Richard Wilbur, Maurice Manning, Interstate-80 across Pennsylvania

As exhilarating as the Dodge Poetry Festival was, it's time for me to wind down about it and its poets.

Besides, no matter how stunning an experience is, cities and crowded events wear me out. Everything is a trial. Worming the car into a claustrophobic parking lot behind the hotel (and a second hotel operating as a homeless shelter), getting presentable and taking a busy elevator down nine floors for a breakfast with interesting, upbeat strangers, hearing good jazz while sitting scrunched among nice people in fairly comfortable seats in an elegant auditorium, and then hearing good poetry about the bad and the sad, performed in an absolutely professional way—that constant mix of the difficult and the inspiring is . . . difficult and inspiring.

So the jubilee for me was, is, and consistently has been the open road. Interstate 80 across Pennsylvania has always astonished me with its beauty, and this time I got to cross it in the most dazzling days of the calendar. Bloomsburg, DuBois, Clearfield, Clarion—who needs Paris?



Good Lord, Clarion, Pennsylvania has an Applebees as well as a dozen other primo eateries, big chains and Mom-n-Pops alike. I just might move to Clarion this weekend.

I know, I know, I’m supposed to shun Applebees, along with the Ruby Tuesdays and the Cracker Barrels, but after about 20 miles, with 700 more to go, glory or not, I look for the comfort of the predictable. Judging by the proliferation of these places, America seems to agree with me; for once my tastes as well as my demographic get to be in the majority. And if the majority palate isn’t aristocratic or arcane, or isn’t up to the adventure of Mable’s Grits or The Stroudsburg Diner, so be it. I always choose those places at home, where I know which ones are good and which ones serve braised shoe soles and deep-fried grackle.

So with my pedestrian tastes, the open road—even if shared with semi trucks and a handful of jackass car drivers—is the real festival. In memory of I-80, I offer Richard Wilbur and Maurice Manning today—two poems that are new to me, thanks again to The Poetry Foundation. They are also two poems that feel something like rural highways, more positive than not, despite some tough-minded features. Or maybe I mean that they feel more life-affirming than most of what I heard at The Dodge. I think Manning’s gets away from him toward the end, especially with "shucks," but how does one resist anything that calls God a yam, yet stops way short of hating Him?

A Barred Owl by Richard Wilbur : The Poetry Foundation [poem] : Find Poems and Poets. Discover Poetry.

A Blasphemy by Maurice Manning : Poetry Magazine [poem/magazine] : Find Poems and Poets. Discover Poetry.

Road Trip, Northern Ohio, NW Pennsylvania

We’ve recently returned from a road trip—some fine, mostly two-lane roads through NE Ohio and NW Pennsylvania. Left, right, and straight ahead were fields, woods, and hillsides of one lit up shade of green after another, plus a few flowering trees. May and October are the times to travel.

Ohio Rt. 87, Newbury through Middlefield was very nice. Yoder’s Amish restaurant was too crowded—a happy accident because Linda’s, downtown, seemed to be a local lunch hangout where “English” and Amish farmers gathered in apparent harmony, while Yoder’s came across as a more touristy haven for middle-class retirees. The food at Linda’s is just okay, but the atmosphere made me want to stay a few days and try to get more sense of life in the area.

Rt. 6 into PA was pleasant, though a bit busier than I’d hoped. I saw it lying between two east-west interstates (I-80 and the new I-86 across southern New York state) and thought it might be a once-important two-lane that was now a lazier, more liesurely and local road. My guess was only somewhat right. Give it a B for effort and good intentions.

PA Rt. 77 north from Meadville to Corry and then Rt. 6 again, east toward Warren, were also good. 77 was better than 6, because it was less crowded and had the feel of a back road in hills and mountains, without the work of a lot of hairpin curves.

On Rt. 62, southwest from Warren, PA to Oil City and Franklin, PA, along the Allegheny River, was the best stretch of the trip. One might complain about too many pockets of modest houses, along with fishing and hunting cabins, but the scenery was still first-rate, there was very little traffic, and the bends in the road were gentle. The Allegheny is a beautiful river up there. Do I want to know about what's upstream, the purity of the water?

Little Rt. 666 west to east could have been even better than 62--certainly more remote; but the pavement was in such poor repair that the drive became somewhat of a labor. Still, with most of the road following the Tionesta River, the route was quietly gorgeous, and the potholes forced us to take our time and appreciate it.

The villages of Tidioute and Tionesta, on Rt. 62, are worth a stop. We had lunch in Tionesta, at the pleasant little T-K Dinor (note the creative spelling), where pierogies were the typical side dish, if not an entrée.

Two or three lunch spots in Tidioute looked inviting, but we were there too early.

About lodging in northern Ohio and Pennsylvania, here are three places to consider: back in the Toledo area, Maumee Bay State Park has renovated its lodge, which was much more agreeable than the last time I visited a couple of years ago. Also, I like its restaurant better than any of the others in Ohio State Parks. The grounds include some Lake Erie shoreline (new jokes only, please) and some nice walking on a boardwalk through a marsh. If you want still more birding, the terrific Magee Marsh is about 15 miles east.

East of Cleveland, the tudor-style Punderson State Park lodge, near Newbury, Ohio, has a green, tree-lined approach and an impressive Tudor-style exterior. However, we found the rooms and interior common areas claustrophobic, and the restaurant menu was limited and pricey. Also, these state park lodges, run by Xanterra, need to drop the $10 per day charge for in-room internet service (which operated at elderly turtle speed, after the ten-dollar insult).

The Warren, Pennsylvania the full service Holiday Inn was one of the nicest I’ve ever stayed in—and I’ve been in more than a few, lured by supper on the premises, never mind how mediocre or overpriced it usually was. After a day of driving the issue is comfort more than fine cuisine. In Warren, the food and service were good, there was a selection, and the prices were more in line with comparable restaurants.

We had a pleasant after-dinner walk to the city park about a quarter-mile south of the hotel. Two fast-pitch softball games were going on, with four more teams waiting in the wings, and the high quality of play impressed me--a lot of 20 - 40 year-old talent for a town of about 9,000 people.

So there you have it—American travel in Corndog world at Corndog speed.

PENNSYLVANIA, I-80

Am I the only one who thinks it's a gorgeous drive, even in March, across Pennsylvania on I-80? Why do so many people hate it?

Two-Lane Roads

Soon enough, spring will feel real, even in the upper Midwest. Can you recommend any two-lane scenic routes in Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania?

Here's one from me, a day's pleasure drive: in southeastern Ohio, take Rt. 78 from Woodsfield to to Glouster. I'd say take your time, but the road will insist upon that. As a footnote, how many are aware that parts of southeastern Ohio are included in Appalachia?

Consider staying at Burr Oaks State Park near Glouster or one of the other state park lodges (which are also present in Indiana and Kentucky). They are no longer a secret, but if you haven't tried one, you might consider it. They're a welcome change from chain motels on the interstates or pricier places in more glamorous resort areas. You're not as isolated as you could be if you backpacked, but you can find peace and quiet within a few steps of the lodges or cabins. Rooms and restaurants in the lodges tend to be at least average, compared to chains like Comfort Inns or Holiday Inns, though you'll pay a little extra for the scenery at the state parks.

I don't know how these spots fare financially, but they seem well-attended. So I've long wondered why Michigan and Pennsylvania don't create them. I've recently noticed that Georgia has a few, but I haven't tried them yet.