Potential Transplant to Poconos Area

[jcabin]

You should consider what constitutes a reasonable recreational/hobby/life style in this area. As far as going out to eat at "nice" restaurants, it's extremely sparse. There are only a handful of privatey owned restaurants in the entire county that you may find acceptable. The rest are mcdonalds and chain restaurants like red robin or olive garden.

Do you like live entertainment? Unless you plan on going to a dive bar and watching the trash rock and roll then forget it.

If you're into hiking, mountain biking, kayaking, skiing, hunting, or fishing, then this place is great. If you're not into any of those things, then this area is probably not for you. The traffic is unbearable on the weekends in any place you might go to eat or shop. Expect what would normally take you 15 minutes to travel during a morning on a week day to triple or quadruple on weekends from sun up to sun down. (in fact, expect this to be the norm during the entire summer, any day of the week, any time of the day. Then, expect this again once the snow falls and the ski resorts get packed up. Most of these people from the tri-state area can't drive in snow. Motor Vehicle fatality rates are at an all time high with multiple deaths and even more accidents every week, in the winters look to triple that) Our roadways and infrastructure were not built to handle this load of traffic. There is constant road construction on every exit, and every highly traveled stretch of main road, in the same places, almost every year, almost all year round. If you don't know the back roads, you will actively regret your decision to move here with a hatred you never knew existed.

Unfortunately, even if you know the back roads, so does everyone else now. The difference being, instead of sitting in traffic and gas/braking for 45 minutes to get somewhere, you can spend 43 minutes traveling on a back road to get to the same destination.

If you want to know more, we can get into that. The amount of time you will ACTUALLY spend commuting may negate your decision to move altogether. If you move here, but don't really enjoy what the area has to offer, then spend the extra 2-3 hours a day commuting that you didn't know you were going to be subjected to(giving you even less time to be at home with your family, and attempting to enjoy what the area honestly doesn't have to offer the average nyc transplant), you will quickly regret your decision to move here.

[LifeInPa]

You should consider what constitutes a reasonable recreational/hobby/life style in this area. As far as going out to eat at "nice" restaurants, it's extremely sparse. There are only a handful of privatey owned restaurants in the entire county that you may find acceptable. The rest are mcdonalds and chain restaurants like red robin or olive garden.

Do you like live entertainment? Unless you plan on going to a dive bar and watching the trash rock and roll then forget it.

If you're into hiking, mountain biking, kayaking, skiing, hunting, or fishing, then this place is great. If you're not into any of those things, then this area is probably not for you. The traffic is unbearable on the weekends in any place you might go to eat or shop. Expect what would normally take you 15 minutes to travel during a morning on a week day to triple or quadruple on weekends from sun up to sun down. (in fact, expect this to be the norm during the entire summer, any day of the week, any time of the day. Then, expect this again once the snow falls and the ski resorts get packed up. Most of these people from the tri-state area can't drive in snow. Motor Vehicle fatality rates are at an all time high with multiple deaths and even more accidents every week, in the winters look to triple that) Our roadways and infrastructure were not built to handle this load of traffic. There is constant road construction on every exit, and every highly traveled stretch of main road, in the same places, almost every year, almost all year round. If you don't know the back roads, you will actively regret your decision to move here with a hatred you never knew existed.

Unfortunately, even if you know the back roads, so does everyone else now. The difference being, instead of sitting in traffic and gas/braking for 45 minutes to get somewhere, you can spend 43 minutes traveling on a back road to get to the same destination.

If you want to know more, we can get into that. The amount of time you will ACTUALLY spend commuting may negate your decision to move altogether. If you move here, but don't really enjoy what the area has to offer, then spend the extra 2-3 hours a day commuting that you didn't know you were going to be subjected to(giving you even less time to be at home with your family, and attempting to enjoy what the area honestly doesn't have to offer the average nyc transplant), you will quickly regret your decision to move here.

