Several friends have made the annual trip to Pennsylvania, for the various automotive swap meets held in the Hershey/Carlisle area over the past decade or so. I’ve heard them share stories about the massive gatherings that offer the chance to pick up hard-to-find items, as well as enjoying a day with fellow enthusiasts.
For the last couple of years, I had contemplated attending the Porsche swap meet held by the Central Pennsylvania chapter of PCA. Held on the last weekend in April, there is always a risk of poor winter-like weather crossing the Allegheny mountains in New York state, and while traversing the higher ground in Pennsylvania. The roads leading to Carlisle are best visited during milder, drier conditions for optimal enjoyment. I wanted to take my 997.2 Carrera S to do this drive, yet was hesitant in recent years about the timing of the event and the weather.
This year our Spring weather pattern has been a bit milder so any concerns about poor weather were quickly put to one side, and trip planning commenced. I convinced my wife to join me with the promise of a bit of retail therapy for her on the trip home.
We left southern Ontario on a sunny Friday, crossed into NY state at Buffalo, and then enjoyed a route comprised mainly of “B” roads in great condition for most of the journey. The trip down to Carlisle was an easy one-day drive allowing for coffee and lunch stops. We had an enjoyable drive in near-perfect conditions and met up with friends for dinner. They had taken a different route in their 997.2 C4S, crossing into NY state at Gananoque.
The Central Pennsylvania Region PCA website describes their Porsche-Only Swap Meet as follows: “This is without exaggeration the largest event of its kind on the planet. It typically brings nearly 650 vendors, around 1,000 Porsches, and over 6,000 visitors from all over the world together every year”.
Steve Baun, the Swap Meet Chair, reports that the 2024 event exceeded all previous attendance records. The attached photos show the expanse of the Carlisle Fairgrounds and give some idea of the number of Porsches, vendors and participants in attendance.
Interacting with the vendors and other PCA members was fun, and we managed to pick up some bits and pieces that we were hunting for. We ran into a few fellow members from UCR, including Rob Grootarz and a group of his friends who had driven their air-cooled Porsches to the event. Although the day was dull and overcast, it did not prevent us from accomplishing what we had set out to do. In fact, we didn’t mind a marginal day for the swap meet, as long as it meant a better driving day for the next leg of our trip!
Using recommendations from local motorcycle and sports car forums, we had planned a route of back-roads from the Carlisle area, heading north-east toward the Pocono mountains area. The road conditions were fantastic, with many two-lane sweepers with paved shoulders and 55 mph posted speed limits. As many of these roads follow river valleys, they have just the right number of curvy sections to keep things interesting. The quality of the pavement here is markedly better than what we are used to.
Now that the two 997’s were in tandem, the drive became that much more enjoyable! We had a nice half-day drive which again allowed for coffee/lunch stops and a bit of strolling. Our base for that night was a town called East Stroudsburg, which sits on the edge of the Delaware river, in an area known as the Delaware Gap. We planned our next day to take in some of the twisty roads in the Pocono mountains area.
Our day started with a bit of a hike on the Appalachian Trail to give us a break from driving. After some exercise we headed out along the beautiful Route 209 that follows the Delaware river up to Milford, PA. This entire stretch is part of a National Park, and along the way there are numerous scenic waterfalls worth seeing, and the twisty roads leading up to them are also worth driving. We enjoyed a fairly long period of being alone on this road, taking advantage of the newly paved sections with windows down and sunroofs open as temperatures hit 30 degrees C, on the last day of April.
A big bonus in making a road-trip this early in the season was an absence of vacation traffic. It would likely not be as enjoyable to drive this route in mid-summer. On the return trip to base we explored some of the serpentine roads leading to the falls, and these were really nice.
We hit a few single lane sections that were controlled by traffic lights, and really lucked out by being the first cars stopped at these signals, as it meant the cars ahead were well out of our way by the time we got our green light!
As always, the time comes for the end of the trip, and our friends headed north to Gananoque, while we headed north west retracing our steps through the Allegheny National Park. The cars ran great, and we are looking forward to another adventure in the near future.
If you have considered attending the swap meet at Carlisle, the trip is certainly worth it and the driving alone is reason to go.
There are two walk-around videos of the event posted on the Central Pennsylvania chapter website.
