Day 14 of our Adventure

On the road again. After a nice breakfast at the little diner near Ron's, we said a quick good-bye (we all dislike good-byes), and we were off. Ron led the way out of town with his Subaru Baja, we followed until he pointed out the window for us to head north on HWY 17.

We grabbed a couple quick caches before leaving NJ, and then headed back into NY on the Scenic Byway Delaware River Heritage trail. We entered a mountain range that nothing so far can compare too. We are not sure where the Catskills ended and the Allegheny Mountains began but they sure are breath taking. The spectacular panoramic views that we experienced for the next eight hours and have stopped in, are amazing. The elevations climbed to 1940 feet above sea level and then back down to under 500 feet, the grade so steep that the semis are not allowed on many of the roads we traveled. The few that allowed trucks had a 20 mph speed limits for large vehicles. The historic towns continued to appear before us, most of these had been settled in the 1700's.

At 11:15 we crossed into Pennsylvania getting some gas at $2.67 per gallon. We found a picnic table at the head of a hiking trail in Carbondale, PA where we had our lunch as we marvled at the views. Numerous times we stopped just to take photos of "The Endless Mountains". One of the scenic viewing areas had a sign sharing the history of the site, a French refugee colony had settled in 1793, they had built "The Great House" for Marie Antoinette and her son. There were historical markers along the highway, about railroads, John Sulivan, etc. there was no way we could read them all.

The weather was nice today, a mix of huge billowing gray and white clouds with the blue peeking through all over. The clouds just added to the immense mountains that dwarfed the barns, houses and vehicles we could see scattered for miles all around. The mountains make everything look like minature toys, no matter if it is a colapsing barn or school bus you can see so far that everything seems to shrink in the scheme of things.

We did stop at a town called Borough of Mansfield which has the Towanda River running through it. The river is flooded and raging, covering some of the trails with the fast running water. We walked through the historic district picking up a few geocaches before finishing our 256 mile trek to the city of Mansfield where we checked into the Comfort Inn.

Most restaurants in the area are closed on Sunday but we found Mark's Place to be open. It is a Victorian home made into a really nice lounge. The food matched the uniqueness of the decor. The town's claim to fame is that they had the first night time football game in the world, in 1892. It is reenacted every year by the towns people at the college campus.

We filled the gas tank at $2.69 a gallon