PA Road Trip - Day 1

Sarah's writing in black.
Jason's writing in blue.



Jason, Jackson, Lincoln and I started out on a trek across Pennsylvania on Monday the 11th. Jason has needed a vacation since he has been working so hard at work. We always leave PA when we go on vacations and we realized that we really haven’t seen much of the state since we moved here - we rarely leave our little corner of this huge state. So we decided to venture off and explore PA. PA is full of state parks, national forests, and historic sites. We started our trip by driving west on the turnpike a short while, and then north up route 100 to the Daniel Boone Homestead near Birdsboro, PA.


Daniel Boone was a legendary American frontiersman. He was born in 1734 and lived here until 1750. It was much larger than we had imaged….it was 579 acres of beautiful rolling countryside. The homestead includes restored buildings, a house, cellar, a smoke house, a blacksmith shop, sawmill, a barn, a cemetery, a lodge, a small lake/dam, and Jason’s favorite….a rifle range! They have flintlock rifle marksmanship competitions periodically. The brochure we had did a good job of explaining how the property went through several families' hands after the Boone's lived there, and how the buildings were added or remodeled.

Sarah and Jackson

Unfortunately, the visitor center was not open on Monday’s so we could not go inside any of the buildings but we did walk around to see them all…peeking in the windows. Lincoln especially liked the barn because there were horses, sheep, and geese that he wanted so badly to chase. The weather was a bit a chilly, overcast, but comfortable.

The original Boone house was the 1st floor on the left half.

Subsequent owners added the rest.

It really was a beautiful place. Even though we couldn't go in the visitor's center, I think we still got a good feel for the place. We had a map and explanatory pamphlet for the grounds, so we got a lot our of it. Beautiful rolling countryside. I'd like to go back for their various events throughout the year. A great way to start our trip.

Sarah, Jackson, and Lincoln on the Boone's front porch.


Next we drove up toward the Poconos. Neither one of us had ever been there except to drive through the area briefly on previous trips. Everyone seems to always talk about the “Poconos” and how beautiful the area is and seems like a very popular place for many Pennsylvanian’s and New Yorkers to vacation. We were quite surprised that there didn’t seem to be many campgrounds in the area. Maybe we just weren’t looking in the right places. Anyhow…we found a BIG campground in Mt. Pocono called Aunt Pocono Campground, Inc. This campground was not very primitive but it was nice. No, it wasn't very primitive at all. It was one of those "resort" campgrounds - tons of RV's, many permanently parked there, a pool, game room, playground, etc. However, we were practically the only tent campers there in a big secluded tent area, so it wasn't bad at all. Luckily there were only a couple of other people in the campground while we were there so we felt like we were camping in the middle of nowhere. This was not a place we would like to stay during the peak season because it seems like it would be very crowed and loud. The campground included showers, a pool, a recreation room with pool tables, arcade games, a little convenient store, and tons of RV’s that seem to have a permanent residence there. We met the owner, Scott Roberts who was very nice and had 2 dogs ( a black and a yellow lab) that played with Lincoln. Scott said he and his wife were from West Chester, PA which is not too far from where we live, and they bought this campground in the 90’s and completely gutted it and expanded it making several new trails. They are currently adding a huge fenced-in dog run/park. He said this campground was the “oldest” campground in the Poconos which was started in the 60’s.

Jackson is a natural camper!! He had so much fun on his first night camping. He loved the campfire and had fun watching Jason and I set up the tent. I can only imagine what he thought when it was set up…."wow…this is the coolest playpen ever!!! Look at all the zippers and windows inside!!” Jackson played for a little while in the tent and really seemed to have fun…laughing and crawling all around.

It was pretty chilly that night…~30’s. I bundled Jackson up on multiple layers…so many that I was afraid he wasn’t going to be able to move very well….just kidding, but his footy PJ’s were a bit snug! We set up the inside of the tent with blankets and decided to have Jackson sleep in the middle (between Jason and I) to help warm him with body heat. I was a little worried that he wouldn’t be warm enough. After Jackson ate dinner (green beans, rice, and a little bit of some string cheese), he was wiped out and I put him in the tent and fell right asleep in his cozy little spot.

Jason then cooked dinner for us, beef stew and then hot chocolate for desert. We looked at the map to try to plan our route for the next day. We were pretty tired too so we cleaned everything up and then called it a night. Lincoln slept in the back seat of the truck. I was worried Lincoln might want to join us in the tent and wouldn't be very happy in the truck, but I was wrong. It turns out, he loves it in there. I think it is like his crate at home, Nice and cozy. For the whole rest of the trip he really preferred to be in there more than anywhere else.

It was a great start to our trip.