Warren, PA Home of the...Let me know when you find out!!!

This past week all of us teachers had to travel to various locations around the state of Pennsylvania for PSSA testing. After everything was all said and done I ended up with the assignment to travel to Warren, PA. Never heard of it until this past year...but a bunch of other people have...and they always responded the same way

"Ohhhh, there is nothing out there!"

Well they were all right! Honestly you are driving through the Allegheny National Forest, and then BAM! There is Warren, PA.

It was a rainy day when we drove in, and it brought along with it that ominous feeling. I mentioned to Ben, the co-worker I was traveling with, that it looked like the town was shut down. Little did we know, on Monday nights the city actually is for the most part shut down. We were lucky to find one restaurant that was open...and I do mean that we were lucky, the food was good and the people that ran the place were very kind.

We had a blast. We ate well, we meet some locals, or kids were awesome, there were haunted places and institutions for the mentally insane...but we had fun.

Here are some pics and back stories from the trip:

As a PSU Alumni, I felt ashamed that I have never been to State College and visited Main Campus...well this all changed on our voyage out to Warren..

I had to stop and get a picture with the man, the legend, the ICON and so we did!

After lunch I would not drop the idea of visiting the creamery, and so Ben was kind enough to drive around the building while I ran inside to get a milk shake.

There were so many choices, and so I dug deep and went with what I know best...Cookies and Cream. This way I could compare it to others that I had...and it was by far the creamiest...I was impressed.

After we finally arrived (about 6 1/2 hours total, with our PSU trip) we checked in. It's been a long time since I have had this much counter space to myself :) and not cluttered :)

Nice to have everything right where you need it...including the coffee maker with single serve gourmet coffee!

This is what it was all about. I loved the flat screen tv and the corner desk...but this King sized bed freaking made it so hard to get out of bed in the morning. It literally swaddled me, and the pillows were like thousands of tiny fingers massaging my head...

After checking in, we decided to take in some of the local life. We walked around the center of Warren, and discovered that there were a lot of dead soldiers from Warren from various times in history. As well, as the members of Warren we invaded by the French in the 1800's and lost...but later the French left Warren and the town was reclaimed.

Our first meal, taking in the best...we at the time the only...cuisine that Warren had to offer. These were home made pepperoni balls...very good!

Then we ordered their famous smoked ribs...which were awesome. We did not realize that we also got fresh bread, a salad with a home made dressing and about 40 hot sauces to choose from.

The next day while setting up for testing, I found the box of Mento's (my fav bc of my Mom-mom) and so I had to pose cigar style with a strip of Mento's

Drove past a Tim Horton's on our scouting on day 2, and had to stop in because my friend Darrell has told me all about Tim Horton's from around his home town in Canada.

So we bought a bag of Tim Horton's coffee...

but I couldn't wait, so I also bought an iced coffee.

This seemed to be very typical of Warren. If they were open...they weren't really there. We saw this around 3:00 and it was still hanging there well after 4:00.

Since we were only a few minutes away from NY, we drove up to the state border and got some pictures. We tried to eat at a local saloon in NY, never in my life did I feel like I was in the wrong part of town. I think we were in and out of this place in under a minute.

Had to pose with Smokey!

We didn't make it happen this time, but next time I think we are going to road trip it for WINGS!!!

This was right across the street from us. Apparently it used to be a Psychiatric Hospital...now PA uses it to house the Criminally Insane...YAY for it being right across from us!!!!