Do People Realize Just How Rural PA is? (Harrisburg, State College: live, suburban)

[Ohiogirl81]

Originally Posted by North Beach Person

RTE 36 between just north of Sigel to Leeper.

Pa. 36 to Pa. 27 to Pa. 8 is my favorite way to get to Erie from I-80, and I say many, many prayers between Brookville and Titusville that the car doesn't break down, etc. It's a lovely drive, especially through Cook's Forest; but even though there's plenty of traffic, it's so isolated.

The one time I don't mind getting stuck behind a truck is when I'm driving through the forest.

Once I get to Titusville, I feel like I've reached civilization. Which is funny, because there's still a whole lot of rural to get through before cresting the ridge and seeing Lake Erie.

[santafe400]

Pa. 36 to Pa. 27 to Pa. 8 is my favorite way to get to Erie from I-80, and I say many, many prayers between Brookville and Titusville that the car doesn't break down, etc.

I know the feeling, especially since my car is not so brand new anymore. Even in Central/Southern PA there is enough windy backroads through miles and miles of endless farm country that I always make sure I have at least a half take of gas in the car!

[North Beach Person]

If you think there's not much there now you should have driven through 30 or 40 years ago when everything closed at 5, nothing was open on Sunday and they didn't plow the roads as well as they do now.


At least now there are Sheetzs along the way.

[CookieSkoon]

Originally Posted by North Beach Person

If you think there's not much there now you should have driven through 30 or 40 years ago when everything closed at 5, nothing was open on Sunday and they didn't plow the roads as well as they do now.


At least now there are Sheetzs along the way.

That's true for a lot of places. Even if you go just 15 years back.

Where I live now is south of Watkins Glen. That town was a totally different creature in the 90's than it is now. The traffic through this corridor alone is immense by comparison.

Closer to the border of PA from here now has more housing than it used to as well. I'm guessing people from Elmira are building homes out in the woods more often now.

The old farm house I lived in as a teenager was on a dirt road. We'd see maybe one car or two a day, and it was always another local.

Now the road is paved and cars go by there every 20 minutes to an hour and a lot of the forest has been torn down for houses and a new power-line route.

[notondrugs]

Nope

[Gerania]

Care to elaborate? But, nope, they don't. People in the west and mid-west think that everything east of the Mississippi is jammed up and overpopulated. Well, not everyone, but sometimes it feels like it.

[toobusytoday]

Originally Posted by CookieSkoon

That's true for a lot of places. Even if you go just 15 years back.

Where I live now is south of Watkins Glen. That town was a totally different creature in the 90's than it is now. The traffic through this corridor alone is immense by comparison.

Closer to the border of PA from here now has more housing than it used to as well. I'm guessing people from Elmira are building homes out in the woods more often now.

The old farm house I lived in as a teenager was on a dirt road. We'd see maybe one car or two a day, and it was always another local.

Now the road is paved and cars go by there every 20 minutes to an hour and a lot of the forest has been torn down for houses and a new power-line route.

I agree. We lived in upstate NY for a few years and realized that most of New York is wooded and very rural. My folks lived in South Jersey where you can go for miles and only see farms. When most people think of NY or NJ, they only think of the congested areas. It doesn't help that many people that lived in NYC refer to Manhattan and it's boroughs as New York, when they really mean New York City.

[North Beach Person]

When we moved to Southern Maryland 30+ years ago from the part of PA we've talking about, the banks here still had hours M-F 9 to 2, had never heard of ATMs and doctors wouldn't take insurance. One doctor did, however, take squirrel meat as payment.

[Gerania]

Originally Posted by North Beach Person

When we moved to Southern Maryland 30+ years ago from the part of PA we've talking about, the banks here still had hours M-F 9 to 2, had never heard of ATMs and doctors wouldn't take insurance. One doctor did, however, take squirrel meat as payment.

When I moved from NEPA in the late eighties, there were no ATMs. There were none in the next place, either. Banks were open 9-5 Monday through Friday, but closed weekends. A lot of stores were closed on Sunday.

[MikeNigh]

The western part is more rural than the eastern half.