I agree with some of what you said here. For starters they do have a lot of nice restaurants up here, you just got to get out and explore to find them. As for the traffic I think you summed it up very well. However while you spend more time driving up here less time of it is in traffic and at times it's very peaceful, even enjoyable to drive up here. I mean if you drive down in East Stroudsburg, Bushkill, Shawnee on the Delaware, etc it can suck (Especially when the Flea-Market is open) but overall it's so much better than driving in New York even at it's worse.

[Exbiker]

I agree with some of what you said here. For starters they do have a lot of nice restaurants up here, you just got to get out and explore to find them.

Old Schoolhouse Tavern....best 99 cent a dozen clams you'll find on a Monday night.
https://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Ol...493396?sk=info

[LifeInPa]

Old Schoolhouse Tavern....best 99 cent a dozen clams you'll find on a Monday night.

I think I heard of that place before at work, I will have to check it out. Recently I was up near Honesdale and on that main road (The one that goes past Wayne County Ford) they have this big ATV, Snowmobile, Bike, Jet-ski, etc retailer that added a Bar/Restaurant to the building and the food is excellent. However it's a bit pricey. All done with wood on the inside, beautiful.

[DieselDon16]

Nope never heard of auxilery police around here. Depending on training sherriffs and constables hire part timers and fire police and fireman are almost all volenteer.

Think long and hard about the move, it isn't what ir appears as far as commute. Because of the economy many have found it not practical to live here.

Read the rules and study them before you move.

1. Let’s get this straight: it’s called a ‘dirt road.’ No matter how slow you drive, you’re going to get dust on your Lexus. Drive it or get out of the way.

2. They are cattle. They’re live steaks or walking milk bottles. That’s why they smell funny to you, get over it. Don’t like it? I-80 goes east and west, I-81 goes north and south. Pick one.

3. Pull your droopy pants up, you look like an idiot.

4. Turn your cap right, your head isn’t crooked.

5. So you have a $60,000 car, we’re impressed. We have $150,000 corn pickers and hay balers that are driven only 3 weeks a year.

6. Every person in rural Pennsylvania waves. We think of it as

being friendly. Try to understand the concept.

7. If that cell phone rings while an 8-point buck and three does are coming in, we will shoot it out of your hand. You better hope you don’t have it up to your ear at the time.

8. Yeah, we eat scrapple, pot pie, funnel cakes, haluskie, pierogies, shoo-fly pie, apple butter, chow-chow, and schnitz un knepp. Don’t like the sound of them or the names freak you out because you never saw a “Bon Appetit” article on them? Great, more for us!

9. The ‘opener’ refers to the first day of deer season. It’s a religious holiday held on the Monday after Thanksgiving.

10. We open doors for women. That is applied to all women, regardless of age.

11. No, there’s no ‘vegetarian special’ on the menu. Order steak, or you can order the chef’s salad and pick off the 2 pounds of ham & turkey.

12. When we fill out a table, there are three main dishes: meats (includes fish), vegetables, and breads. We use four spices: salt, pepper, hot sauce, and Heinz ketchup. Oh, yeah...we don’t care what you folks in Jersey call that stuff you eat. It’s not real chili.

13. You bring ‘coke’ into my house, it better be brown, wet and served over ice.

14. You bring ‘Mary Jane’ into my house, she better be cute, know how to shoot, and have long hair.

15. College and high school football are as important here as the Steelers and Eagles and a lot more fun to watch.

16. Yeah, we have golf courses. But don’t hit the water hazards—-it spooks the fish.

17. Colleges? We have them all over. We have state universities, community colleges, and vo-techs. They come outta’ there with an education plus a love for God and Country. They still wave at everybody when they come home for the holidays.

18. We have a whole ton of folks who have been in the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines and Coast Guard - PA has one of the highest percentages of veterans in the entire country. So don’t mess with us. If you do, you will get whipped by the best.

19. Turn down that blasted car stereo! That thumpity-thump-thump stuff is not music anyway. We don’t want to hear it anymore than we want to see your boxers. Refer back to # 3.

