Lancaster Pennsylvania

When we left Watkins Glen our next destination was Lancaster County PA.(The locals pronounce it “Ling-c’ster”) Bruce as always setup our trip to see the country along the way. (In Pennsylvania this means up and down and round and round.) What fun…driving through small towns with houses built right next to the road and big climbs up mountains then down the other side with all the brakes you have!

We followed US 6 along the Susquehanna River then cut over to Wilkes Barre, then down over to Hamburg for a stop at Cabela’s and spent some money. Cabela’s is prepared for RV overnight stays. They have horse corrals, dog runs and a dump station, so if traveling that way, stop by, but if you want to stay for “free”, like all “free” over night places, stay out of the store. Who said this parking lot camping was cheap?

We discovered that they celebrate Columbus Day here in the east as a busy holiday, (Oct. 13th this year), so we had a tough time finding a campground with room for us over the weekend. Tuquan, (“Tuck-one”), Park Family Campground in Holtwood, PA had a spot for us, so after a “fun” trek through the backcountry roads we arrived at a nice campground with a lot of seasonal campers, and they had a nice pull-thru spot for us. We planned to stay for a week and go to Gettysburg, Hershey, and the Strasburg area. Since we were in the heart of Amish and Mennonite country, we didn’t have a good cell signal. Go figure!

Saturday we took off for Gettysburg on the trike. We like to take the two lanes and avoid the freeways, it’s more fun and seems safer than running along side all those heavy trucks. The sun was shining and the fall colors where coming on strong.

Gettysburg is a small old town with limited streets and this afternoon there was more traffic than roads, everyone was out enjoying the holiday weekend and the warm sunny day. The Gettysburg Battlefield Park was very crowded; I’m sure not as crowded as some summer days, but enough for Bruce. We took the driving tour, met some re-enactors doing some educational encampments and decided if we wanted a more in-depth experience we needed to come back at a less busy time. The trip was nice 65 miles each way going through Amish and Mennonite farm country.

We attended the Bethesda United Methodist Church this Sunday, just a short distance from the campground. The church was very much alive and growing. It was very nice to worship in this country church.

Monday we took off for Hershey PA, the chocolate capital of the world, Lynn wanted to see how one of her favorite dark chocolates was made. They don’t have an actual factory tour but had an animated simulation ride that takes you through the process. It was fun, (and free), but you ended up in the gift shop and who can resist all that CHOCOLATE!?!

We took a trolley tour, (not free), of the “town” that Milton Hershey built, (technically there is no city of Hershey only the Township of Derry, PA, originally called Derry Church), very interesting history. (Loved those Hershey Kisses street lights!)

One of the best things we learned on this tour was the story of the Milton Hershey School for at-risk children. It is the largest residential school in the country and they receive no government funds of any kind. The whole school is funded by the Hershey Trust and private donations, it seem that Milton Hershey, having no heirs, set up all of his company into a trust with the one objective of funding the school. So remember every time you eat a Hershey product you’re helping the school. Lynn loves her Hershey’s Bliss dark chocolate even more now.

Being from an area where we have had opportunities visit with the Amish, (even have had the opportunity of eating in their homes), we set out Tuesday to enjoy the Strasburg area and its Amish and railroad history.

Bruce was like a little boy again when we took to the rails on the Strasburg Railroad for a ride to Paradise PA and back. The Baldwin steam engine put out lots of smoke and had a great whistle, the cars were very nicely restored and it was a very nice day.

Next stop was the National Toy Train Museum just down the road from the Strasburg RR. This museum has a very nice collection of toy trains from the all over the world and lots of working layouts. They had a lot of Lionel trains, again taking Bruce back to his childhood. Lynn enjoyed reverting back to her childhood by pushing all the buttons and working all the trains and accessories she could get her hands on. The scenes gave her a few ideas for making her own layouts, too. Bruce had to remind her that we only have so much space!

They have a Disney Diesel just like the one we gave our son, Eugene for Christmas in 1982. We let him have it back when we hit the road in 2005.

US 30 in this area is full of shopping and dining opportunities but not the kind of place we where looking for, (they seem to have gotten too “touristy” for our taste), so we ended up having supper at a little family restaurant in Quarryville, PA and headed home.

We took several walks through the park, met a few nice RVer’s, bought a bit of veggies at a roadside Amish farm and just enjoyed the beautiful warm Fall weather.