Jeep Joyrides
“Only in a Jeep,” which sang boldly from TV screens in between sitcoms and dramas in the 1980s, was a different way to see the world. It was a life of no limits and countless things the dynamic sport utility vehicle and its owner could do. Every time Chris Marano would drive his Jeep through Bucks County, he wished he could share his only-in-a-Jeep adventures with non-Jeepers. “The main focus for me was to bring people around the local area so they could see the different parts of Bucks County, like Upper Bucks County, along River Road and the river towns that are there, the canal town up in Uhlerstown. It was a way for them to experience the beauty of the area. That historical part on the end of it was just kind of a little added thing,” Chris, a 23-year resident of Feasterville-Trevose, said. “The Jeep itself, to me, is a great way to get around the area because there are roads, I can drive on that people generally wouldn't drive their cars on.”
Traveling by way of a Jeep is just one of the things that sets Chris’s Bucks County Joyrides, a tourism company he founded in May 2022 where he is also the principal guide and driver, apart from the many other ways to sightsee. For Chris, his Peddler’s Village-based business also is about where he takes his group, what historical sites and natural wonders he can share during the 45 minutes to 2 1/2 hours they are together, the rapport he builds along the way and the camaraderie he has with other local businesses.
Chris’ pickup/drop-off spot is Mama Hawk's Kitchen & Coffee in Peddler’s Village, where he has been known to sit and chat with his groups before a tour even begins, or from the several inns and bed-and-breakfasts he works with. With its already well-known attractions, Chris was happy to add one more box to check on the lengthy Peddler’s Village must-see list. He encourages his groups to come early or stay after a tour to enjoy all the village has to offer but making it his home base had a personal connection too.
“Peddler's Village was a big part of our lives for a long time. We'd go there frequently. My daughter and I would jump in the Jeep, put the top down, head up to Peddler's Village to hang out there for a little bit, maybe get something to eat. Then we would drive toward Upper Black Eddy and get lost driving around, no particular destination,” Chris said of his trips with Samantha, the now-19-year-old daughter he shares with Lisa, his wife of 32 years. “When my daughter and I would go up to Peddler's Village, we used to go to Saxbys to get our hot chocolate. They closed and Mama Hawk's opened in that location. We went in and that's where we started getting our baked treats and our hot chocolates.”
These trips were not only the building blocks of Bucks County Joyrides but also the impetus for discovering the covered bridges, dirt roads, gravel paths and creeks that were eventually woven into its tours. But then the old stone buildings Chris passed along the way caught his eye, and he started reading up on them. The rest is—literally—history. “That was the final piece of it. It was my daughter and I, driving around, and each little piece getting added over the course of five years, six years,” said the 55-year-old, who painstakingly researches his tour locales via the internet, books that include first-person accounts, tomes dating back to the 1800s and Library of Congress collections, as well as chats with county residents with tales passed from generation to generation.
His routes can take in the Erwin-Stover House and Barn in Upper Black Eddy or the Van Sant Airport in Erwinna along with the back roads of Bucks County. The settings are not only dramatic but dynamic. “There is something different to see in each of the seasons. Come out in the spring, see everything blooming, the warm weather's back, you've been cooped up all winter, let's get out and see something. In the summer, it's let's take a leisurely ride with the top down.
The fall's an easy one—let's see all the beautiful colors in Bucks County. The winter is, let's see all the things you couldn't see that the foliage was hiding,” said the Philadelphia native who, as a member of the Jeep Life community, joined a Facebook group where he invited fellow Jeepers to tour Bucks County long before his business opened. “I want you to feel like we're hanging out looking at the area and you're learning something about the area. I don't want it to be like you're in school, and I don't want you to feel like I'm flying by everything and this isn't a lot of fun.”
Chris became enamored with Jeeps as a kid watching World War II footage with his father, who was catching the documentaries for glimpses of airplanes. The craftsmanship of wartime planes, then muscle cars, dazzled Chris, but when he spotted Jeeps bounding through all that grainy footage, his first thought was, “that looks cool.”
The love for planes and autos stuck, but owning an actual Jeep took time. The loss of his father in 2010, followed two years later by the death of a close friend, spurred him to stop dreaming and start doing. His two Jeeps, including the first one he owned, are used in his business — and come with their own identities. “Not everyone does it, but most people in the Jeep Life do name their Jeeps. It's been done for a long time,” Chris, who graduated from The Art Institute of Philadelphia with a degree in multimedia design, said. “I named them because, for my business, I wanted them to have their own characteristics.”
Both Wrangler Unlimiteds, The General is a 2005 two-door named after George Washington, while The Doan Gang is a 2014 four-door. The monikers capture the duality of history, as the two had a clashing relationship during the American Revolution. Washington was, of course, the commander of the Revolution against England. The Doans were from a Quaker family in Plumstead who became spies for the British, which garnered them the sympathies of fellow Loyalists. Chris admits it’s an interesting choice for a name but he has his reasons. “I named that white Jeep The Doan Gang purposely because it is such a large part of the history here in Bucks County that a lot of people don’t know about. I lived here for years and didn't know about it. I stumbled onto it when I started reading about covered bridges, believe it or not,” Chris, who is a web developer at Artspan in Lambertville, N.J., and had previously done the same at InLiquid/StudioZdesign in Philadelphia for 10 years, said. “I find it fascinating they were such a large part of the history, but so many people don't even know who they are. I wanted to bring that hidden history out more, into the forefront. As far as naming the blue Jeep The General, well, that's referring to Washington. I wanted to balance out the good side-bad side thing.”
Chris can picture a future where he devotes his time to showing off Bucks County only in a Jeep, but for now, his web world and his Bucks County Joyrides have more in common than even he realized. “I hadn't even really thought about it but it makes perfect sense. The whole thing with web design is, you're always seeing the front page and not all the stuff that happens behind it. I live in the world behind it with all the stuff that makes the things work that you see,” Chris Marano said. “As far as the tour business goes, it's sort of like that same thing. I'm working in the back to plan the routes, learn the history, figure out how to market everything and then what you see is ‘Hey, let's jump in the Jeep and drive around and have a good time.’”
For more information on Bucks County Joyrides, visit www.buckscountyjoyrides.com, email ridewithus@buckscountyjoyrides.com or call 215-664-7092.
Cynthia Marone is a freelance writer who lives in Philadelphia.