The End of Route 6

We have come to the end of our exploration of US Route 6 across Pennsylvania. As is our custom when we come to the end of a trip, we like to look back with an analytical eye and answer a few questions. What was our favorite part? What did we like the least? What would we do differently or how could we have made it better? So for those interested in this same trip or those who are just curious, here are the answers to these questions.

Route 6 is right at 400 miles across the northern tier of Pennsylvania, primarily a 2 lane road passing through rural farm land, several small towns and villages. It also crosses the Pocono and Alleghany mountains. We enjoy the farmland. My favorite time to view farmland is in the spring when row crops are just beginning to pop out of the ground, when the soil still looks freshly tilled and the individual rows are visible. During our drive through rural Pennsylvania, the crops, mostly corn, had already done their thing and the fields were full of dry stalks. However, the rolling landscape was quite picturesque, especially around Wellsboro. In the mountain areas the fall foliage was near its peak, filling the countryside with color. On the eastern and western sides of the state where we were not at as high an elevation, the leaves had not yet turned making the drive much more mundane. If we had started one week later, we may have picked up more color on either end, but the mountains may have been past their prime. We enjoyed the small town feel of each of the communities along the way with Wellsboro being our favorite. But, at heart, we are nature lovers and quickly reached our limits on shops and sidewalks. We do enjoy the architecture of early America, but since the entire state was settled about the same, the towns began to look the same. Since we have such an interest in nature and being outdoors, naturally our favorite areas on this trip were The Grand Canyon of Pennsylvania and Presque Isle State Park. We would have been happy to stay longer at both of these places.

Our least favorite and most stressful part of the trip was towing the Montana on Route 6. The road is just too narrow and congested in all of the small towns for us to be comfortable. We avoided towing on route 6 as much as possible and opted for the interstate instead. We only actually towed about 100 miles of the 400 mile length. Because of that, we darted up and down in either direction from where we were camped in order to visit the recommended areas. We spent a lot of time in the truck and that diminished our enjoyment of the trip overall. We probably could have eliminated some of the stress and made the whole trip much more enjoyable if we had extended our time in each area. Then we wouldn’t have felt like we were rushing to see all there was to see. Since we were in a bit of a hurry to do this trip, we skipped much of the section from Wellsboro west for about 100 miles. There was only one thing in that section we wanted to see and didn’t because it was just too far to drive back to. Pennsylvania has reintroduced an elk population which is apparently thriving and on view about 50 miles south of route 6 off state route 555. Next time we’ll do that and spend more time at Grand Canyon and Presque Isle.

We got most of the information about things to do and see from brochures we picked up at the Pennsylvania Welcome Center. The internet was also a great source for information, especially driving directions to Steamtown and the Lackawanna Coal Mine, both in Scranton. Overall, we enjoyed the trip, but since we prefer to be outside we got kinda tired of being in the truck or in town every day.

Tomorrow we will spend the day doing chores and preparing the trailer for travel on Sunday when we will make a sharp left turn and head south. As you can imagine, we are anxious to see family. Briefly, our plan is to visit with Gene’s family in and near Columbus, Ohio for a week or 10 days then head to Nashville with a very brief stop near Cincinnati. For several years I have been working on our family history. I have lots of gaps in my research and a big pile of old photos of people I cannot identify. I am hoping to spend most of my time for the rest of the year as we visit with family to get some of these questions answered, gaps filled in, and names to go with the faces in the photos. Therefore, our next journey will not be to a particular place, but a journey to the past. Come along with us as we try to uncover the mysteries of the Curps, Ashcrafts, Lancasters, and Harpers.