Visiting the Poconos

The last two years, we spent most of the summer in the Pittsburgh, PA area to see our family and friends as well as get in all of our annual doctor’s visits. This year, we planned a 2 1/2 month trip through New England during the summer. As the cost of fuel increased, we debated on changing our plans and staying in Pittsburgh. Our travel plans have been interrupted in past 2 years due to Covid and other obligations so we were torn about changing plans again. Even though it is costing us more for fuel, we decided to go ahead with our trip. We chose this lifestyle to travel and see the USA so we had to keep traveling. The one change we made was to leave the Mustang behind at Tim’s mom’s house. At least we only have to buy fuel for one vehicle.

As I planned the trip, I decided that while we would get to all of the New England states, we would not be able to travel very far into some of the states. We are staying along the East Coast as we go north so won’t get up into the mountains in New Hampshire or Vermont. We will have to do that on another trip. We are also going to stay in as many Thousand Trail parks as we can to save some money in campground fees.

Our site at the Bellefonte/State College KOA

Our first stops on this trip were still in Pennsylvania. We headed east and stopped for a 3 night stay at the Bellefonte/State College KOA. My brother Randy and his wife Val live in Bellefonte, so we had to stop and visit as we passed through the area. I was still in my Covid quarantine period where I had to mask up to go out, so we just visited at their house. They recently had Covid too so they weren’t concerned with our visit.

The view from our RV at the KOA. Look at that full moon. It looked like it had a halo.

They had moved into this house 4 years ago and I had never seen it, so we were definitely due for a visit. Tim and Katie helped them move in 4 years ago but he hadn’t been back either. They have done a lot of work on the house and it looks terrific. While we were there, Tim spent one day helping Randy work on an addition he is putting on their house. I just hung out with the dog and enjoyed the nice weather while they labored away. I didn’t get into visit Penn State though and definitely have to go back another time to do that. We plan to stop on our way back south so I have plans for a Creamery visit then. I love their ice cream; it is the best ever!

Randy’s addition; I didn’t get a picture of Tim and Randy working. This one is from a few days later after my brother John and nephew Matthew came up to help him. They made great progress!

From there, we headed further east into the Poconos for a week long stay. We are staying at Timothy Lake South, a Thousand Trails park in East Stroudsburg, PA. Everything in this area is exceptionally lush and green; lots of over growth and thick forests. We have been enjoying some rides through back roads and along the Delaware River. There are many waterfalls in the area and some long trails to hike. One waterfall that looks beautiful from the pictures is Bushkill Falls but it is on private land and isn’t cheap to visit.

Our site at Timothy Lake South, Thousand Trails, in the Poconos

Everything was so lush and bright green. We were a little worried about the route we had to take with the RV. Some of the trees were really low and our fifth wheel sits really high.

We decided to skip that one and stick to the trails and falls in the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area. This is a huge park run by the National Park Service and is just down the road from the campground. Within a short drive is the Delaware Water Gap, which is an S-shaped pass that the Delaware river formed through the mountains. We discovered that the river is the state boundary between Pennsylvania and New Jersey and the park is in both states.

This area has quite a few breweries and wineries so we had to check out a few of those. Our first stop was at the ShawneeCraft Brewery. It is in a cute little village, Shawnee on Delaware, at the Shawnee Inn Resort. Definitely a good place to check out. The brewery had quite a few selections so Tim tasted a few. He liked a couple of their beers and I really liked their pizza. The bartender, Toni, was very informative about the area and recommended a few places for us to visit. Toni is a High School English teacher at a school in New Jersey and works at the brewery in the summer.

It was overcast and a little rainy on our first full day so we decided to take a ride into New Jersey and visit Brook Hollow Winery in Colombia, NJ, that Toni had recommended. I like dry red wines and they had a few to choose from so I did a tasting of their red wines. Most of them were quite good but my favorite was the red blend and it was of course a more expensive one. I still bought a bottle to enjoy back at the campground. After wine tasting, we went to the Log Cabin Inn that was along the Delaware River. While the growth along the road was too high to see the river, the Log Cabin was a good choice. We at least had a good view of the river from the bridge on I 80 when we crossed into New Jersey. The bar just opened as we arrived, and I had a cocktail while waiting for the restaurant to open for dinner. Tim was the driver for the day, in case you are wondering. It seemed to be a local hang out and every one was very friendly so a good place to spend an hour or two.

Pre dinner cocktail at the Log Cabin Inn

Definitely a good way to spend the day in New Jersey and get a state sticker. I know many RVers have rules about when they give themselves a sticker for visiting a state which include staying overnight in that state. For us, we decided we had to at least do something in the state and a day trip counts as long as we are staying nearby in our rig. Some of the East Coast states are so close together so it is easy to visit 2 states while staying just in one. For us, it isn’t worth moving the RV a few miles just to be in another state. We did that with Maryland and Delaware and now did it again with New Jersey. We have a similar plan to visit Rhode Island.

Millions of years of erosion and glacial activity created this water gap, lakes, streams and waterfalls. While we never heard of this national recreation area before, it has been a popular tourist area since the 1800s. We rode through the recreation area to see a waterfall and visit Milford, PA, an historic town founded in the 1730’s. Milford was a very quaint town and worth a visit although we didn’t really like our steaks at the Dimmick Inn and Grill. The steaks were a bit too charred on the outside for our tastes although mine was a little better than Tim’s. I would say if you go there, don’t get a steak done any more than medium or it will taste burnt.

I highly recommend a stop to see Dingmans Falls. It was not far off of US Hwy 209 in the middle of the Delaware Water Gap Recreation Area. The hike back to the falls is very easy and the entire trail is a boardwalk, about a mile round trip and goes past 2 sets of waterfalls. It was a beautiful walk through the forest and crosses over a stream a few times. These falls are the second highest in Pennsylvania. At the end of the boardwalk are steps up to a platform near the top of the falls. If you go there, dogs are not allowed on the trail which we didn’t realize. Trent was with us and the ranger said he was ok because he is a service dog which was good. We didn’t want to leave him in the truck. He was really good on the trail and it was good for Tim to work with him using the handle on his harness.

In this view, you can also see the upper falls. Really pretty!

There are other falls in the park but require a much longer, vigorous hike to get to them. Tim wasn’t up for that and I didn’t really want to do quite such a long hike alone. I stopped at the Park Headquarters for some recommendations for easy hikes or scenic drives. We had already done the easiest hike and while there were a few others, they didn’t provide great views of the river. They recommended a ride through the park to 3 overlooks of the Delaware Water Gap instead. We decided on the drive. It was very pretty driving through the park and while the overlooks provided great views of the mountain side carved by the water, the trees and overgrowth were too thick to see the river very well. The only one with a river view also included the bridge on I-80 over to New Jersey. So the scenic view was a bit ruined with traffic on the interstate!

The river view with I-80 traffic crossing to New Jersey

We spent a couple of days just hanging out at the campground and socializing with the neighbors. The family next to us were also full time Rvers with a couple young children. Their site was a magnet for other kids in the park so there were kids running and playing behind our RV every evening. It was good to hear them having so much fun and of course Trent wanted to run and play with them. He didn’t understand why he had to stay tied up. At least he got lots of entertainment every evening. Tim had some good conversations with Mike who was very knowledgeable about RV electrical set up. So now Tim has another plan for our RV. He has been researching lithium batteries and I think he will be ordering some soon. Perhaps he will eventually write a blog post on the changes he makes. Look for that in a few months. In the meantime, I will keep you updated on our travels through New England.

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