Pennsylvania

Unlike the other states I have visited, Pennsylvania was going to be a bit different. I wasn't going to be staying in the big cities, so I wasn't going to get the tourist side of the state.

Cutting through the state in rainy weather though, that proved to still be an experience. Much like every other state on this side of the country, there is an abundance of greenery. It’s as beautiful as I expected it to be. I tend to fall in love with states like this so easily.

But a big downside to all this nature is that it tends to affect any manmade object really drastically. Roads are eaten up by overgrown grass and pavement is cracked by roots from trees.

And if you happen to be driving in one of these roads when it’s raining unusually hard, then you are in serious trouble.

I found this out first had. While heading to Philadelphia one afternoon, rain came down and it came down hard. I soon approached cars that were stopped in the road. I couldn’t see far enough in front of me to see what the problem was because of the heavy rain, so I had no choice but to wait. Once the rain stopped I was finally able to see the problem.

A few trees had fallen into the road. With thick forrest around the road, it was impossible to go off road and through the trees. We had no choice but to wait for someone to come and cut the tree or drive back. After realizing I had no cell service, I decided to drive back and just stay at a hotel in whatever city had one.

After driving 15 minutes back the road, I came upon my next problem with nature. The road was completely flooded. There was no way around it either. We were all stuck between the trees and the flooded streets.

I drove back to the fallen trees, turned off my car and waited for 3 hours before someone came with a truck to move the trees. I spent my time taking some photos of the sky and trees. Even got around to edit some on my laptop. By the time the sun park was clear, it was 11pm and I had 2 hours ahead of me of driving. I decided to drive 1 hour to the closest city and get a hotel.

Because of all the floods, I had to take small streets, sometimes going into these random neighborhoods with just a handful of houses. Following all the cars through old creepy bridges, unpaved roads and old lonely small cities, we finally made it to the big city that had hotels.

Unfortunately, there was a bunch of traffic getting into the 1 road that lead to the city. I was stuck in this road for 10 minutes before I realized that I was right next to a cemetery. This cemetery was right next to houses, which I found a little creepy.

It was really dark and quiet when I stepped outside of the car. I set up the camera on the tripod and made sure all my settings were right. Took a deep breath and headed to the cemetery to take some photos in the darkness. After about five 30 second long exposure photos, I ran back to the car and continued on the road.

The photos were not good. I was too nervous and scared to look for a good composition.

The rest of my days I spent driving and enjoying the road and forrest.

When it was time to get back on the plane and fly back home, a storm came in. I had my connection flight in Chicago, and that's where I was stuck for 2 days. The rain came down hard and I had no warm clothes. I had to buy a jacket and some warm pants in order for me to explore Chicago a bit. Which was a big bust too since the storm hit so hard, it made it almost impossible to walk through the streets, let alone take my camera

Even after getting on the plane to leave Chicago, I still had delays and a whole lot of turbulence when we finally got in the air.

It’s safe to say that I had an interesting experience in both states.