some nice towns, and some great cities...anyone got anything else that is not Philly or Pittsburgh?

Those towns in eastern PA are very cute and quaint yet every time I'm in one I get a weird creepy vibe. I can't really explain it. Reading, York, Allentown/Bethlehem, Scranton, Hazelton, all give off this weird creep vibe.

Thanks for the pics. Great to see Jim Thorpe. Don't see or hear a lot about that town. Reading is one dense rascal. Not sure I agree about Allentown being so bad at night time (try DC or Baltimore). lammius ^, I do agree there's a different feel to many PA cities. I think it has more to do with the old Eastern European heritage slipping away, and nothing jumping in to replace it (though the Hispanic culture can be seen in Allentown and Reading). Many of these cities seem to be in limbo right now, but I have a feeling that will change.

I may be able to dig up a few pics of some eastern PA cities I've taken in the past if no one minds me posting them here.

Not sure I agree about Allentown being so bad at night time (try DC or Baltimore).

Yea. I was trying to figure out what he meant when he said "glad you survived a night in Allentown." Allentown is safe...I don't know what he's talking about.

great pictures, urbane. i have been wanting to see some pictures of reading and other smaller pennsylvania cities for a while now.

you give a good representation of the area. i have been in this general area thousands of times, mostly for visiting relatives (my grandparents, now dead, lived in pine grove, and almost all of the rest of my dad's side of the family lives in the pine grove area). pine grove, like some of your pictures, is a typical appalachia town in pennsylvania, and is very poor. to sum up the city in one sentence, "it's a town of steel mill workers." my grandpa worked in a steel mill, and had to raise 7 kids on the meager pay. my dad was the youngest, and while i don't know about the early years of my aunt and uncles, i know that my dad had it really bad. they did not have a bathroom in the house, or running water for that matter, until my dad was in high school (late 1960's). my dad had his own bedroom, kind of. he shared the unheated and unfurnished attic with a flock of bats until he was 8 years old, then got to move into a bedroom with a sibling when one of the older ones moved out of the house. food was hard to come by, so the family improvised. hunting deer and other animals was frequent (obviously), and was sometimes necessary just to feed the family until the next paycheck came. and they would not buy lettuce, because the dandelion leaves in the back yard were free. lastly, if worse came to worst, and a quick fix had to be made, my dad and his siblings would go into the woods and catch snakes to skin and eat. you have probably heard the cliche stories that old people might tell, like "when i was a kid, we had to walk three miles in the snow to get to school". well, since my dad's family lived on the outskirts of town and for some reason or another didn't have school bus service, this story is true for my dad. he was the first in the family to ever to go college, and he paid for it all himself. he also paid for grad school and medical school (or whatever it would be called, se studied pharmacology) all by himself. he did not have a car until he was in grad school, and he paid for that himself. he was able to land a very nice job with dupont coming out of medical school (why i live in delaware), and is living a very nice life as an upper-middle class homeowner. him and my mom have a huge, beautiful house in a very nice neighborhood, and i feel he deserves every inch of the house for what he has put up with and what he has overcome.

when we would go up to pine grove to visit the grandparents, we would take one of two routes: we would always get on state route 41. if we felt like going through lancaster, we would stay on 41 until we got to the town of gap. there, we would turn onto state route 741. (as a side note, you should drive down this road if yuo are ever back in the area. this is the epitamy of amish country, and you are bound to see amish on this road. all the farms are owned by amish. also, the scenery is spectacular. lastly, 741 goes through strasburg, which is one of the nicest small towns i have ever seen. old colonial stone buildings and houses are set against a backdrop of farms and historic railroads. if you are ever in lancaster you must visit strasburg. it's only five minutes from the outlet malls, so it's not a far drive either.) fro lancaster, we would go on state route 501 through lititz and myerstown, cross the appalachian trail and blue mountain, and the make our way into pine grove. the other route took us from route 41 to state route 10, which we would take until we got to morgantown, at which we would hop on i-176 and go to reading. we would go around reading using us route 422, and then take state route 61 to schuylkill haven. from schuylkill haven, we would take state route 443, which is the road my grandparents' house was on, right outside of pine grove.

anyway, back to your pictures. i like the pictures from the pagoda. i don't know if you had a chance, but it looks very nice at night when the outline is lit up. you can see the lights from the other side of the city while driving along route 422.

lancaster is also a very niec city. of course, it is pretty much the capital of amish country, so you see horses and buggies all over the place, even going down busy lincoln highway, riding past the outlet malls. it's a strange sight to see. also, since it is amish country, that explains the strange signs over the covered bridge and on the barns. this is an amish hex sign. they are/were used to scare off the devil from the property. now they are more just cultural icons and authentic keepsakes for tourists.

ephrata is a nice town also. i have had a few swim meets in the town in the summer, so i have seen the area a few times. the first time i was in the town, i noticed how far back the buildings are from the street too. maybe they were anticipating very large amounts of traffic? maybe they wanted a very wide avenue to make the town look grander? beats me. anyway, it's a nice change from other cities, all of which have the buildings pretty much up against the street. nothing wrong with a little variety.

that sign about the coal cars is on a little tiny shed-like building. these are unique to rural pennsylvania from my experience. to this day, i still do not know what their purpose is. advertising is put on the side, but why build a little shed for this? why not just make a two-dimensional sign?

in summary, these are very nice pictures. i could not have done much better myself. i have a few pictures of the countryside, which i will put up later (i've done enough typing for now).

(i've done enough typing for now).

Yea you have. LoL :jk:

here are the pictures that i said i would put up. they were all taken in august along route 741 near strasburg, just southeast of lancaster. as i said before, if you are in the lancast area and want to go for a scenic drive, route 741 is a must! strasburg is a historic town with quaint stone houses and buildings, and outside of strasburg is a railroad museaum that has a railroad line for tourists. to top it all off, this road is arguably the epicenter of the amish culture.

http://img36.exs.cx/img36/369/dscf06796ac.jpg

http://img36.exs.cx/img36/926/dscf06801yg.jpg

http://img36.exs.cx/img36/9144/dscf06816px.jpg

http://img36.exs.cx/img36/4290/dscf06832cw.jpg

nice pics but you should make them smaller next time..
its hard to see them all at once

741 is a great drive:)

THis is a great looking town. Who would have known. It looks almost Eroupean. Is it as good at ground level as it looks from up here?

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y23/sscurbane/Eastern%20Pennsylvania/IMGP1570.jpg

Thanks to everyone for participating ! It has been interesting to read your posts.

Steel: I don't know enough about Reading to answer your question. I've heard that it has a bad reputation but I found it pleasantly lively when I was driving through it.

I hope to take another trip to Pennsylvania and post more pics on SSC

Nice pics, I love Pennsylvania. Like you hinted, it is a very eclectic state, you never know what you're going to see around the next corner. I notice that just from the highways driving through -- I've never seen such a mish-mash of different styles of signage, some infrastructure that looks ancient, and alot of cutting-edge stuff as well.

Definitely one of my favorite states, in fact I may be moving there in the near future. We'll see I guess.

great pictures

Hey.... I have a bunch of Pics of Lancaster... I'm from Lanc, the city is a gem... many people overlook it. Anyhow, when I get to college and have a DSL connection I'll post some pics. Nice blog.