A ride in the PA countryside

An afternoon drive found us leaving Millsburg and winding our way west on US Route 6. Millsburg Road sort of intersects with Route 6 at the top of O'Brien Hill, just past Toad Pasture Road.

Toad points the way to Route 6

US Route 6 crosses over into the commonwealth of Pennsylvania and meanders west to Lake Wallenpaupack.

It has been a few years since we have taken the road to Honesdale. The area from the lake west seems to have survived the dip in tourist traffic. The little towns seem inviting with many little shops and interesting stops.
The D&H Canal runs parallel with Route 6 for a while.

We stopped at Lock 31 to see the lock keepers house just east of Hawley. The building is currently undergoing full restoration by the Wayne County Historical Society. There was a women perched on a second floor windowsill working on the exterior window trim. She was scraping old layers of paint, flake by flake. There will be an open house and festival this summer on August 24th. Hopefully we will take another ride west!

Stopping at a few antique stores that were packed to the rafters we picked our way through Hawley and over to Honesdale. LKD recalled a quirky little place that sells terracotta pots, sea shells, candles (from an amazing assortment made by the "semi" retired proprietor).

The surprise came when we poked into a nook and found a Cajun collection of coconut heads.

It is now less likely that Pirate Pete will be hosting any more mice.

Almost to Honesdale we took a tour of the Sandhouse. Once used to offload barge deliveries from the canal boats, every room is packed with old tools, glassware of every description and the basement reminds me of my grandmother's Brookfield Antique Shoppe just down the road from Millsburg. There was a glass factory located here along the canal. There are still several old stone buildings and a Manor House that are part of a museum. This will need to be further explored.

Seeing a sign for a golf course we took a ride up Cricket Hill. To our surprise, sort of out in the middle of the forest is a scenic collection of tidy fairways and literally emerald greens. LKD thought we should play a round but our clubs have been removed from the boot.

Turns out that the accommodating gent running the place was happy to see us. He invited us to take a golf car out for a full tour of the eighteen holes. We will definitely be going back soon with the implements needed to add a few divots to the tee boxes. It is a good bet that our next tour of the course will consume some golf balls!

The ride back to Millsburg followed the canal back down the Delaware River Valley and over the Hawks Nest.

To our  surprise the nine hole Eddy Farms course is under a greens keeper's watchful eye. Now a Christian Retreat we noted that there was a major shortage of Christians hanging out - we did not see a single Christian retreating. There is hope that the course will be open for non-retreating souls again soon. LKD and I have had many good rounds before Eddy Farms closed up a few years back.