I actually based a lot of my old T2K campaigns in a triangle ranging from Pittsburgh to Baltimore and back up to New York City so I'm a bit familiar with the region. (I grew up in southern PA and spent a lot of time in Baltimore so I am familiar in real life with the area.)
Some things to remember are that Washington and Philadelphia are hit pretty hard by the nukes and are most likely still irradiated wastelands, especially true of DC since it suffered a ground burst. This means traveling through these areas could be problematic.
When my group got back from Europe (a little late given that we missed the OP Omega and had to capture a Swedish container ship in early April of 2001) we made landfall near Newport News. After having to forfeit our ship to MilGov we took a inter-coastal fishing boat up through the Chesapeake Bay. We spent some time in Baltimore distilling fuel and making rum at the old Sugar refinery there and rescuing some doctors and marine biologists from a local warlord. (Baltimore might be a great place to stop given that it wasn't nuked, it is one of the most active ports on the East Coast, has the nation's best hospital ((Johns Hopkins)) and has a lot of useful industry.)
In Baltimore we got hold of a midsized car transport (Baltimore is port where the second most foreign import cars arrive, after LA) and tried to run it up the bay and into the Susquehanna River. The Susquehanna River is rocky shallow river but it runs up through an important region of Pennsylvania. It goes up past the state capital of Harrisburg. In T2K canon the state government is still there but has little effective control. You might be able to find some help there or at the major PA National Guard base of Fort Indiantown Gap. After spending a while in the region my group went west to State College, PA (home of the Pennsylvania State University and the location of my gaming group), but you could go east instead.
You could have your group take highway Interstate 78 from Harrisburg to New York City. This will take you through much of eastern Penn. including parts of the state's eastern coal/steel region. They'll go through a bunch of mid-sized towns, the largest being Allentown (PA's fourth largest city at the time). Just before hitting the state of New Jersey they will have to cross the Delaware River. In northern New Jersey I think there are few nuke hits to skirt around but the region is much flatter and more urban.
I hope this helps and if you need more in depth info on any I'll be happy to help if I can.
Benjamin
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