Trip 5: Day 6 (Unnecessary Travel; Wyoming & Lehigh)

It would have made more sense to check out the car in Philadelphia. There were a number of rental car locations nearby, including one for the agency I used, Budget, about a block from our hotel. However, renting anywhere in Pennsylvania increased the price of the total rental by $300; almost doubling it. For whatever reason though, if I rented from Wilmington, Delaware - at any location - it was the rate I paid.

I started in a taxi, headed to 30th Street Station. The driver didn't ask, but I was dropped off in the Amtrak area off 30th Street instead of the SEPTA area (though maybe there's just one area for taxis), which is closer to 31st Street. I got there especially early because, if I missed this one train, the next train would get me to Delaware after closing time for the rental agency, which would mean I would miss my non-refundable hotel in Scranton, and I would have to find another hotel in Wilmington to wait for the rental agency to open the next morning. SEPTA uses 30th Street Station as a base for all of its "regional rail" operations. The rail lines operate on zones, like many heavy rail agencies do, but SEPTA also prices its tickets cheaper on evenings and weekends. So my hour-long trip to Delaware was only $5 when purchased in advance, while it's over $7 on a weekday. The setup was odd to me. They have trains scheduled on the same platform, with as little as four minutes between them. I found that this is because they just board it so quickly. You need to be up on that platform when the train pulls in to be loaded, because it's not going to wait for you.

Delaware River north of Wilmington

There were a lot more people on the ride than I had expected, and most of them were going to Wilmington, the last stop. Nonetheless, I had a seat to myself, and the ride was pretty quiet. I was able to recognize areas that I had driven through last year while headed to Trenton from Wilmington, and then followed what looked to be the Delaware River for the last portion, making the rail line a sandwich between the river and Interstate 495 to the west. Amtrak owns the track, and came by several times. This is scary, because it was sometimes the high-speed Acela train, and it was always on the track right next to us. Often, I just saw a flash of a train locomotive nose headed at me at over 60mph, and that was enough to give me a shock.

I expected trouble with the car rental: we don't have a vehicle for you; our office is closed; you can't take it to Kentucky. But nothing. The fact is, for the most part, they don't care. They just don't want you complaining. Car rentals are extremely competitive, and they can't afford for you to be upset by anything.

Entering Pennsylvania on I-95

Wilmington is a fairly pleasant town. I think "Delaware" is a bit of a joke because of the state's size and the perception that there's really nothing there. My guess is that the joke is perpetuated by New Jersey, which is a much worse state with much less to do. But Delaware low taxes and business-friendly government have resulted in there being a lot of money in Wilmington. Trolley Square is one of those neighborhoods with money, and that's where I first drove to find lunch. I found some great pizza by the slice, and listened to some unwanted gossip from another table. Back on the streets, I drove through the gorgeous Brandywine Park back to I-95, and north toward Chester.

As I entered Pennsylvania, I stopped at the welcome center. I tend to stop at welcome centers to get the official highway maps for states. These are good because, not only are they free, but they're typically more accurate, and they show points of interest along each route. Just past Chester, I exited on to Interstate 476, which bypasses Philadelphia's core and runs directly to the Pennsylvania Turnpike's Northeast Extension. I-476 was a crowded, bumpy, two-lane stretch of suburban freeway. It wasn't until the toll road started that the landscape began to get very pretty and the driving more pleasant.

Northeast Extension north of I-76

People go fast on the Northeast Extension, though that's typical of toll roads. I generally went 5-10mph above the speed limit (it was a 55mph construction zone for about half the route) and people were flying by me. The entire route appears to be in really sorry shape. The concrete barriers on the sides of the bridges were crumbling apart, with the guardrails rusted and mostly gone, while the right shoulder, too narrow for modern standards, had been widened with rumble strips added, reducing the left shoulder to nothing. I drove the whole thing: all the way to Interstate 81. I-476 continues north and forms a western bypass of Scranton, then intersects Interstate 81 again, but this section isn't tolled. Total for the tolled portion: $10.20. You have to pay cash at the end.

