I say potatoe you say potato

Summer in PA 013
Originally uploaded by jobean98

Ahhh...what a beautiful day to get out on the open road. It's been awhile since we've hit the road and what better day than today to get out there and cruise the countryside. We headed up US-15 towards the Keystone State (Pennsylvania for those of you not down with the state nicknames). We cruised past Gettysburg and then pulled off onto a state route shortly after. We wound around the curves and dipped up and down the hills with no real destination in mind though the signs kept leading us towards Hanover. No matter which way we turned the road would always lead us back to a sign that said Hanover x miles ahead. We gave in and slowly made our way there. As we cruised around Hanover we slowly came across a sign that looked ever so familiar. Utz Potato Chip Co. Could it be?!? Is it??? Why yes, yes it is. It is home to Utz Potato Chips which offers daily tours (week days only). We were bummed that we wouldn't be able to take a factory tour that day but did hit up the factory store to see what goodies they had. We picked up a couple bags of chips that we know we liked and then small bags of some we weren't sure about but looked good. One of those being gucamole chips. Wow were they good.

We left Hanover and drove by the same Mc Donald's about 3 times (Big Ben...Parliment) before we got on the right path. We headed out PA-94 and came across a mileage sign that said Baltimore 40 miles. We thought we would make a trip there but couldn't figure out exactly how to get there (aside from the not so obvious road signs). So we headed down 70 to 29 and then down through our Nation's Capital.

We ended our evening on our balcony with some wine, beer and some great conversation.

Explore the back country....you never know where you'll end up

Cheesesteaks and pit stops.

eric jo philly
Originally uploaded by jobean98

My partner in crime and I decided we needed to get away for the day so we headed up to Philadelphia to take the plunge in checking out Geno's and Pat's Cheese steaks in South Philly. The drive up was nice, not a lot of traffic but man did we not plan well. We hit 3 different toll plazas on the way up which we didn't expect but once we got through them we made it to Philly. We came in on this awesome bridge where the in bound traffic is on the lower level and the out bound traffic is on the upper level.

We passed the stadiums where the Philadelphia Eagles, Philadelphia Phillies, the 76ers, the Flyers and the Soul play. They are all on the same huge lot of land which I thought was pretty cool.

We finally arrived to the intersection where Geno's and Pat's battle it out 24/7. I got in line at Geno's and ordered a steak with whiz and onions and Eric got in line at Pat's where he got a steak with provolone and onions. We found a spot to sit and dove in to the steaks. We each ate half of our sandwhiches and then switched. I liked the one from Geno's the best and Eric agreed. After eating and taking some pictures we headed back to the car for a drive through the city.

We wound up in some not so friendly areas and quickly found our way to US - 30. We jumped on US - 30 and headed west towards home. We passed through quite a few interesting towns on the way and might make trips back out to check them out a little more in depth.

We made a stop in Lancaster to pick up a world famous Shoo-Fly pie from our favorite bakery and then a quick stop in York for some very awesome donuts from Maple Donuts.

I guess you could say this was a culinary tour of Pennsylavania. ;)

After many miles and a lot of fun we finally made it home. More pictures to come and a lot more stories from the road.

Where will you find us next?!? Maybe in a town near you. :D