Scene on the Road

I'm on one of the country's original numbered highways from the 1920's. Signs and most of the addresses along U.S. 322 call it the 28th Division Highway, in honor of the 28th Infantry, the oldest division in the U.S. armed forces. It remains in service today as part of the Pennsylvania Army National Guard. The 56th Stryker Brigade Combat Team based in Northeast Philadelphia is a part of it.





Heading toward Lancaster County, I first notice an unusual number of trash trucks on the highway, and before I can even wonder to myself, I see the sign for the Lanchester Sanitary Landfill, the Chester County Solid Waste Authority's 160 acres landfill. A smaller attached sign raises still another question, as it reads: "Scenic Overlook. Sundays 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m., open to the public." It's not Sunday, but compliance officer Terry Devine says she'll take me up. I can never resist a scenic spot. The scenic overlook was opened six years ago and provides a panoramic view of the Conestoga and Brandywine valleys for both turkey vultures and visitors. That's Struble Lake 4.2 miles off in the distance.

The overlook area includes four picnic tables, a hitching post for horse drawn carriages and two binocular stations. It was used as a municipal waste before it was capped and closed. At 1100 feet above sea level, it's one of the highest points around. In a few years it'll close temporarily, and the valley between it and the current waste site will be filled to make one big mountain - 60 feet higher.

"Don't take a picture of that," Devine says, almost reading my mind as I break one of my Rules of the Road, again, and jump out of her truck to photograph - the sign. "It's really ugly," she says, "we're getting new ones." The site is very clean - they even have a station where recycled water washes the mud off departing trucks - before they return to Route 322. It doesn't even smell.

In my previous post I mentioned avoiding the Amish part of Lancaster County, because I had already photographed it last summer for the newspaper. That's only half of it. One of the most difficult things for photographers just starting out, and the question I am most often asked when I speak to camera clubs and student photographers - "how do you take pictures of people?" It's not always easy - that's why you see so much still life or landscape photography.

But as a newspaper photographer, it's one of the most important parts of my job, and over the years, I have become comfortable photographing people. Except for people who object to being photographed for personal reasons. Not like convicted felons walking out of the courthouse. I mean real reasons, like religion, like the Amish.

Here's the other half of it. Last summer's road trip wasn't my last time photographing here. I was part of the team of Inquirer photographers who covered the Amish school shooting. I also mentioned Susan Sontag in a previous post. She wrote in one of her On Photography essays: "..to photograph people is to violate them...it turns people into objects that can be symbolically possessed." I like people, and like photographing them. And except for the felons, I believe most people like being photographed.

I remember taking a cross country trip with my family to California in 1967 and visiting relatives in San Francisco. All of the cousins piled into the back of my uncle's station wagon so we could drive down to the Haight-Ashbury district to "look at all the hippies." I can't recall whether I compounded my teenage embarrassment by taking photos with my Kodak Instamatic 104.

I make a few stops at some of the busier farm stands, where I avoid taking photos of the (mostly) kids on duty to collect the money from the shoppers. I shoot them - the shoppers - and the fruit and vegetables, while stocking up on corn, cantaloupes and tomatoes for myself.

Just outside Blue Ball, I notice an Amish schoolhouse on Weaverland Road, and make a right, just to look. By the time I pass it, and find a safe place to turn around, I spot the wagon wheel farm-stand, where it appears the young worker is playing a Gameboy or other electronic game. He's actually reading a book - Summer of the Monkeys by Wilson Rawls. Is that for school? I ask him. "This," replies ten year-old Jonas Lee Nolt, "it's for fun."

Diana Keat with the Delaware County Camera Club sent me some photos of Lancaster County life she shot this past spring. Below is one she describes as her "favorite picture...it freezes all sorts of things in time, the weather, the plowing, the farmer." She continues, "This is an important shot to me because who knows how long into the future we will be able to witness something like. It's just a segue from the industrial revolution, I suppose. Very peaceful and tranquil, the exact reason for visiting this small part of our world."

I'm still looking for your photos and comments to share with readers and other photographers. I'll be driving up Route 309 past the Eagles training camp toward Bethlehem where Musikfest begins this weekend. Send me your photos from previous years - or even this year's - as email attachments to roadtrip@phillynews.com.