Coming into Scranton on I-81

Coming into Scranton on US 11

Coming into the Wyoming Valley on I-81, I stopped at the Lackawanna County Visitors Center. The building is designed to look like the building at Steamtown, and sits on a hill near a mall, well outside of Scranton. Inside, I got some information on things to see, but it mostly about things that I had already planned on visiting. If anything, I had to go to the bathroom, and it gave me a chance to hear a Scranton accent, which sounded quite a bit like a Western Pennsylvania accent. This was an older man who spoke quickly and assumed I knew where everything was in town. For instance, at one point he asked if I knew where the mall was. I said I didn't, but he never explained where it was, and later referred to something else being by the mall. I was told that some sort of trolley museum was closed, but then given a coupon by the other person, a middle-aged woman. I looked at the hours on the coupon, which were Wednesday to Saturday before May, and mentioned that I was going to miss it since I was leaving Tuesday morning, but she insisted that it was open daily.

I wonder sometimes if these awkward interactions are because of me, them, or my appearance. I've thought about shaving the beard recently, and may end up doing that. The fact is, I look a little bit homeless.

Scranton isn't as run-down as I thought it would be. The Downtown area is centered around a large, pretty courthouse square that's flanked with small shops and offices. There were people sitting on benches in the grass, or in the grass itself, enjoying one of the first warm days of the year. I checked out a little market on the corner, City Market, and took a hard look at their sandwiches, beer selection, cheese selection, and other ready-made items. The beer selection was very decent but, even better, they had drafts, including two from Susquehanna, a local brewery. I went down the street to Backyard Ale House, where I planned on eating dinner and grabbing a couple of beers, but I was met with a large, loud crowd of people filling the small bar, so I decided to just get something else and check out the bottle shop next door.

The guy running the bottle shop stood behind about ten plastic bags, each filled with black boxes and tied in knots at the top. I asked what it all was, and was told that it was a carry-out order. I joked that I hoped someone came to get it and, sure enough, a couple of minutes later, a short younger girl came in to grab the bags of food. I ended up with two beers from local breweries. The guy did not know much about what he was selling, so I just ended up Googling a lot of it. At one point, after I said I was looking for local breweries, he pulled out a Harpoon UFO Hefeweizen saying "I think Harpoon is local." I said "I think it's from Boston," and he looked at the bottle and put it back without saying anything else. $4 on the beers, then another $9.50 for my dinner, which included a sandwich, a bag of pretzels and a slice of carrot cake. I didn't need the cake, but I wanted it.

The Susquehanna IPA was good. Well-balanced. Nothing amazing though. The other, Old Forge, a brewery in Danville, Pennsylvania, was mediocre. The latter came in a 16oz can while the former was in a bottle.

Old train station benches by the elevator on my floor
at the Radisson Lackawanna Station

I chose the hotel that I did simply because it's built into a refurbished train station. I can't pass these sort of hotels up, regardless of how run-down they are. Radissons can often be pretty run-down. A somewhat notoriously run-down Radisson was in Downtown Tucson for many years, until they finally lost their branding and became, simply, the Hotel Arizona. Not to be confused with the Arizona Motel (drug and prostitute den) or the Arizona Inn (upscale 5-star near UA). This train station hotel is a little run-down, but not as bad as it could be. My room smells a bit like cleaning agent over wet dog, which likely means that the carpets need to be replaced. The bed is hard, the wifi is slow, and not all of the TV channels come in. But I'm still happy to be here. I parked on the street right at the head of the former loading dock for the rail station.

The plan tomorrow is to head first to Nay Aug Park just to the north of my hotel, then to Steamtown National Historic Site, which opens at 9am. Then I'll finish my drive back-tracking toward New York.

Today I had originally planned to visit Allentown and then start my US 6 trip in Milford, where I had left off previously in the region. However, I could not really find anything to do in Allentown (the one thing that seemed interesting was closed today) and I don't where I thought I would have the time for a detour to Milford. The way I drive, I would have gotten into Scranton at 9pm tonight. I have to keep these drives reasonable or I'm going to have issues. The plan was just too optimistic, and I'm glad that I got the late afternoon walk in in Scranton, as well as time to catch up on blogging and research.