Albrightsville, (retiring from CA to PA!!)
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10/29/2009
On the advice of friends who bought land 3 yrs ago & built a house in Towamensing Trails, Albrightsville in the Pocono Mtns of Eastern PA. we went to visit them for 2 weeks (Sept 09) & fell in love with the quiet, green lushly forested Penn Forest & Hickory Run area with its beautiful lakes & rushing streams. We loved the clean fresh air at 1700ft, & skies of so many brilliant stars. We were sold totally!! After researching & considering countrified communities in the busier Stroudsburg area -closer to shops but way too much traffic (why leave CA for that?) we found a foreclosed house just 15 mins walk from our pals in an adjacent community. We have since bought it at a considerably lowered price than the median & are shortly leaving our years of married life in southern CA to retire there. Some pals think we are crazy saying we wont adjust to 4 seasons again but we were both raised & lived for years in N. Europe & they don't know how green & pleasant we found the Penn Forest Township area to be--as correctly promised by those same friends who took 3 yrs luring us there & have retired there from NYC (2.5hrs away along I-80 which is accessed in 10 mins). It is an extremely pleasant lifestyle there with plenty of deer & wild turkeys wandering about, raptors galore & even an occasional brown bear. There are excellent hiking trails -and up on that high plateau its terrific biking too -spring to fall - which is full of color as we saw last month. There's plenty of fun & activities in ski season with many nearby slopes & resorts--and summer offers rivers, lakes, boating & fishing in plenty --ergo renting out opportunities abound. There is a food store & cafes in town & excellent Amish markets for produce & fruit, plus all well-known shopping outlets are within easy reach in either Wilkes-Barre or at the Crossroads (Tannersville, East Stroudsburg (both 25 mins. There is also the charming historic Victorian mining town of Jim Thorpe (formerly Mauch Chunk)in the very beautiful Lehigh River Gorge just a 20 min drive S.W. of us, with its scenic tourist train ride in a setting that looks like the Rhine or Mosel. We are looking forward to our move within a few weeks!
Neil | Indian Mountain Lake, PA