The Alligator Family is Moving!

As Aeon221 correctly guessed, we're moving to Lancaster, PA some time next month. We might not be living in Lancaster proper, but it'll be somewhere in the county. I've picked out potential abodes in Lancaster, Denver, Lebanon, Marietta, and Womelsdorf. I know nothing about any of those places.

Things I know about Lancaster County:

• Snow
• Amish people
• Apparently the Wal-Mart in Denver has buggy parking
• Philly cheese steaks did not migrate that far, or the locals are dumb and don't know where to find them
• It's a red county
• WAFFLE HOUSE

We'll be moving over the road, since that's how we roll, so that'll take at least a week since it's ~46 hours of just driving, and we'll be hitting up family in Missouri on the way.

So, who all is nearby? What are the must-do's and stay-the-fuck-away's of New England? I've never been anywhere near it and Mr. Alligator has been to Manhattan once on business (and didn't do anything touristy the whole time, didn't even get a hot dog off of a cart).

"Buggy" is not only an Amish concept, it's the local name for shopping carts. "Pop" and "soda" are interchangeable depending on which particular area of southern Pennsylvania you're talking about.

Be careful with highway driving in winter. The mountain roads are kind of treacherous when they freeze.

My whole extended family lives not too far away from there, so if you have any more specific questions, I'll try to help where I can. :)

Oh, as far as airports go, what are the differences between flying out of Baltimore and Philly? Philly would be closer, but for the interview the company flew Mr. A into Baltimore.

Whoa whoa whoa! Pennsylvania is not part of New England.

That said, congratulations and once you are settled in the Lancaster area, which is lovely, do not move west of your position.

Southern PA is more Mid-Atlantic than New England,at least in my opinion, such that it is. I'm about 3 hours away, so not really particularly close, I'm sure there are closer BFers (like extarbags and Marged ... I think!) who are.

You'll be only 45 minutes away from Hershey, so if you like hockey, you will have an excellent minor league team to cheer for.

And, that's about the extent of my knowledge of the area.

And us too, right? ;) Congratulations on the move - best of luck!

I meant more for touristy stuff, not that PA is part of it. The "where should I go since I'll be closer to it than I ever have been before?"

We'll actually be missing KC, in favor of hitting Springfield instead. Sorry! D:

I LOVE minor league hockey! St. Louis had a team for a while (River City Otters, woop woop) but they were sold? a few years ago. I've also targeted Hershey (the town and the company) as a source of employment for myself.

I should mention that I did the move by car from CA to VA a few years back, it's not too bad as long as you take breaks, Wal-Marts are excellent for these. I traveled along I-80 more or less the entire way, with my cats in a crate in the back seat (one of them tranquillized) and the second car pulling a trailer.

The only problems we encountered along the way was finding a hotel in ... I think Wyoming? There's a lot of transient work in that area, so we had to end up in the most disgusting hotel in the world one night, but other than that, hotels were pretty easy to find along the interstate.

I got ya. Sorry for the misunderstanding. I grew up in Massachusetts, and love New England. The mountains of Vermont and New Hampshire are awesome and Connecticut has nice coastal areas, such as Mystic. Cape cod is a great summer location. Boston is a city, like any city, but it's got cool old stuff. Rhode Island and Maine can be at the tail end of any plans.

You'll be near Herheypark, my favorite amusement park and very chocolate. If you go to the PA Renaissance Faire, you may see me there.

Two other things;

1. Everyone will call the Poconos "mountains." You will laugh at them.

2. Jersey Shore. You really don't need to. If you do, go to Cape May.

Luckily(?) for us, we've done over half of this move before. Mr. Alligator has done the drive twice, even. Getting from here to St. Louis will be pretty easy for us, it's east of that when we'll be unfamiliar with anything.

We also know that sedating the cats is not really worth bothering with, since they're perfectly content with sleeping on the dashboard of the moving truck after they're used to being in a vehicle (it's far too stressful for them to be in carriers, even when on tranqs).

One thing about the East coast is: you're about a couple of hours from everything, since it's all fairly close together. You're 2 hours from DC, probably the same or less from Baltimore, and so on.

So, if you do want to see the sights on a weekend in DC, I am as good a tour guide as any, and am always happy to have an excuse to poke around museums.

Welcome to Pennsyltucky!

Lancaster has an awesome train station that I use all the time to visit family. It's about three hours to Grand Central from it, and you pay about 40$ one way. So by all means take advantage of that to visit our fair city for the awesome activities we have here. If you prefer to use the bus (I DO NOT) you can also take that.

Your closest city options are Philly, Baltimore and Pittsburgh all three of which are about as entertaining as getting stabbed.

Ignoring those litter boxes masquerading as cities, there's an overabundance of rural things and CONTINENTAL CONGRESS/CIVIL WAR things. As far as I can tell history stopped happening in PA sometime after 1865, hence the Amish. If you like history and rural things you will be happy, otherwise you will be reaching for a revolver without frequent trips to Manhattan.

It is also big. Very, very big. Driving anywhere sucks but because of the train you'll be living near that's not a huge problem. Or maybe you enjoy spending four hours in the car to go to the next town over worth seeing, I have no idea.

You also live next to York if you're living in Lancaster. Yes, they chose those names on purpose. You don't want to go there, tis a shitty place.

On the plus side because PA is basically a shitty place you can probably afford a fancy farm. I recommend spending your weekend riding some horses and getting disgustingly drunk on beer you've brewed yourself (a popular hobby in that area). The raw foodstuffs from which you'll craft your meals are generally of excellent quality but the cooking is atrocious unless you like pies big enough to crush a small village. The scenery is generally Norman Rockwell as fuck and about as adventurous. There are probably bars?

