Today we travel down to Pennsylvania and will stay for 8 days. We first stay in a campground near the town of Lebanon. It is near the small town of Hershey. On the way out of New York State we had a slight problem with an underpass. We were leaving the town of Port Jervis and trying to watch signs and our GPS, Dick came around a round a bout that put us down under another road. Dick look at the height of the underpass and it said 12' 8". Well we are 12' 10" tall so Dick stopped the motor home right in the road. We got on the cell phone to 911 to get help backing out of this road. Dick went out to unhook the Jeep while I talked to the 911 operator. He was in New Jersey so it took a couple of minutes to figure out where we were. A police car showed up and he said we can make it. He said they mark the underpasses is New York State 1 foot shorter than they are. I wonder how many other out of state travelers have a problem there? That was enough excitement for one day!!
Oct. 28
We drove to Hershey to see the Hershey candy attractions. Not much open except Chocolate World. It's a giant candy store and gift shop and of course we had to buy some candy. The street lights are in the shape of candy kisses.
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| Chocolate World |
Oct. 29
Today we went to Gettysburg. It's a self guided road tour which is 24 mile in length. We started out tour at the visitors center. The battle started on July 1, 1863 and lasted for 3 days. Robert E. Lee was the Confederate commander and George Meade Union commander. On July 4th Lee's army began retreating. When the armies marched away from Gettysburg they left behind a community in shambles. Over 51,000 soldiers dead, wounded and missing. Within four months of the battle, re interment began on 17 acres that became Gettysburg National Cemetery. On Nov 19, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address durning the dedication of the Cemetery. The area today is beautiful rolling hills of farmland dotted along the route are 1,300 monuments markers and memorials. We stopped in town and visited the shops.
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| The beautiful Gettysburg area |
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| Statue of Abraham Lincoln at visitors center |
Oct. 30
We decided to drive south towards Amish country by the town of Lancaster today. We stopped at a visitors center to get maps and information. Lancaster County is full of covered bridges and east of town is the area where numerous Amish and Mennonite live. We stopped at a large market that had all kinds of food and baked goods for sale. Dick bought some scraple, which his grandmother use to make and we also took home a shoofly pie and pecan sticky rolls. We had lunch at a meat market that had a cafe in back. The food was delicious and very reasonably priced. We went to the town of Intercourse to a canning company and bought some salsa and green tomato relish. I bought a small crock with Lancaster County on it. We also bought a mum plant to put in it. Dick's family came from Lancaster County before coming to the Colfax area. We saw many Amish driving their buggies on the road and fields being plowed with horse drawn machinery. We drove through the strange named towns where a lot of Amish have their farms such as Bird-in-Hand, Intercourse, Paradise and Blue Ball. The Amish are hard working people and the countryside is beautiful. The kids are so cute in their dresses with aprons and the boys in their black outfits and hats. We could always tell an Amish farm with the laundry hanging out to dry. Their farms are well kept and had many outbuildings. The kids seem happy and we would see them outside playing. I just loved the area.
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| Amish buggy |
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| Amish farm |
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| Covered Bridge |
Oct. 31
Today we moved down to Lancaster area. The campground we were in closed today. The new one is open for one more week. Lots of campgrounds are closing so we need to move further south.
Nov. 1
We got up early to drive into Philadelphia. We left the motor home at 7 in the morning. It took us 2 hours to get into town with all the traffic. I wouldn't have much patience driving in all this traffic every day. We stopped at the visitors center for the Independence National Historical Park and got our timed tickets to visit Independence Hall. On the way we stopped and saw the Liberty Bell. We toured all the buildings at Independence Hall and saw where the delegates meet in the Assembly Room of the Pennsylvania State House to create the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. We had to eat a Philly Beef Steak sandwich for lunch and found a small restaurant that was recommended to us about 8 blocks away. We saw many historic building along the way. After lunch we walked to the United State Mint. No pictures were allowed in this building. We took a self guided tour and saw how our coins are made. We saw dime and penny blanks being fed into the giant stamping presses. The process is pretty much automated and didn't require may people working on the floor.
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| Liberty Bell |
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| Independence Hall Assembly Room |
We stayed around the motor home until after lunch today. We then drove out to the Amish area and stopped at a quilt shop which was filled with quilts made by the Amish and Mennonite women. We went to the Lancaster Mennonite Historical Society to see if there is any record of the Strevy family living here in Lancaster County. We found where a Jacob Strevey, age 44 (one of the spellings of our name) came from Germany by ship into Philadelphia in 1743. There was another name of Mich Strevey age 17 listed. They didn't list women or children younger than 16 that might be also on the ship. We finished the day at Millers Smorgasbord for dinner where they served food from the area.
Nov. 3
Today we stopped at the Lancaster County Historical Society to see if we could find any more records on this Jacob Strevey we found the day before. Unfortunately we didn't find any more information on the family. Tonight we are having dinner at a popular diner that was recommended to us. We had a good dinner with too much food so took part of it home. Definitely Happy Travels, Barb
Next we travel to College Park, Maryland for 3 night to see Washington D.C. and then to Ocean View, New Jersey for 4 nights.
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