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
johnboystravelblog 