Rodeway Inn Lewisburg

Bucknell University

by PA2AKgirl

This certainly isn't my favorite thing about Lewisburg, but I can appreciate it for the fact that it's brought good music, theatre, art and sporting events to this little down. I can't imagine how boring or depressed Lewisburg would be if Bucknell wasn't here. If you're here, definitely take a walk around the campus, it's beautiful. Also, there's a good chance that something will be going on that you can attend. Since it's a small school (a few thousand students, I think), it's easy to get tickets to concerts and games. The facilities are very very nice, much better than some of the stuff we had at South Alabama, but then again, if you compare what they are paying per year against what I paid, it's understandable. I went to their website to get the tuition information...I was shocked:

FOR one year, tuition and fees for Bucknell as an undergraduate student are $37,308

WOW. that's more than I paid for my entire education.

Check out their website for upcoming activities to just to see what costs so much:)

http://www.bucknell.edu

It's on fire!!

by PA2AKgirl

Okay, so this is really well off the beaten path, but it's cool to know it at least exists. There is this town not so far away and it's been burning for FORTY years!!

Can you believe it? Do you think I might be lying? Are you questioning all of my tips right now? Wonding just how credible is this girl?

Well, trust me--I would not fill your head with false hope (haha...I wonder if a burning town is really a hope of someone's)

The town is called Centralia and if you can't find it on a map, then that doesn't disprove me, it actually makes this tip even better--it's really off the beaten path then, right? It's located in the coal/antracite region of PA, about 30-40 minutes away from Lewisburg (driving fast). You'll go through other little coal towns that didn't endure the same fate (though they look like they endured something), like Shamokin, Ashland...and then, you'll come to it. A place where smoke is rising from the ground...it looks a little bit like very patchy ground fog. Here's what happened--this is quite a story, so please, prepare yourself accordingly:)

Someone dumped trash into an open pit in 1961 and tried to burn it. I don't know why, but that's still what people do w/ their trash today here in central PA--and it's legal!!! Anyway, it caught a vien of coal on fire, sent the flames underground and 43 years later, the fire is still burning. They had to move people out because the smoke was coming into their houses, but these people think it was just a plot so there could be open access to the coal. Who knows....

You NEED to see the pictures in this website--the "Then" and "Now" pictures are truly astonishing (this is NOT sarcasm!)

You can kind of get to this town now--take Rt. 61 toward Ashland and keep following it south....you'll see the way around on this website.

Penn's Cave

by PA2AKgirl

Penns Cave is about 45 minutes west of Lewisburg, right around the Penn State/State College area. Unlike nearby Woodward Cave, it's a boat tour and open all year. The tour itself it about an hour, but if you get a tour guide like we had, he'll talk as long as you ask him anything. We learned about his photo hobby, how long he's been married, how long he's worked at the cave, how kids like to drink beer outside of the cave when it's closed, everything. In addition to this nonsense, we also learned great information about the cave itself. There are three large "rooms" in the cave and some smaller areas you have to pass through to get to them.
Like I said, it's great this is open all year and don't worry about the temperature outside, it's always 52 degrees in the cave. At the lowest point, you are 100 feet underground. In the winter, there's LOTS of bats and some other little creatures like spiders, but nothing that will bother you. There's this place they call the "nursery" where about 100 female bats congregate...that was pretty cool to see, but I don't think my picture turned out all that well, unfortunately.

I'm going to create a travelogue of Penn's Cave because there's not just one picture that sums of the place.

Hours in the winter are 9-5, last tour at 4pm...and it's $11.25 a person. Definitely worth it...we had a great time.

More Penns Cave

by PA2AKgirl

Here are some more pictures...I'll try to add commentary if I know what I'm talking about.

this really isn't necessary for the 1 hour boat ride.

brilliant description, huh? I know that this is what caves are, I just don't have a better answer than that. Oh yeah, I also know they are stalactites.

You're just gonna have to take my word on this. I know it doesn't look like much but it's really a bat. They were everywhere.

This is looking up at one of the "walls" in the last "room". According to the tour guide, there's another room beyond this that isn't open to the public. It's only 15'X15'X15' but the opening to get into it is only 12"X18" which, also according to him, isn't that big. He even showed us with his hands just how big this was, just in case we were unable to picture a foot by a foot and a half in our heads. How incredibly helpful.

Little baby stalactites, but as the guide made sure we knew, just because they are little doesn't mean they aren't very old. Some of the larger ones were about 30,000 years old.

I seriously look stupid in this picture, but it's the only one of me on the boat...which you can't tell from the picture anyway...but that's what this is. Me thoroughly enjoying the boat ride all while having less than 3 hours of sleep the night before, getting up at 6am and waiting on Stacey and Jacob for like 7 hours.

This is where the tour begins and ends, at the Visitor's Center. There's some stuff here to see...you typical Pennsylvania gifts...Amish stuff, minerals, coal...crap you wish people wouldn't buy for you but at the same time stuff you think you should buy for other people just so they wonder why you got it for them. There's also restrooms here and a little snack bar that's open only in the summers. And Penn's Cave shirts and other souveniers.