It Was Time to Say Goodbye to the Susquehanna Valley, Wilkes-Barre and Shickshinny!

It was time to leave and I started south on Hiway 239 towards Wapwallopen to find Hiway 93 and head for I80 going east to 476 and south to Quarkertown Exit 44. I waved my goodbyes and felt a slight tug at my heart and tears in my eyes.

It has been a tough week. I was tired but happy. There is never enough time to do all you would like, but I think I crammed a lot in. I hope it helps the descendants of the Goss families or at least touches them.

Hiway 239 get real close to the Susquehanna River and level to it. When I found Hiway 93 I had to do almost a complete 360 to turn south on it when I felt I was going east. I found a gas station store along this highway and stopped to ask if I was really going in the right direction. They said that I80 was just over the mountain. I took off and drove about 2 miles and found I80 and was soon zooming along through green tree filled hills and over bridges with signs that read “Bridge could be Icy.” I’ve been told that Pennsylvania gets 2 to 4 feet of snow sometimes. I live in Seattle, if we get snow it melts quickly but it does stop the traffic! The scenery was beautiful. I like Pennsylvania it is green like western Washington. A little too muggy for me. It was bit cool in the morning to my surprise. Of course if you come to Seattle it is probably cooler so bring a sweater or light jacket.

After about 20 miles I came to the exit for the Turnpike Exit 277. It took about 5 minutes to get up to the Ticket/Easypass booths for there was lots of traffic and construction going on. I headed for the Ticket/Easypass booth and saw a ticket dangling in the wind. So I grabbed it. In Washington we have no turnpikes, we call them freeways or highways. We have no toll roads. We did at one time pay a toll for the Evergreen Floating Bridge but that was long ago. So this was a big deal for me. I didn’t want to upset the locals by not practicing good entrance and exiting of the turnpike. So far so good.

Zipping along the scenery was green with rolling tree filled hills then the signs read slow to 55 miles and hour and I was at the Lehigh Tunnel. I was impressed. It was well lighted and similar to tunnels we have. Ours are a little shorter.

As I drove along I noted that the natives were going a bit faster than the speed limit? No offense they do that in Washington. There were emergency phones every 1 mile. That was reassuring. There were refreshment refueling stations every once and while. That was good. There were very few exists, so it was important not to miss the one you wanted. I could see the toll booths so I was getting an idea of how things worked. Very nice system.

At Exit 44 I exited and the man at the toll booth was very pleasant took my ticket and charged me $2.75. Good thing I was ready with my change. I think I had asked about 5-10 people about the toll road.

Once on Hiway 663 which changed to 313 I was passing through Quakertown (very nice) and then Dublin (even better). No time to linger, I needed to get to New Hope and my B&B. After 70 miles of traveling I was getting hungry. However, the traffic along these 663 and 313 was busy and they were not forgiving, tailgating! Of course there were no restaurants on the right for me to turn into until I got on Hiway 202 (going north again when I was suppose to go east???) I found something just before the turn off to Hiway 179 to New Hope.

After my dinner, I made my way to New Hope. I was not expecting this clever fun touristy town at all. For some reason I thought it would be like Huntington Mills or something like that but it was filled with people enjoying their dinners and drinks at the local establishments. By this time was I really tired forgetting that I had been up since 5 a.m. and I was getting real annoyed with the tailgating.

I went a little too far and had to call the Pineapple Bed & Breakfast to ask where they were. Fortunately I was only about 1 block away and I retraced and found them on the right side. I don’t do well with things on the left when I am concentrating on narrow highways. I knew I had gone to far when the Delaware River was very close to the road on my left.

I was greeted by Kathy the proprietor and taken to my room. She told me about the Sherry in the corner table of the main dining room. When I came down to get my Sherry she had already poured some for me and had some pound cake. I had a sip and started to eat the cake it was good. I had just eaten so I was a little surprised. My dinner was not that good.

I settled in for the night. I am in this area for the next two days. I plan to visit Washington Crossings National Park and then do some research at the David Library of the American Revolution.