My wife & I live in the Nashville area, and we have riden several times to, from & around the the Deals Gap, N.C. area, and between Nashville & the Gulf Coast. We really like touring on our EG. We are considering riding up "the Valley" to Pennsylvania this summer, and would want to hit Willmington, Philly, Bucks County, and Library (a little town just south of Pittsburgh where my wife's family settled in the USA in theearly 1700's). In short, we'll being touring southern Penn. east to west. I need some help with this. How's the riding between all these points in Penn.? Looking at the map it looks very congested. I know the trip between Tenn. & Penn. will be great, but will we be overwhelmed by congestion once we get to Penn.?

 

Believe it or not traffic in Philly is not bad as long as your not on any of the major roads during rush hour. And since you will be traveling from Philly to Pittsburgh this route is a little out of the way but scenic. From Philly take the Pa turnpike west to the northeast extension to route 6 which is basically where the extension ends. Then route 6 west this is Pa's scenic highway runs through Pa's grand canyon. Route 6 takes you to Erie Pa but once you get to about a hundred miles outside of Erie then you can look to head south. Other than that just taking the Pa turnpike west is pretty boring and there is a lot of construction the first 75 miles.

 

I think other than the Philly and Pitt metro areas you will find some excellent non-congested riding. Most of PA is rural agricultural land. It is usually very scenic with mountains or at least rolling hills, depending on where you are. There are Amish communities from Lancaster up through the central part of the state. You should have options on whether to take interstate or state routes. The PA Turnpike runs from Philly to Pitt (I-76) or you could take other routes with lower speed limits, Rt. 30 takes you through Gettysburg if you are interested in Civil war sites. All in all, there is a lot to see here and I think you will enjoy the trip a lot.

 

yeap... 30 from gettysburg to pittsburgh is a nice ride.... let me know when your gonna be in town... i live close to library

 

which way will you be riding north? if you come up thru kentucky into ohio you will already be on the west side of PA..stay off the turnpike if at all possible if u head north on 65 into elizabethtown ky. head east on the blue grass hiway into lexington.cross over into WV.to charleston then head north on 79(i think)..this is an awesome ride up thru the smokies...nice road plenty wide and smooth....up to morgantown.. jump on 68 east..this road runs just south of the PA border and takes you into hagerstown MD...on this road you can jump up into PA anywhere..i used to travel this way a lot back and forth from PA to KY....i agree with eglide rt. 6 is great ride ...rt 220 another...maybe 81 east and west....i just rode from PA to TX on 81 to 40 to 30...i will not go back that way..too many big rigs to deal with !! im going to be heading back north in the spring sometime..going to go the route i just said...maybe if the timing is right ill tag along..if not..if you find yourself in the reading / harrisburg area and need a place to lay down drop me a line

 

Thanks to all. PA is sounding pretty good.

 

I've done both the route 30 and route 6 both are very nice roads. Once you get to the Eastern part of the state you have the Delaware river ride which is another senic route. PM when you think you'll be riding thru DE maybe we can hook up for coffee and a ride.

 

Thanks guys for the feed back. If my wife & Imake this ride, we'll probably allow 2 weeks time, and we're thinking the 1st half of June would be nice...at least itwould be nicehere in the Nashville area at that time of the year. What can we expect in PA at that time? What's the average day time temp @ that time? Would we need lots layers of cloths? Does it rain a lot in early June?

 

Going from Western PA to Eastern PA you can have quite a difference in temps. In June you should not go below the 50's at night, during the day it can be in the 70's to the 90's.
Rain is another story, we could be in a drought or all h#** could be breaking loose...sorry not much help on the weather...keep an eye on weather.com

 

For the weather try contacting the local Chambers of Commerce, most of them have historical weather that you can use. But remember it is "MOTHER" NATURE we are talking about here!!! Winchester VA on the way up is a nice area to ride around and of course the Blue Ridge Parkway.