I've spent my existence driving through Pennsylvania.  My father hales from Baltimore so trips home were frequent from Upstate NY.

Believe it or not, Penn. has always been my favorite states to drive through.  Maybe it's just comfortable familiarity, who knows, but as we tracked our way down the east side Tuesday I noticed all the same things I always have since I was a wee Cramer.

I love the way the mist and the fog rises out of the mountains during a good rain like swirls of smoke to the heavens.  I love how all the overpasses you drive under go Uphill.  I have always cherished the rhythmic thump, thump, thump to their roads.  I decided this week that maybe the Pennsylvania DOT hasn't been that bad for 35 years but maybe the harsh winters of the mountains just constantly rip havoc on their roadways.  I took comfort in that thumpity thump however the other day as my daughter slept in the back seat and I wondered if it lullabied her to sleep the way it did me for years. 

I always (then and now) smirk at the Falling rock signs.  I think they're kind of a rhetorical statement.  When you are driving down a road the is quite literally cut through the Allegheny Mountain side I think that it stands to reason that rocks may actually fall.  Especially when the road sides are lined with both jagged and smoothed rock surfaces...another favorite thing of mine. Even better is when they had giant sickles of ice formed down their impressive sides.

I love when you pull over to stretch your legs, no matter what time of year, the air has a crisp, clean smell to it.

We never made it as far as Philly, but my other favorite thing to see as a child, was the Body builder atop the building lifting his giant bar-bells.  Who knows if he's still there but as a kid it was something I always looked for every time we drove through. 

I may not be from here, but I know the landscape and feel like I know the patterns of every single mountain along the interstate. 

Driving through Pennsylvania, for me, is like coming home.