The stinkin' Linkin' highway.... (Pittsburgh, Erie: for sale, motel, houses)

[RetireinPA]

Used to be a time, way back when, in another life, that trips using the US routes were worthwhile and full of adventure. Most famous of course RT66 (BTDT)


From Jersey to well into the midwest, the 'Lincoln Highway' (US rt 30) was one of them, famous for hill pulls for trucks and trailers that rival Wolf Creek Pass (and they wrote songs about that one).


Yesterday I had to take a loaded trailer of valuable stuffs (A massive O gauge train collection, largest to even be disbursed in PA) from Irwin to Chambersburg.


well how do you do that? TODAY, you hop the pike, then you have choice of 3 exits to get off in order to squirrel down to I81 exit 14 for the auction house, or take a more level route and pike it irwin- breezewood and do the 'under loop' on I70 to hagerspatch Md and then I81, or the most direct route and theoretically most pleasant - US 30 - 1 road until chambersburg.


Well it has been MANY years since I did a rt 30 trip all the distance. I do Bedford-Irwin a bit when returning from the home office if its a nice day and I am in the 'vert. Heck the PA tolls are killer. MY trip route yesterday saved me over $70 in tolls alone...and I wanted to do it on one tank of gas....I paid $309.9 here, the cheapest out there or anywhere on the route was about $4.10 - you guys in the middle are really getting raked...


anyways...


RT30 is destroyed. IT is occasional patches of rough road, linked together by bombed road similar to major highways in the Ukraine at present.


Irwin to Chambersburg it is 45mph. Sure, there are small patches of 55, but 90% is 45 or less - so the shortest most direct route is the longest timewise - by far.


And the construction...there is an 8 mile long single lane transition (as of yesterday) between Jennerstown and Shawnee.


Most all the old wayside inn and roadhouses that served travelers and truckers are long since shuttered and moldy. no dance halls and night clubs remain. there are rt66 and breezewood reminiscent motels long since abandoned (if you ever went thru breezewood 40 years ago, you know why they called it the town of 1000 motels - or was it motel rooms?)


There are eateries...but not open in the AM when we went out. And when open coming back, most had beer neon signs in the windows. Nothing says 'bad food' faster than neon beer signs in the windows of a restaurant. A lesson I learnt back in my old trucker days that still rings today.


Even the huge killer death 1% biker hangout on the westbound side, east of the tuscarora summit is for sale (and it has massive curb appeal...when not running drugs and guns and hookers that bike club wants maximum dollar for its sale - I should look it up.)


I could see some appeal in road tripping a pleasant weekend to visit the history stuff. Pennsylvanians from either side of the state view history as fly covered monkey poo and never stop - cept me, Im weird that way. And I wont ask anyone from Pitt if they ever drove this - People from pitt never drive anywhere. The laurel highlands is considered a bridge too far and just crossing into any county surrounding allegheny is like pulling teeth, and of course, in the east people from philly only travel when it is north and east out of the state. They consider the schuylkill exit from the TP the end of the world to the west and harrisburg a magical mythical land to the west but I digress...


You cannot make it a working trip...I spent a lot of time down shifting to save the brakes, and judicious squeezes of the 'charlie bar' (trailer brake solo activation) to tamp down runaway - its pay attention time and I am sure many behind me were pissed that I would not run 60 into a switchback turn and smash the brakes into smoke....people must like paying the dealership $600 every other inspection....


So just like I44 and I40 killed Rt 66, The PA TP killed 30, I80 killed 322 etc


Dont even get me start on an observational rant about the traffic on 30 around greensburg/irwin,N versailles by these idiotic traffic light setups. from a distance you can SEE the 'slugs' of cars injected on the pipeline

[PAhippo]

welcome to the 21st century

[bridge12]

Unfortunately, rural PA is littered with 4 lane highways that destroyed towns and are now underutilized as a result of controlled access highways being built nearby.

[SteelCityRising]

Originally Posted by RetireinPA

And I wont ask anyone from Pitt if they ever drove this - People from pitt never drive anywhere. The laurel highlands is considered a bridge too far and just crossing into any county surrounding allegheny is like pulling teeth,

Quite a hyperbolic rant, eh? I live in Allegheny County and love traveling back roads and taking road trips. I often utilize U.S. Route 19 to come home from Erie despite it being parallel to I-79, which is a much faster route. I have driven U.S. Route 30 from Pittsburgh to Bedford before just to take a selfie with the giant coffeepot. I enjoy greasy spoon diners and old-school nostalgia. The last time I drove this route was pre-COVID 19, and the road was in very poor condition in a lot of Somerset County and Bedford County. Considering I drive a small hatchback I was terrified any given pothole would destroy my car.

[RetireinPA]

Originally Posted by SteelCityRising

Quite a hyperbolic rant, eh? I live in Allegheny County and love traveling back roads and taking road trips. I often utilize U.S. Route 19 to come home from Erie despite it being parallel to I-79, which is a much faster route. I have driven U.S. Route 30 from Pittsburgh to Bedford before just to take a selfie with the giant coffeepot. I enjoy greasy spoon diners and old-school nostalgia. The last time I drove this route was pre-COVID 19, and the road was in very poor condition in a lot of Somerset County and Bedford County. Considering I drive a small hatchback I was terrified any given pothole would destroy my car.

'


it might be but its true. nowhere I have ever lived in my life, since I LEFT pitt and explored the world, do I find a location where you ask a local 'ever been to....?' and they reply no. for decades I have held that pittsburgh people generally do not drive anywhere.


why do you goto erie? same reason I goto cook forest (lived there for 20 years along with huntingdon for 8)? I too run 19 into peach street when I go to erie, but I generally come from over titusville way as I make my erie trips from my place up north. so its around waterford where I join in. now get this, almost nobody would know what we are talking about, might as well be roads thru the bavarian alps.



I love diners btw -a dying/dead tradition. and those that remain are oft shells (example: deans on 22 across from where bonnarigo used to be) The '***' in apollo has reopened as 'dollys' and I threaten to stop in and sample their bill of fare....perhaps tomorrow.... the diner in breezewood became a half-a$$ed dennys and closed 5-6 ago and is rotting, no one is EVER gonna open anything good there....its too busy due to being the only 76/70 interconnect - just as bad as carlisles 76/81 connect. bedford diner aint bad - keeps changing owners and would stop there often 5+ ago using the TP to I99 interchange.



head to carlisle area....they still have a crap ton. fairgrounds is best.