Lots of things to comment on, bear with me….
I am glad you made it safe, and good luck. As one that has made that trip to PA from AR a few times I can appreciate the drive somewhat. Of course I do a straight 16-17 hr dealie.
How did you like the scenery in TN and KY? I was too busy in OH to pay attention , what I did see was nice. I was keeping my eye out for po-po...I had guns in the vehicle.
PA - Folks are great, food is good. I still ain't figured out blue, yellow, red, purple and polka dotted traffic lanes....
We couldn’t have done that, but then we hit Arkansas and Oklahoma at about 1 am. But since the truck hit a nice speed limiter at 70 mph I’m not sure if it would have been possible either. Any officers reading this, 70 mph is theoretical…..
Tennessee and Kentucky scenery was nice; it’s very very lush on this side of the states. I purchased a valentine one for the trip and it saved me a couple of times in Ohio, but otherwise, like I said the truck had a nice limiter at 70 mph.
I myself haven’t figure out the streets and traffic lights yet.
Why do you need a Fl. CCW? Pa. is about a hundred bucks cheaper and no proof of training.
If you are in Philly, you have to go through the police department (not Sherriff) to get your CCW (called a Licence To Carry a Firearm - LTCF) I am unfamiliar with how to do that since I live in Montgomery county just outside Philly. (check
www.packing.org) Even Philadelphia is better than PRK and the other commie states though.
After speaking with one of the contacts on packing.org he mentioned that a non-resident permit from Florida might be easier to obtain than a resident Philadelphia permit. After doing some reading it appears that Philadelphia is one of the harder counties to obtain a permit from. That is also coupled with the fact that they seem to be horribly behind in issuing them. I do plan on applying for a Philadelphia permit but I figured I’d also apply for the Florida permit since it’s applicable here as well. And Florida has quite a few more states that recognize it’s permit so I’ll be free to travel a bit if I would like.
Lots of gun shops around and check here...
www.valleyforgegunshow.com/ (September 18 & 19, December 18 &19).
Where are you in Philly?
As soon as I get my driver’s license here I’m going to start looking for a nice ffl that can receive my polytech for me. Then I need to look around for a sig p245. Know any friendly ffls in the northeast Philadelphia area?
In case you don't know, for driver's license take you cali license, your SS card and your birth cert/passport plus your lease and a utility bill with your name and address on it. All that will satisfy both list A and list B requirements. (I just got my license last week). Fortunately for me, I had my PA non-resident CCW prior to my move. The sheriff that issued it simply changed the address and it became a resident permit.
hmm I have everything on that list except for my birth cert and a utility bill. I guess I might have to wait for the first bills to start arriving. I was wondering did you have to surrender your license to obtain the Pennsylvania license?
There it is again, I should have prepared for this earlier, but then I’m not sure if Pennsylvania would have issued me a non-resident ccw since California technically does issue. But a Florida ccw would have been nice as it would have allowed me to carry through some of the trip.
As other posters have said, it's one of the most gunfriendly states in the NE. I'm not far from montgomery county, flag me when settled, we'll go shooting!
Summary of a real fed/citizen/police interaction I read about:
Fed: Is this handgun registered?
Pennsylvanian: There's no handgun registration in this state.
Fed: Yeah, sure, right, pal. What are you doing with an unregistered handgun?
PA State policeman: The citizen is right. There's no gun registration in PA
Fed: Urk, agh.
This sounds nice, but from what I’ve read it seems that Philadelphia county might be running a registration legal or not.
Random other practical stuff (an ongoing public service for immigrants to PA):
rms/pa had it right, most of PA is Alabama; of the 1950's. Say goodbye to cities and highways; hello to tangled sprawl and the Turnpike. I used to measure travel time at around a minute for every mile; double that in PA. Sadly, not joking. There are places where "you can't get there from here" actually applies. The roads are poorly maintained (esp. compared to CA roads), so be aware, your suspension will need work within a short period of time.
At Pat's it's "a cheese wit'" if you want to sound like a native.
Every cluster of buildings is a township, which makes finding stuff harder than it needs to be; for instance, I could drive a golf ball off my patio and it could land in one of three different townships without leaving the neighborhood. A good map, and using it to locate and associate placenames helps immensely when it comes to quickly gettiing your bearings.
For big purchases, Delaware is tax free; PA residents can buy long guns there with no transfer nonsense.
Beer is sold through 'beer distributors' (beer stores), liquor through state stores, although there are a couple state stores in supermarkets in the Philly area now; I spent a month looking for beer in the grocery store.
Very good hunting and fishing if you're into that sort of thing.
If not, the Philly area is lousy with good restaurants. Try Tango in Bryn Mawr, Kansas City Prime in Manayunk, or if you feel like a drive Federal Grill in Allentown.
There are a lot of "Mawr"s and "Bala"s placenames. Those are Welsh. No, I can't pronouce them correctly. Or the German ones. Or the Indian ones.
It’s interesting, it’s very very different from what I’m used to in California, but I’m slowly getting used to it. The roads coupled with this interesting weather we’re having has been interesting, along with the trips to home depot and ikea to satisfy my gf have been trying at times, but it doesn’t seem too bad. This weather isn’t normal is it? Monday and today have been kinda wet…
The townships have been fun as well, I’ve been lucky enough to have a gps through my ipaq that has been worth its weight in gold. I got use from the west coast to here and it’s help immensely with the commute here as well.
It will be a while before we venture out of Pennsylvania but I will definitely keep in mind Delaware.
It seems that area we are in is known for it’s small pubs, but since I don’t drink I don’t find that to be much of a problem.
Why? Just get a PA permit in Philly, they have to give it to you (the state is shall issue, and cities/towns aren't allowed to make their own gun laws). As said, it is much, much cheaper (like 1/5 as much) than the FL permit.
State law also says they can only charge $19, but some counties get away with more by charging "administrative fees".
BTW, the correct pronunciation of Wilkes-Barre is Wilkes Bury, Schuylkill is Skoo-kill, and Philadelphia is Phil-i-delph-ya, not Phil-a-del-fee-a.
Be aware that the state police keep record of handgun purchases, in violation of state law.
Like I mentioned above I had thought that getting a Philadelphia permit would be a lengthy and hard process, but I do intend to give it a shot. But I figured Florida would be more of a sure thing.
Thanks all,
UltimaSE
