Monday, April 19, 2010

An Afghan Experience: Roads of the Poconos -- the Stroudsburgs

This ia a rant,nothing more. But I'm betting that Stroudsburg and East Stroudsburg, both small towns in Pennsylvania have the worst roads in all the nation. I expect that the roads in the Stroudsburgs are better than those of the Afghan mountains but I'm not sure.

There's not a single road which has not been patched and repatched to the degree that the road appears asphalt quilted. These roads will rattle your shocks, they rattle your teeth, they rattle your tie rods and bearings, and they can shake the paint from your car.

For that matter, most of the people who live in Stroudsburgs drive pickup trucks. Only the heavier, larger pickup trucks can surve these roads, however. The smaller pickups soon become trashed just like the other vehicles.

Of course, the tire replacement stores and the suspension parts stores are doing well but there are many people who cannot afford new tires, struts, tie rods.

The "city" makes all kind of useless expenditure but no one wants to fix the roads. It's the other guys' jobs. Whenever you do see a road crew, it's a large one but it's not working. The road crews look at the roads with malevolent resentment. Make no mistake about it, though; if you see a road crew, you can be sure that road crew is tearing up the roads, not fixing them.

Bump, bump, rattle, rattle--the tourists bypass the towns if they're smart--on the way to the gambling casino at Mount Airy.

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