My Week 7 Road Trip ends in Hershey in the dark. As it's evening, and I'm saving carnival rides for a future journey, I head instead to the "short term" parking lot. You can save the $8.00 daily parking fee - if you plan to stay less than two hours - by going to the Chocolate World parking lot. Mostly a shopping area, it's where park visitors have to pass before they can leave the grounds. I'm amazed at how much chocolate is being purchased, and how many people are posing for photos outside. That's eight year-old Michael Salva at left, from Groveland, Mass., visiting Sesame Place, Hershey and the Crayola Factory with his little sister and parents Jen and Orlando.

On Week 8's road trip, I'm driving north on Route 309, with a detour into Bethlehem, home of Musikfest - which after over twenty years is still one of the world's largest FREE music festivals. Joe Trani, at right pulling cable - a DT-12 audio snake - through the Polka tent, is one of many workers still setting up for Friday's opening. Tickets ($18-$49) are required for the big name performers like Ludacris, B.B. King, Meat Loaf, Deep Purple, Stone Sour and the Black Crowes. All the other - more than 500 - musical performances on 13 indoor and outdoor stages throughout Bethlehem’s historic downtown are free.

But I'm missing all the music, and photos. So I'm asking for YOUR photos (not your music). I'll post them before the festival ends in ten days. Send them as email attachments (with caption info: who and where) to me at roadtrip@phillynews.com

There's also lots of food, children’s activities, arts and crafts, closing-night fireworks, and tons of vendors, like Mike Ginsburg, who I met setting up his tent. He's originally from Cherry Hill, but now lives in NYC's East Village when he's not traveling to fairs around the country selling silver jewelry and Rock t-shirts.

Oh, and along the way, I also stopped by the Eagles training camp at Lehigh University to hang around with the fans.

Those photos will start showing up in this space on Saturday, so please check back tomorrow, and all week long.

I'm taking a detour off Route 309 to go into Bethlehem for the Eagles Training Camp, the 12th year the team has started the season at Lehigh University. Bill Watkins, from Tulsa, Oklahoma visiting family in Mays Landing, plays catch beside the bleachers before the players take the field.

The old coach's theory used to be that camp held in a remote location would develop a team chemistry, but only about half the NFL teams still travel to an out-of-the-way location for their training camp anymore, most deciding that unlike baseball's ritual spring training, it's not worth packing up everything for a such a short camp.

"We keep adding seats and they keep filling up," says Eagles President Joe Banner on the team website about crowds that are reaching into the double digit thousands each day.

Since home game seats are hard to come by, and regular season practice fields at the NovaCare Complex are closed to the public, these free twice-daily practices are the only way for most fans to experience the team.

Following morning practice, fans with selected lottery numbers have an opportunity to get autographs from a different group of pre-selected players and coaches each day. In the afternoon, the autograph tent is one of the few areas with shade...

...the team merchandise tent is another.

Camp closes before the first pre-season game Aug. 13 in Baltimore, so the last day to check out all the action will be Aug. 11. Click for directions.

Besides the shopping tent, there is a kid zone where young players can test their football skills, or get a free souvenir photo with a cardboard Donovan McNabb (without the knee brace). Fifteen year-old Alison Worthington, on the left, and her friend Alexa Parrila, 16, of Royersford posed for their photo...

...as did Helene Dempsey of Palmerton. She brought her grandkids Dustin, Madison and Hunter.

A day of field goals in the Kid Zone - even kicked with size 4 shoes - can take a toll.

Twenty year-old Doc Stacknick of La Plume fields the kicks. At the end of practice, as I leave Lehigh headed back toward 309, I pass three kids on the side of Mountain Road, behind their homes.

Twelve year-old Ryan Kern, rear, his brother Kevin, 7, and Paul Roth, 11, holding the sign, missed out on autographs when they attended camp yesterday, so they went swimming today. Then they came up with the idea of letting the players come to them. A couple Eagles honked horns as they drove by. My back was to the road, but Ryan says he saw Donovan smile and wave through the half-open window of his white SUV.