2024 #1: 1st Trip in Retirement

The best laid plans, etc., etc. We were planning a long spring trip to Florida and the Oliver rally but fate had other ideas. Even so, when a few nice days showed up on the forecast we decided to take a quick 6 day trip to Jim Thorpe, PA. It's a town we saw featured by some YouTubers we follow, and it's only 4 hours from home. 

The trip didn't start well at all. First time pulling out of our new garage and I forgot to fold up the trailer steps. They hit the wall next to the garage door and broke the framing. The bottom trailer step also bent and wouldn't fold. Panic time! 




Fortunately, our friend is a contractor. He came right over and said he'd repair the garage while we were gone. Great guy! As for the trailer, I was able to bend the step enough to get it to close, so the trip was still on with only an hour delay. 

We stayed at Hickory Run State Park, about half an hour from Jim Thorpe. The park has a large campground with everything from full hookup to no hookup sites. We were in a no hookup site. It was pretty quiet in our section this time of year.




Jim Thorpe is a pretty cool town named after a native American Olympic athlete. Oddly, he had no connection to the town in his lifetime. His widow selected the town for his burial place and memorial. 


We had a great time visiting the town itself. We started with a short bike ride on the rail trial that passes through town. The trail follows the river into the Lehigh Gorge and runs slightly uphill leaving town, and slightly downhill returning. Then we walked around the historic town center and visited the various shops and restaurants. They call Jim Thorpe the Switzerland of America because of its European style architecture and the surrounding Pocono mountains.







The third day started with a ride in a dome car on the scenic train that runs through the Lehigh Gorge. The tracks run right next to the bike trail. In fact, you can bring your bikes on a train and have them drop you off either 7 or 26 miles away from town. It's an easy ride back because of the relatively constant downhill grade. (We didn't do that this time, but hope to in the future.) After the train ride, we got lunch in town and explored some more, including a tour of the magnificent Episcopal church in town which featured, among other things, Tiffany stained glass and a ride in an old "birdcage" elevator.












We finished the day with a longer ride up and back on the trail, where we encountered a small deer strolling the trail in front of us.




The fourth day in town featured tours of Asa Parker's mansion (he largely built the original town with money made in the coal and railroad industries) and the old jail where members of the Molly Maguires labor movement were hanged.








Day 5 started badly in the wee hours when we woke to a broken furnace in the trailer. The interior temperature was 56 and it was 46 and raining outside. I was able to repair the furnace that morning but we decided to go into town again and book a hotel for the last night of our trip. We found a great place, the Y on Broadway Hotel, which was a YMCA back in the day. Very, very nice modern hotel right in the center of the main historic area. We could easily walk the shops and the Ouros Restaurant across the street served a delicious dinner. 



The next morning we returned to our now-warm trailer. Since campground checkout isn't until 3:00 PM we visited the park visitor center, which has a very nice display hall, and then drove 13 miles round trip in dirt roads to see the boulder field. 

The boulder field at Hickory Run State Park is hard to describe. It's kind of like a pond full of boulders instead of water, and that's basically how it formed. Over the last ice age years, freeze/thaw cycles broke up exposed bedrock, which then slid down a layer of permafrost, tumbling and rounding along the way, and piled up into a 16 acre depression. The rocks are 10-12 feet deep in places. Photos don't do it justice. 



Now that the truck was suitably dirty, we hitched up for the 4 hour trip home. All in all, Jim Thorpe is a town we'd return to, with lots to see and do.

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