I could have been a contender, but I Lackawanna....

Hokey Smoke!  Why is it that when I drive through Scranton, Pennsylvania, visions of Rocky and Bullwinkle pop into my head?  I wouldn’t be at all surprised to learn that Wossamotta U. is located on the banks of the Lackawanna River that runs through the Scranton-Wilkes Barre area.

We’ve been passing through Scranton almost every year for about 30 years, but because it is usually too early in our journey from Massachusetts to Ohio, we don’t stop.  It’s not because we Lackawanna, so to speak, it just makes no sense to stop so early in our trip.  If we stop on the way home, it’s typically just to sleep like we did this time.  Then we move on early the next day anxious to get home.  But curiosity finally got us this time.  Greg and I didn’t want to be in the dark any longer so we took a little time and went down into Scranton proper on the banks of the Lackawanna River.

Scranton was born and grew up during the industrial boom of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, taking full advantage of the railroad and coal industries.  The buildings there reflect that.  It also had the first successful electrified trolley system in the country.  This earned Scranton the nickname The Electric City.  Because Scranton is tucked into the Lackawanna River valley and the highway runs above it now, these days one has to make an effort to check the city out.  But, now that we’ve made the effort, I think it’s worth the extra time.  We will probably spend a second day there the next time we roll through The Electric City.

Now a Radisson Hotel, this building was a passenger train station.