PA Roads!

After leaving Promised Land State Park at 6:15 AM, we took RT 84 through PA into CT. The road was so rough our toilet seat broke! The hinges rattled apart! Now, George has to try to fix the seat before we leave for Maine, New Brunswick and PEI.

Then call Carol to try to get a new seat delivered somewhere++++++++++

We are now in Mattapoisett MA 'til Monday.

It was fun to meet Bob and Peg at Promised Land SP. Fun couple of hours! Nice people, as I am sure most PC owners are!

Judi and George

I remember talking a little about the roads and toilet when we were at PLSP with you.

FWIW, PA I-84 west is considerably worse than the eastbound side and, generally speaking, PA roads are among the worst in the nation. Poor funding, lazy 'coffee-clatch' PennDOT workers, frost heaves and the biggest crop of all things growing in the state - ROCKS! Especially in northeast PA. Seems no matter what you do, you can be assured of another crop the next year.

The only section of road I've been on that makes PA roads seem acceptable is I-80 east over Donner Pass (and the westbound side is no pleasure either). Heck, part of the reason we prefer secondary roads is because the Interstates are so bad. And, in a few states you have to pay for the privelege of shaking your equipment to death.

Hope you can get a new seat from PC quickly. Having to buy a new toilet just to get a seat would not be a good thing.

I remember talking a little about the roads and toilet when we were at PLSP with you.

FWIW, PA I-84 west is considerably worse than the eastbound side and, generally speaking, PA roads are among the worst in the nation. Poor funding, lazy 'coffee-clatch' PennDOT workers, frost heaves and the biggest crop of all things growing in the state - ROCKS! Especially in northeast PA. Seems no matter what you do, you can be assured of another crop the next year.

The only section of road I've been on that makes PA roads seem acceptable is I-80 east over Donner Pass (and the westbound side is no pleasure either). Heck, part of the reason we prefer secondary roads is because the Interstates are so bad. And, in a few states you have to pay for the privelege of shaking your equipment to death.

Hope you can get a new seat from PC quickly. Having to buy a new toilet just to get a seat would not be a good thing.

Shucks, I visit Bucks country, and P-Tpk to get there, quite a bit and would trade you for Okie-dokie roads, i.e., the ones you pay to drive on, A BUNCH (both meanings, you cannot leave tulsa except on a Tpk).  You have not seen "clatchers" until you see Tulsa or Odot workers stand around, 4-5 and watch the new guy work.  Our Odot engineers did graduate, or so goes the story.

LJ,

Then things must have changed a lot in OK. When I lived there (Broken Arrow - office in Tulsa) the roads weren't bad at all.

The entire infrastructure of this nation is going downhill, I'm afraid.

Yes, the entire infrastructure of our country is going downhill.  But that aside, it seems that everyone sees problems where they live.  When I lived in Louisiana, jokes there about how rough I-20 and I-10 were led to the suggestion that we place signs at the east side of the state saying "Welcome to Texas" and west side saying "Welcome to Mississippi" so tourists wouldn't know they were driving through the state.  My personal memories of some of the worst roads I've driven on would include US85, the CanAm Hwy, through North Dakota and Saskatchewan, the road to Hana on Maui which is 26 miles of narrow washboard road with a long drop to the ocean and rocks below, and Hwy 99 between Kamloops and Whistler in British Columbia.  The lady at the info center asked me three times if I really wanted to drive my van camper over that road, since it had short grades of up to 13% on it. But isn't it also true that often the prettiest scenery is on the worst back roads??

Jerry

Yes, I believe it's true.
Could it be because many fewer people travel the bad roads, leaving the area more pristine?

We were in Prump Nv, the road were so bad, they just put up a sign that said, "Rough Roads"

Pahrump isn't the only place that's done. Utah has many, many roads like that. "Signs is cheepa dan' fixin' da rode".

PA doesn't bother with signs. You just experience the alerts.

I think some of my favorite signage is on a road that goes from Grand Junction, Colorado, up into Wyoming on the way to the Grand Tetons where there is a stretch of road that you gain elevation on in a series of 180 degree cutbacks.  They have signs after each cutback telling you how may are left and the total is around 20 to 25.  Nothing makes your day in an rv hauling a toad like one sign after another telling you how many more uturns you have in front of you.

There's also a stretch of road in the Arkansas Ozarks on the way to Mountain View where AFTER about 5 miles or so of really winding road you encounter a sign that says "Winding Road Ahead."
Do the highway departments have departments of comedians and sadists to handle the signage??

Jerry

We have a road in Tulsa, 61st to be exact between Harvard and Lewis, that has curves and accidents, so they put up signs that state reduced speed limit 1/3 mile ahead.
They are exactly 1/3 of a mile displaced (wrongly placed) in both directions.  The traffic engineer got them on the wrong sides of the road, and no amount of calling traffic engineering or contact with the mayors office will change their minds that they have it exactly RIGHT.  Consequently people still drive the ess curves to fast and run off the road.  Rather than move the signs to the correct location they just put up a string of Jersey K-blocks (at $3K apiece, installed) in the ditches to keep the wrecks out of the houses that line the curves.  It worked for one motorcyclist.  Well, almost.

The next candidates for US Congress and President are available from city staff in Tulsa, OK.  The ones we have in Washington don't seem to be working out too well.

one more chime in here. We just came back from Yellowstone and left from PA and tha absolute worst road we were on was the Ohio State turnpike. I had to pay to drive on that washboard.  I actually ran the Cruiser in the fast lane and kept her pegged so that I could stay in the non washboard side.

David

Been there and can attest to your impression. That's why when we left the Phoenix Cruiser factory we went south to a U. S. Highway.
Much better and no tolls.