Good morning, everyone, and greetings from deep Pennsylvania. I have never been in this state (with the specific exception of Philadelphia), so this is a fun, eye-opening journey. I’m going to be occupied today, but I’ll probably find some slivers of time here and there for a post. A few impressions so far of my brief time here:
- The Emptiness: I thought the entire northeast was supposed to be jammed with people. Driving for hours yesterday, it was almost completely unpopulated. Driving through Gettysburg (which, duh, I never even realized was this far north) I could easily picture what it must have been like during the 1860s.
- Penn State: I’m actually at the very uncreatively named town of State College right now, where Penn State (and nothing else) is located, surrounded by hundreds of miles of empty land. Apparently they are very, very, very into sports here, and the completely ho-hum hotel I’m at is $700 a night during football weekends. Mercifully, this isn’t one of them.
- Politics: Pennsylvania is famously a key swing state, and the purple nature is quite apparent. We drove through red country virtually the whole time, with lots of Let’s Go Brandon flags and Vote Republican billboards. For someone from the Bay Area, it’s a change of scenery!
- The Road: My hat is off to you, Pennsylvania: the freeways were silky smooth and beautifully maintained. Although I do have one gripe – – they stop being freeways and turn into one-lane city roads far too often, before turning back into normal freeways again. It can make for a long trip.
I need to scoot, but I’ll be back to you as soon as the opportunity allows me.
