I lived in New York City for a few years and would escape the city every so often to go visit friends and family in surrounding areas. One place I went frequently was to Salladasburg, near Williamsport, PA, where my father's family had property and my grandparents are buried in a local cemetary. Lovely eastern hardwood area and lots of winding roads through Amish/Mennonite country (it's not just in Lancaster and Bucks Counties) and little towns with lovely squares and lovely old houses. Lots of antiquing in these kinds of places also. Though a lot of the larger towns have reputations for their gritty industrial sides, or for coal mining, they also have some very pretty residential areas.

I visited a Herkimer diamond site near Herkimer, New York, because I'd enjoyed working in a geology lab for a couple of years in college. I wanted to see where they might come from. I didn't find any myself, but I bought a few small ones. (I'm in Texas now and we go to Arkansas for our quartz crystals - not as stunningly clear, necessarily, but large and beautiful and complex in others). Pennsylvania is where some very important early fossil finds where made. Somewhere around here I have some essays about that, I'll have to find the book(s) and send the citations.

Autumn in Pennsylvania is spectacular, especially if you drive through the mountains. Even on the interstate highway it can be a fabulous view.

And don't forget that Mudcat Central is near Penn State.

SRS