Scene on the Road

My week 8 road trip on Route 309 toward Allentown was cut short by a detour and a day spent at the Eagles training camp, along with a stop to see preparations for Musikfest in Bethlehem. I had to leave before the ten day music festival with hundreds of free performances even got underway.

These are two of MY photos from LAST year, but I'm still looking for YOUR Musikfest photos this week so I can post them here. Send them as email attachments to Roadtrip@phillynews.com

I also didn't make it north of Allentown, but Ann Spaeth of Miquon did. She and her husband have a Christmas tree farm in Berks County and she sent me some photos of old covered bridges in Lehigh County, not far off Route 309. Below is her photo of Rex's Bridge (1858) on Jordan Road, over Jordan Creek.

Ann has always loved old barns. She tells me when she was younger, her grandparents had a "very old" farm in Chester County, where she and her brother spent hours playing in the barn. Later, she had a friend who lived on Harts Lane in Lafayette Hill, where she recalls, "there was a big barn on the corner of Ridge Pike, where Ace Conference Center (formerly Eagle Lodge) and golf course are located." She would go there "to climb up the high, built in ladders and jump in the hay."

Ann sees covered bridges as specimens of the same period in time as those old barns, with "the same elegance and sturdiness." She wanted to take these pictures "for the future to remind family members of their grandeur." Below is Schlicher's Bridge (1882) on Trexler Game Preserve Road, also over Jordan Creek.

I got the dates and descriptions from the website of Drexel economics professor Roger A. McCain, who tells me the it was the bridge's "pictorial appeal" that first hooked him, along with "and a general interest in local history/historic archeology." Below is Ann's photo of Geiger's Bridge (1860) on Orchard Road, also over Jordan Creek.

They're not as famous as the ones in Madison County, Iowa but the "Bridges of Pennsylvania" have provided Spaeth, McCain and many others a "fun reason for a drive in the country." The professor says on his web site that "covered bridges symbolize small-town America. Something from the nineteenth century, a little archaic and strange to nineteen-nineties eyes (his site's been around a while), picturesque and sentimental, 'kissing bridges' recall a time when life was simpler and closer to the land -- if only in our dreams."

Bedsides the visiting of baseball parks I've discussed previously, there are many subjects photographers "collect" with cameras. Sound like another invitation to send me your photos? How about Mail Pouch Barns? These are chewing tobacco advertisements which were painted on the sides of barns in Pennsylvania, Appalachia and the Midwest, starting in the late 1890's as billboards. Many of the ads, which are now National Historic Landmarks, are fading slowly into roadside history.

This is one of my photos of a Mail Pouch Tobacco barn outside of Kane in McKean County, from a road trip I took along Pennsylvania's Route 6 a few years ago.

I have a newspaper assignment that will take me to Wyoming County this week. After taking the Northeast Extension up past Scranton and shooting the assignment, I plan to drive home on Route 309 for a Part II Road Trip. So Week 9's Road Trip will be whatever I discover between the coal region and Allentown.