The people who live in Pennsylvania were designed to mimic their natural prey, the cow. They're generally docile but be careful not to stand in a crowded area or you'll risk being pulverized by the nigh on geological forces at play. They're mostly pleasant, generally helpful and racist to a fault. Christianity is a common disease and guns are omnipresent. Shooting ranges double as shelters for those fearful of the end times and are liberally splattered with slogans invoking fear and hatred for all things not REAL AMERICAN.

Finally there is King of Prussia mall. People fucking love it, I can't understand it. If you enjoy basking in the glow of consumerism you'll find it a cheery inferno. If not, you'll find it a crowded motherfucking hole of a place.

There are also wineries. They're actually pretty common where you'll be, so take advantage of that.

Just like Southern MO! Hubby will feel right at home.

Does anyone have wisdom to impart regarding Boilo? I've only heard of it, but it sounds delicious.

That's rich coming from a New Yorker. I trust you have more sense, Alligator.

New Jersey wineries are better. Much. But still, wine . . .

Never heard of it. Do NOT let anyone talk you into trying scrapple. Just . . .don't.

Virginia wineries are better than either!

(and I had to sedate one of my cats because he would pant and panic otherwise, it was my only choice to get him safely across country. The other cat was totally chill.)

Hooray, now I know what to do for my summer vacation this year!

The Californians are not impressed.

eta:

WTF is wrong with you, man?!?!?!?!

Nothing really beats living down the street from three wineries, but I guess I'll just have to manage.

Pfft, we dealt with our crime rates by creating a police state! We're under three hundred murders for the year. Last year we were almost under 200 for the year.

http://projects.nytimes.com/crime/homicides/map

Meanwhile, Philly: http://www.philly.com/philly/news/Phillys_murder_epidemic.html

Wine sucks, but it's a great excuse to get trashed and wander around in a field.

Oh god it looks like meat loaf. No thanks.

Also, this apparently is Boilo.

LIKE REMOVED.

I can only conclude that what is wrong with you is associated with late morning bourbon intake. Scrapple is foul.

Good, I didn't want your stupid cake-eating, wine-hating, vegetarian, New York likes anyway!

If meatloaf came back the way it went if you know what I mean and I think you do.

BITCH I AINT EVEN LIKE CAKE.

I spent a week in the area earlier this year using York as a base to visit various historical sites. To be honest, I was mostly struck by how not-different it was. No accents, no big cultural differences, etc.

I don't think it will be a difficult transition.

The most I'll struggle with probably is Pop v. Soda, dealing with weather and seasons again (holy shit though I miss thunderstorms), and the time zone change.

I will definitely definitely definitely miss living 6 miles from the beach, even though I never really went swimming in the Pacific because it's so goddamn cold.

One of hubby's aunts who is crazy and has been to Scranton like one time ever insists that I do not need an air conditioner in PA. I don't believe her.

Clever girl.

Eh, generally you won't melt your tail off most of the time. Window units should probably do the job.

I figure, at best, it would be like here, where I would love to have an air conditioner even if it's just for the two weeks where it's hot as balls. But, seeing as PA is not on the west coast, my guess is that it'll be like Missouri's weather, but with more snowfall in the winter.

I don't mind window units for the most part, I just don't like how noisy they tend to be.

You will want AC in the summer, yes. I lived in Montgomery County for a couple years and it does get hot enough for AC.

You should hire the Amish to build you a house. I have a relative who did that and it was both fairly inexpensive and gorgeous.

Ok, responding to a bunch of stuff all at once:

- Yes, we do live here!
- Some people in rural PA do call it "pop." It's weird.
- Philadelphia International is both the worst airport in the country and the one you're going to be using, so sorry about that.
- Screw wine you're in beer country now. You live very close to an excellent brewery and a pretty good brewery and pretty close to another excellent brewery.
- If you can get past Aeon's tiresome NYC-hates-Philly trolling, come hang out in Philly! It's actually really cool. Lots and lots of great restaurants, museums, etc, and it's only an hour away from you or thereabouts so it's not actually that bad at all.
- Do try the following local delicacies: pies and local produce from the Amish.
- Do not try the following local delicacies: scrapple, pork roll, generally any other porcine concoction you haven't heard of before.
- Do try the following local delicacy, but only if it's convenient and don't get your hopes way up or anything: cheesesteaks. They're fine, but like a lot of local sandwiches they're not exactly life-changers. If you do have them, for Christ's sake get them with actual cheese, not cheese whiz.
- You know that thread where people were talking about Wawa and you didn't know what we were on about? Get ready to experience a level of convenience store nirvana that you never knew existed, because Wawa is a life-changer.
- Yes, you do need air conditioning.

I've also done the move by car from CA to VA, which takes you through PA so you can probably take mostly the same route. Which is basically "Hello Interstate 80, let's be friends for thousands of miles!"

The wineries in the Finger Lakes in NY are better still! They make some seriously world-class Riesling, among other things.

Any real, er, red, wine to speak of?

There is, and some of it is good. Don't expect to find any Cabernet Sauvignon, but Pinot Noir does well there, as does Cab Franc, and some oddball varietals like Lemberger.

Maybe! That's still quite a bit down the road for us though, we won't be in the market for home ownership for quite a few years still.

Virginia has a native red grape, the Norton, that makes a great red wine, and there's a lot of Cabernet Franc, Merlot and Pinot Noir around these parts. Jefferson made wine, and the whole region from north of me stretching down pretty far south is turning into decent wine country.