Camping in the Keystone State

Camping in the Keystone State

By Christine Haines

When I bought my first tent, my mom told my I was crazy; I told her to think of it as a folding hotel room. It was an awfully small hotel room, just a 6×6 wall tent (I think they were 6″ walls, it was just above getting a pup tent.)

My friends and I went all over the place with that little tent–an Emmy Lou Harris concert in New York, a beach trip to the Outer Banks of North Carolina, and the wilds of Bethany, WV, where we nearly got trampled by a herd of deer. It slept three, if you were good friends and didn’t mind using your packs as pillows. It was actually comfortable for two.

As time went on, I added a bright yellow fly to my old blue and tan tent, just to make sure the rain wouldn’t leak through the old roof, and I remember lying  in it listening for bear at Ohiopyle when I first moved to Fayette County.

My husband and I bought a 10×12 wall tent with a 6′6″ center pole that, along with a queen-size air mattress, became a luxury hotel room as we camped at the Outer Banks and at Myrtle Beach for our honeymoon.

Add two teen-aged stepdaughters and a dining fly and the old pup tent became the equipment tent for family vacations.

Even though my husband’s family had a pop-up camper when he was a kid, we never got into RVing. Instead, we added time periods and added canvas tents suitable for the Revolutionary and Civil War periods. Non-historic camping now generally involved a cabin, and with a little shopping around or a check of state park sites, some good deals are still available.

Pennsylvania state parks generally open their campgrounds from March through late December and the state Website offers a wealth of information about the facilities, the park features and the surrounding area. You can find everything from rustic sites accessible only by foot to lodges that will sleep up to 14 people at the state parks.

 http://www.dcnr.state.pa.us/stateParks/

Information about private campgrounds in the state is also available through various Internet sites, but one comprehensive guide is www.pacamping.com, run by the Pennsylvania Campground Owners Association.

Virtual vacation deals that aren’t for the birds

 By Christine Haines

Whether you want to visit Pennsylvania Dutch country, go skiing in the Laurel Highlands or Poconos, or explore the Pennsylvania countryside, www.visitpa.com is one of the best places to start.

This state-government sponsored tourism Website provides plenty of tools for planning a trip to any section of the state. More importantly, it has declared January “Cabin Fever” month and it lists hotels, inns and bed and breakfasts that offer stay one night/get one free deals good in January only.

As I’ve noted in previous columns, I hate traveling in the winter because of questionable road conditions. But I also love a bargain and a quick weekend get-away is always welcome.

One year my husband and I decided to head to Pittsburgh for a weekend, instead of just taking a quick day trip. Our hotel (remember, one night free) offered a swimming pool and free cocktails (non-alcoholic options available) and a fitness center among its amenities. It was also close to one of our favorite restaurants, which, not coincidentally, offers discount coupons on www.restaurant.com.

We spent the next day at the National Aviary on Pittsburgh’s North Shore (it was just the Pittsburgh Aviary on the North Side when I was growing up.) It was great. The weather that year really wasn’t that cold for January, but it was still January, with the colorless landscape that an area filled with deciduous trees has in the winter.

That wasn’t the case inside the aviary. We quickly shed our coats and cleaned the fog from our glasses as we entered room after room of tropical treasures. Exotic birds and lush green plants surrounded us and the dreariness of winter in a northern state disappeared. We also had a chance to see some of our favorite raptors up close.

 

I’m not sure which Cabin Fever discount site we’ll select this year, if any, but there are some wonderful options,  like the Inne at Watson’s Choice, with an in-depth tour of Fallingwater, or Angelspring Farm Wellness Center, with it’s massage therapy options.

It could be a great opportunity to stay at some of the more unusual offerings in the state at deeply discounted prices, such as the Artist’s Inn and Gallery and a tour of nearby Amish quilt shops or the Lancaster Arts Hotel, which each room has been decorated by a different artist.

At the Dog and Pony Inn in Crawford County you can even bring your own dogs or horses for a modest fee (we have neither, but like both.) There are also numerous bed and breakfasts located on Pennsylvania farms among the Cabin Fever offerings. It could be a tough choice this year.

Send me your favorite vacation experiences and photos by e-mailing chris@howyouspinit.com.

Check all the area entertainment options at  www.howyouspinit.com.

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