We began looking for a summer place in the late 80s. To organize our
search, we drew a two hour travel circle centered on our permanent home.
Starting at the Jersey Shore, we began making weekend trips further and
further south staying within our two hour circle. For almost ten years we
made regular weekend trips to the Jersey Shore, as well as South Jersey
and Delaware Bay, and eventually into the Pocono Mountains. During the
entire time, we found almost nothing that was, 1) within our price range,
2) was not over-crowded, or 3) that was not in danger of being washed away
in the next storm.
It was in a casual discussion with a neighbor/colleague where it was
suggested that our two hour circle was too small. She suggested that we
should enlarge the circle to three hours. Of course we couldn't go any
further east than we had already gone, so we began investigating the
southern Delaware Bay area both in New Jersey and in Delaware, as far
south as Lewis, and the mouth of Delaware Bay. Still seeing the same
things that we had been seeing in previous years - overpriced properties,
crowds of people on the beaches and traffic jams on the roads - we thought
that we needed to rethink what it was that we were looking for. We decided
to stop looking at beachfront properties or for that matter any tidal
water properties, and concentrate our efforts on fresh water lake
properties. To address the problems of overcrowded beaches and overpriced
properties, we also decided that we would concentrate on small private
lakes that were large enough to support good fishing, small enough to
eliminate water skiing and jet skis, and a homeowners association powerful
enough to keep it that way.
Although we seldom read the "Princeton Packet", a private ad in the
real-estate section of that paper led us to the "Endless Mountains Region"
of Susquehanna County, PA. As the north-eastern most county in
Pennsylvania, its northern border was just south of Binghamton NY, easily
accessible from the south by Interstate 81, and right on our three hour
circle. The purchase of a county map (our first task when investigating a
new area) revealed what seemed to be dozens of lakes that might meet our
criterion. We obviously found one and bought this place in the spring of
1997.
Return to Norm Asper's web page.