Day 83 - Bridging the Gap

Today will go down in Burton travel history as one of the best ever! Months ago we decided that visiting the covered bridges of Pennsylvania would be a part of the trip no matter what. Little did we know what an adventure that would turn out to be. First and foremost, you don’t see almost 20 bridges and not see much of Pennsylvania. What a gorgeous state!! It has it’s own pristinely rural flavor. Farms and neighborhoods stand erect as if to say; “Everything’s just fine here…thank you very much.

Here's our route!

Every bridge trip should begin with a stop to wait for cows to cross the street!!

Now for some serious navigating!!

The cities and towns are another story altogether. It’s as if the farms and communities are somewhat self-sufficient and don’t demand a lot from their neighboring towns. Most of the PA cities we’ve been through are "ho-hum" at best. The Pennsylvania countryside, on the other hand, is almost beyond compare.

Pure Pennsylvania - Norman Rockwell gorgeous! Even the clouds were strategically placed.

Typical Pennsylvania

With respect to the bridges…well…I hope you like barn red. With few exceptions, that could be renamed, “Bridge Red.” The handsome remnants are charming and make you feel all warm inside. Like the proverbial “box of chocolates,” you never know what you’re gonna get. Some are quite noble and still in day-to-day use. Others are like zoo animals and are filled with benches for picnics and parties. Some are just plain run-down! All were worth it just to give us an excuse to ride around on some of the most primitively interesting roads we’ve ever traveled. Suddenly, t’s quite clear why a Jeep is a handy vehicle to have in your arsenal. In our case, it’s our entire 4-wheel arsenal.

Serious farm country

Today we saw our very first, "Guard Rooster."

Hey...if you live next to a covered bridge, you'd better spruce up...right?

So here’s the deal with the pictures: 1) there’s a lot of them, 2) it’s hard to make 432 red bridges look different, 3) we don’t do selfies because we figure you know what we look like and you’d rather see where we’ve been than just us smiling 899 times, 4) as always, you can click on any pic to see it larger than life (most look better that way), and 5) you can quit at any time. We did strive for some variety, but then again, most are pictures of 100+ year old bridges. Today's camera, BTW, was exclusively the Canon 7D.

The end

Tomorrow we head for far west Pennsylvania, Washington, PA to be exact. Along the way we’ll pick up one or two more of the most famous ones.

As for you guys, with few exceptions, you haven’t been doing your jobs. We’d like to hear from you and know what you’re doing. Hey…this is a two way street here!

Enjoy!!