Time flies when you're having fun!
This is going to be a bit of a whirlwind tour as I try to catch-up in 2 parts.
June 6 Tues. We made the drive to Pennsylvania today, easy trip. Nice park near Elizabethtown, and we will start our plans now. First is Capt Dan calls the local Camping World to schedule getting the new pin box installed. But! they haven't received it and don't know when, so we keep calling and finally get it scheduled for Tues the 13th so we extend our stay here until Sunday the 18th.
Jun7 Wed. A quick run to Walmart was the total activity today,
June 8 Thur. Up and off to Gettysburg. We pulled into the parking lot and walked up to the visitors center. There was a lovely lady at the desk to give us some great advice and we bought our tickets for the Gettysburg Cyclorama. We took in the orientation film and walked around the center. Had a nice lunch and bought a Audio CD for a tour of the battlefield, this was a great choice, it was a dramatization and gave great details at all the stops in the park. The only problem is this is a 2 day tour in order to really take it all in. So we get through a little over half of the tour before we really need to head home and rest our brains. What an amazing day.
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| Cyclorama Building |
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| starting the drive |
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| Memorials are everywhere |
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said to be the largest outdoor sculpture garden
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| From the top of little round top |
Jun 9 Fri Just a movie today and getting the laundry done.
Jun 10 Sat We decided on the the AACA Museum today. We are very close to Hershey but we just can't get up any enthusiasm to go there, everything we hear is that it's more of an amusement park and the only chocolate still made in the US by the "great American chocolate company" is kisses, so we do find lots of other things to occupy our time and one of those is the Antique Automobile Club of America (AACA) Museum in Hershey, PA. This museum is terrific! they have cars that are preserved as well as restored. And everything is well displayed, we particularly liked the Tucker display. They have the Cammack Collection and they chronicle the whole story of the Tucker. Video and and mockup shop, pieces and parts and all that made the Tucker a car ahead of its time. We were both surprised when the staff came and found us on the 2nd floor looking at motorcycles to escort us on out as the museum was closing. It was a tiring day, but great stuff to see. Somehow I missed any pictures of the buses, and there were some great buses.
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I'd go for a ride in the rumble
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| beautiful Studebarker Golden Hawk |
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| The prettiest of the Tuckers |
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| and nice motorcycles |
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and a great railroad display
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Jun 11 Sun This was our day to go back to Gettysburg and finish up the driving tour. I can't recommend the audio tour we bought enough, it brought the story of the battle to life and gave both of us a much deeper understanding of the part 'chance' played at Gettysburg.
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Dan resting on a canon
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| largest memorial in the park |
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| This is the Audio Tour we bought |
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| small part of the cemetery |
Jun 12 Mon We headed over to Intercourse and took in a few shops. Danny was not attuned to what was so special about the Amish area of Lancaster County, but after a few hours we decided to come back later this week for a buggy ride.
Jun 13 Tue. up early this morning to get the rig over to Camping World to get our new pin box installed. It just took a couple of hours and we were heading back to our park with a much smoother ride! Its got a shock absorber and an air bag.
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Just so you know what a pin box is
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Ju 14 Wed. If there is a cave to tour we try to find it and we found one here. Indian Echo cave. A nice tour, and very new cave system and we really enjoyed to cool down. Then off to Costco to stock up on a few necessities.
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nice cave
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| Nice covers |
Jun 15 Thurs. We headed back to Lancaster area for a buggy ride and tour of an Amish farm. It is a rather different feeling to be sharing the road with horse and buggies. The bicycles were a bit of a puzzlement to me and I asked our driver, why so peddles? He just said there was less to go wrong, and I guess it could be that simple. We saw lots of people of all ages pushing these bikes down the road. We also were told that if you see a sign for root beer or pies on the side of the road just go on up the driveway and they will have stuff to sell. Well we had tried the local homemade root beer and decided it was way too yeasty for our tastes, but Dan saw a Rhubarb pie sign and off we went. The bad news was that they were out of rhubarb pie. We did buy some baked oatmeal, which we enjoyed for several mornings and some other baked goodies that provided us with a few desserts. The buggy ride was enjoyable until a couple od big diesels passed us going up a hill and the horses tried to run, the driver got them under control again but it was a bumpy ride there for a few seconds.
Jun 16 Fri We decided to take in a movie and take it easy, so Pirates of the Caribbean was the choice of the day.
Jun 17 Sat I tried to get us a private tour of the Wold Sanctuary nearby, but I was too late so we decided to try for the open public tour on Saturday. We learned a lot about wolves and saw several nice looking specimen of wolves and wolf/dog hybrids. The state of Pennsylvania doesn't allow wolves or hybrids as pets and they have set up a very nice sanctuary for these wolves to live out their lives in the pack settings they are accustomed to. There are about 10 different enclosures and the staff introduce any new wolves into different groups as they are suited.
Jun 20 Tues Today we are off on a tour of Philadelphia. The campground offers this tour and we are a group of 14 in a van. The driver/guide is very knowledgeable and he takes great care of us as we enter Philly and drive by the Battleship New Jersey. First stop is the Liberty Bell. So as Rick can't find a place to park he drops us off at the entrance and we head in to look at the BELL. And take pictures and read signs and out the far end we find Rick has parked and we are off to check out the area around Independence Hall, which we will come back to as our tickets are for 1:20 this afternoon. In the mean time we walk through Benjamin Franklins neighborhood, and I love how they have made open frames of what the houses would have been to see the size as all the actual buildings are pretty much gone. There was a bit of a surprise in how close the privies were to the water sources. Sometimes I think it a miracle our founding fathers survived to get this great country started. We wander over to Christ Church and then on to a lunch stop for Philly Cheese Steak sandwiches....really good as they allow us to hold the peppers. Next it is back to Liberty hall and a kinda of guided tour of the hall where they representatives debated the contents of the Declaration of Independence. Its a room where you can feel history and what it meant to this country. I love history! After we load back u in the van Rick shows us where the betsy Ross house is, and we see the work going on to clear away a tree limb that came down on the gift shop there. We would have stopped, but its not open until they clear the debris. As we head out of town one of our fellow travelers is very excited, as we approach the ROCKY steps. This is his one single desire in touring Philly. Rick finds a place to pull over and several of the folks take off to run up the steps, and jump up and down...Danny and I just take a few pics and go back to wait by the van. It was a fortuitous stop as there were no parking gestapo to share us off and everybody got to see their number one attraction. We head back toward home with one more stop on the way. Valley Forge. We see the remains of one of the original cabins and several replicas built, and we see Washingtons headquarters. It has been a great day and it feels even better to get home.
