The Morgantowner: Clinton County, Pennsylvania

We are party animals. After the wedding Joe performed in Pennsylvania on December 30, we came back in time for a New Year's Eve Party where we performed the song "BaShana Haba'a" (In The Coming Year) in Hebrew and with Joe's English lyrics. New Year's Day, we hung out with Rachel Fetty, one of our city Councilors, and her family and friends.

That was Tuesday. By Thursday, I was ready to head out for my next county, Clinton, Pennsylvania. The weather was supposed to be okay for January, and my campaign for reelection had to start Monday.

It's 215 miles from Morgantown to Lock Haven, Clinton County's largest city and seat of government. That would normally be a two-day trip, but because there are only 43,000 people in the county, and because the route is mostly interstate, I thought I could go one day and come back the next.

The motel I booked is at the Interstate exit, in a place with two truck stops, two motels and a couple of restaurants. It was only 198 miles from home. I went on the "short" route" only avoiding the Pennsylvania toll roads, so it took about five hours. I had a slice of pizza for lunch in the mall food court in Altoona. Before my nap, I headed south to Logan Mills, to see the gristmill and covered bridge. I found a buffet place, mostly Chinese, but with other food, online, between Lock Haven and Mill Hall, the second largest borough (town) in the county, and ate a lot, but less than I might have.

There are ten places on the National Register of Historic Places in Clinton County, a university (Lock Haven University) and a Reform synagogue with eighteen members (maybe eighteen families). There are several state parks, one, Ravensburg, southeast of Lock Haven, where the Civilian Conservation Corps built some structures in the 1930s, which got it listed on the National Register.

Lock Haven is on the Susquehanna River and there are levees, although there was still a flood a few years ago. It is downstream and one county east of Clearfield, which I visited in October. Although Lock Haven is a small borough, with under 10,000 people, it has a beautiful historic downtown, with a first-run movie theater and a YMCA. I hope Morgantown can say that one day. Average weather for January 3 is three degrees cooler than Morgantown in the early morning, and four degrees cooler in the afternoon. I know climate change is a hoax, but it's wrong for there to be no snow or ice in north central Pennsylvania in January, and high temperatures approaching 50 F.

At noon Friday, I headed back toward the motel, got gas and stopped for lunch at The Cottage Family Restaurant, an old-school place, and had a grilled chicken sandwich with lettuce, tomato, onion and pickles and sides of sweet potato fries and rice pudding. I felt only slightly guilty about the calories, because it all tasted so good.

I only stopped once on the way home, and I was there before 5.