More of the beautifully maintained homes in Jim Thorpe, PA.
Wait a minute….. how did HE (or SHE) sneak in here???
And a few more buildings as we walked back down towards the train station. We thought five hours was a long time to fill but it went by very quickly. Some day I will drive up to the northern end of the Reading & Northern train line and ride south to revisit this beautiful little town again. I could spend all day here.
There are many historic buildings in Jim Thorpe and in addition to the buildings and businesses, many residents have gone to great lengths to freshen up and maintain their homes.
The town of Jim Thorpe used to be called Mauch Chunk. The name was changed as a tribute to the first Native American to win a Gold Medal for the United States in the Olympics (see previous post).
There was vehicular traffic gridlock (and it gets even worse when there are festivals in town, or in nearby Allentown/Bethlehem/Easton or Scranton/Wilkes Barre). We were very happy we had arrived by train and didn’t have to sit in traffic or find a place to park!
We enjoyed a fabulous lunch on the left side of the building above, in an old firehouse! There are LOTS of great restaurants in Jim Thorpe.
I was glad our restaurant wasn’t adjacent to THIS building!
And another building in JT where we enjoyed a beer while waiting to catch the train back to Reading.
Up next, the many restored houses in Jim Thorpe…
I have been staying with friends in southern Pennsylvania for a few days and they discovered a great train ride for us to take on Sunday. We drove to Reading PA, not far from where they live, and boarded a diesel-engine propelled train which would take us north to Jim Thorpe, PA which, coincidentally, is about 20 minutes from where my older brother used to live!
We literally took a “Ride on the Reading!” (a Monopoly board game reference for those of you not familiar with it).
We left Reading (at the bottom center of the map) and rode about two hours up to Jim Thorpe, just left of the word CARBON on the right side of the map. The town of Jim Thorpe used to be called Mauch Chunk but was renamed for the Olympic athlete who was the first Native American to win a Gold Medal for the United States. He played professional football, baseball and basketball and was considered one of the most versatile athletes in modern sports (source: Wikipedia). He won two Gold Medals in the 1912 Summer Olympics (pentathlon and decathlon). A statue of Jim Thorpe is located in another part of town.
But I digress…
It was a gorgeous, relaxing ride through wooded areas, small towns and some beautiful countryside. Several rivers and streams ran alongside my side of the train as we went north. We made two quick stops to pick up more passengers, and when we arrived in Jim Thorpe we were given 5 hours to walk around, have lunch, and enjoy the beauty of this small town. I have driven through Jim Thorpe several time over the years but don’t think I ever got out of my car. It was a beautiful day and we had a great time.
Not a word you want to think about while riding a train! There were several of these along our route, in areas where the train could move gracefully to adjacent tracks.
We finally arrived at our destination and set out to enjoy our time there.
Continued on next post
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