20. Four inches isn’t a blizzard—it’s a flurry. Drive like you got some sense, and don’t take all our bread, milk and toilet paper from the grocery stores. You’re not in Alaska. Worst case you may have to live a whole day without your croissants. The pickups with snow plows will have you out the next day.

I love this! I want to Slap the Lexus driving Mongaloids with Jersey plates. This should be on the "Welcome To PA, Now Go Home Signs"

[SHTF]

Nope never heard of auxilery police around here. Depending on training sherriffs and constables hire part timers and fire police and fireman are almost all volenteer.

Think long and hard about the move, it isn't what ir appears as far as commute. Because of the economy many have found it not practical to live here.

Read the rules and study them before you move.

1. Let’s get this straight: it’s called a ‘dirt road.’ No matter how slow you drive, you’re going to get dust on your Lexus. Drive it or get out of the way.

2. They are cattle. They’re live steaks or walking milk bottles. That’s why they smell funny to you, get over it. Don’t like it? I-80 goes east and west, I-81 goes north and south. Pick one.

3. Pull your droopy pants up, you look like an idiot.

4. Turn your cap right, your head isn’t crooked.

5. So you have a $60,000 car, we’re impressed. We have $150,000 corn pickers and hay balers that are driven only 3 weeks a year.

6. Every person in rural Pennsylvania waves. We think of it as

being friendly. Try to understand the concept.

7. If that cell phone rings while an 8-point buck and three does are coming in, we will shoot it out of your hand. You better hope you don’t have it up to your ear at the time.

8. Yeah, we eat scrapple, pot pie, funnel cakes, haluskie, pierogies, shoo-fly pie, apple butter, chow-chow, and schnitz un knepp. Don’t like the sound of them or the names freak you out because you never saw a “Bon Appetit” article on them? Great, more for us!

9. The ‘opener’ refers to the first day of deer season. It’s a religious holiday held on the Monday after Thanksgiving.

10. We open doors for women. That is applied to all women, regardless of age.

11. No, there’s no ‘vegetarian special’ on the menu. Order steak, or you can order the chef’s salad and pick off the 2 pounds of ham & turkey.

12. When we fill out a table, there are three main dishes: meats (includes fish), vegetables, and breads. We use four spices: salt, pepper, hot sauce, and Heinz ketchup. Oh, yeah...we don’t care what you folks in Jersey call that stuff you eat. It’s not real chili.

13. You bring ‘coke’ into my house, it better be brown, wet and served over ice.

14. You bring ‘Mary Jane’ into my house, she better be cute, know how to shoot, and have long hair.

15. College and high school football are as important here as the Steelers and Eagles and a lot more fun to watch.

16. Yeah, we have golf courses. But don’t hit the water hazards—-it spooks the fish.

17. Colleges? We have them all over. We have state universities, community colleges, and vo-techs. They come outta’ there with an education plus a love for God and Country. They still wave at everybody when they come home for the holidays.

18. We have a whole ton of folks who have been in the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines and Coast Guard - PA has one of the highest percentages of veterans in the entire country. So don’t mess with us. If you do, you will get whipped by the best.

19. Turn down that blasted car stereo! That thumpity-thump-thump stuff is not music anyway. We don’t want to hear it anymore than we want to see your boxers. Refer back to # 3.

20. Four inches isn’t a blizzard—it’s a flurry. Drive like you got some sense, and don’t take all our bread, milk and toilet paper from the grocery stores. You’re not in Alaska. Worst case you may have to live a whole day without your croissants. The pickups with snow plows will have you out the next day.

I noticed this post after you quoted it. Seems like the only "friendly" rule is where they wave to you. I take it as a joke but I did met some people living by some of pretty square minded rules mentioned above.......And no opening door to a lady is not a friendly rule. It was created purely to check her behind.

[DieselDon16]

I'm one of them locals that waves to everyone when I pass them driving . Its called mountain etiquette . Locals can almost pick another out of a crowd.