We are about 350 miles from home and it took us all day to get here. Why? Because, in our usual way we said: “Let’s stay off the Interstates” and we did that for most of our trip.

We pulled into Oneonta NY about 6 pm, checked into our hotel and went to dinner. We had made reservations at Toscana, an Italian restaurant hyped on Yelp  just down the street from the local Chabad House. It gets 5 stars from us. Delicious fresh bread served with a mild garlic infused olive oil and home created truffle butter, fresh green salad with an excellent red pepper Italian dressing, barramundi for me and eggplant Parmigiano for Edie and chocolate mousse for the two of us.

Oneonta is a college town with many shops and restaurants, but it isn’t photogenic, so no pictures here.

Pottsville PA, where we stopped for lunch rates high for picture ops. We stopped there by chance. Look the the photos and captions and you will see a few reasons it was so intriguing.

We also found a great place for a quick lunch. A combination book store and coffee shop, with sandwiches available as well. I had an everything bagel with turkey and sharp cheddar cheese.

And their book collection (not large, but excellent quality) was arranged BY COLOR!!!

Other than that, a beautiful drive through the heart of Pennsylvania’s historic anthracite district, the tourist town of Jim Thorpe (worth its own trip), and the Poconos. Only a few spoilers.

And a little humor.

More tomorrow.