“Rudy-leven”. Speak it quickly. It’s “NEPA speak” for the US Route 11, the north-south US Highway that runs from Canada to Louisiana. Although it is 1,645 miles long, it follows the Susquehanna River through a good portion of our valley from Scranton to below Bloomsburg.

This road is full of beautiful scenery, homes, farms and mom-and-pop businesses linked by automobile travel. It’s not immortalized in literature, pop culture or television as is the east-west Route 66, but it is full of chunks of Americana.

The Garden Drive-In Movie Theater in West Nanticoke is one of only 35 drive-in’s left in the state. Driving through Plymouth, who could miss The Pink House? The old lighted building signs for Mergo’s, Max L. Fainburg and Landaus remind me of a simpler time. Telephone poles still line the streets! If you drive farther south with any frequency, you’ve no doubt seen the gorilla in front of Edgar G. Scott Furniture & TV store in Shickshinny.

The road is full of history. The road was created in 1926, according to www.answers.com, but I can easily imagine indigenous Indians using the same path to follow the river centuries before it was called Route 11. In Wyoming, a Monument to the Battle of Wyoming in 1778 stands across from the Swetland Homestead. Further south are the Dennison House and the Forty Fort Cemetery. A famous mine disaster took place near the turn of the century in Avondale, Plymouth.

It’s really not a bad ride. Parts of it are beautiful in any season. Campbell’s Ledge overlooks West Pittston and almost all of the Wyoming Valley. Views from Tilbury Knob in West Nanticoke look south on the Susquehanna River. You can really appreciate the view where five mountains meet in Shickshinny because you daresn’t go faster than 25 miles per hour. (It is actually rather hard to drive that slow - but, do it or get a ticket; I swear State Police newbies must train there.) In Berwick, Council Cup is a perfect overlook view of the Susquehanna River Valley, but it regrettably includes the “towers of doom” at the Susquehanna Steam Electric Plant. Still, the views are breathtaking.

There are oddities everywhere. It seems as though there are more rusted bulldozers along the roadside per capita than any other road I travel. There are meticulously restored Victorian mansions and ages old abandoned houses, but even those tend to look rustic and strangely inviting at the same time. I just love the yellow brick happy face you can see when you travel north in Salem Township.

Some of the businesses have funny names. You can have your funeral from Mayo Funeral home and be buried with a headstone from Gay Monument. There are several Adult World stores and, of course, the Carousel (which is not at all what the name implies, kiddies!).

Food! Oh, the great restaurants are just everywhere. Buffets and chain restaurants available in abundance, but some notorious local restaurants include: Stookey’s Famous Bar B Que, MelRoe’s, Big “B”’s Restaurant, Rinehimer’s Restaurant, Victory Pig Pizza (there’s an odd name, too), and Sabatini’s Pizza.

Many take this road for granted. This road is seen as a necessary evil by truckers who need it to deliver locally or use it as a stepping stone to one of the interstates. Locals trying to “get out on rudy-leven” know that it is nearly impossible to make a left-hand turn onto the road anywhere without a traffic light. It’s that busy. And anyone who has ever driven the southern portion of the road at night –and in the summer –knows they will need to visit the car wash the next day for a good bug removal. Pardon the pun, but they’re buggers to get off if you let them dry.

Clearly the designers were stingy on the passing zones. Although more exist in the north than the south, there are never many “Pass With Care” signs where they should be.

But it’s a big part of Northeastern Pennsylvania travel for lots of us. And it’s daily travel for many of us on “the west side”. Many of the turns off this route lead to wonderful spots. I’ve been to some, but nowhere near as many as I’d like to visit some day.