Progressing Through PA

Such a rare moment.  NB came running into the trailer as we were getting our stuff put away for travelling.  He HAD to take this picture with the rays of sun coming through the trees.  I think he captured it rather wonderfully.  This was a glorious moment of sunshine in a rather overcast and drizzly stay.                  

After our reservations at Codorus State Park were done, we decided to move on over to French Creek, just to get us closer to Philly.  Liberty Bell, first capital...you know the drill.  Did NOT like French Creek, did not stay, did not collect $200.  So we took the whole setup into Philly.  What did I just say?  50 feet of vehicular mess going through Philadelphia?  Not a fun time.  Not.At.All.  And the most I got to do was jump out of the car and take a pic of the bell behind glass, inside a building that was closed for the evening.  But I was there, and I'm counting it amongst my journeys.  And no one died, no cars were injured in our adventures, and no one got a ticket for anything.  But, alas, not staying at French Creek messed us up.  And no Wal Mart really wanted us in their lot overnight.  So around midnight we rolled into a casino parking lot.  That's too late for us.  Blech.  But, on the positive side, we've decided to camp near my aunt.  Ah, to haunt relatives!  That's really been such an awesome part of this trip--getting to see friends and relatives that we don't often get to see.                    

G asked if we could make our way to Valley Forge, many months ago.  And so while we decided to camp in northern PA, we took the time to explore Valley Forge before leaving the Philly area and heading up there.  We spent several hours there, dodged some school groups (seriously, when do those field trips end for this school year????), and learned some good stuff.  And the older gentlemen/history lovers approved of our learning at the park.  NB was my buddy for checking out all the areas of the park that no one else was interested in seeing, so he and I had some good conversations about strategy and defenses.                              

NB also pointed out that the tulip trees had their flowers in them still.  Even after seeing all the flowers on the ground in so many different campgrounds, this was really my first time seeing them in the trees.  I love that the kids notice little things and point them out to me.  They notice big things, too, but they take the time and notice things that others might simply walk past.  Just to slow down and notice something that isn't big and flashy, it's definitely something we've been working on while we journey forth.              

We noticed that the bunks in the huts were a bit unequal. The lower bunk soldiers had to be skinny minis, whereas the guys in the middle had a bunch of space.  Not shown here is the top bunk, which has space somewhere in between the amounts shown here.  Another hut on the path had the bunks with equal spacing.  All I could think was that someone in this hut hated his roomies.                

Ah, and the house that served as George Washington's headquarters.  Notice that the sun is out.  After all these days of temperatures struggling to be in the 60s, with rain and clouds galore, this day overwhelmed us with the brightness and the warmth.  Too much too soon!!!  Never fear, the hail and rain returned in time for dinner.  I do so hope we see more of the sun in days to come.

Tolls

I grow weary.  The trip is taking its toll in many aspects.  And while it's not surprising to anyone, weather plays a huge role in everything we're doing.  I'm sick of the rain.  And the bonus of camping in the rain?  Wet leaves.  All over the place.  We did a major washout of the van and trailer at Deep Creek and finished just as it started raining again.  The last campsite with no rain?  Medoc Mountain in NC.  Just after Easter, by my accounts.  That's not to say that we haven't had days here and there with no rain, but rain has been the majority.  

We spoke with another family with a Sprinter.  They have six kiddos, they've taken their kids on summer trips across the nation, nothing crazy like what we're doing.  She asked if we were tired yet.  Oh yeah.  Tired doesn't come close.  This is a great experience, I'm happy that we're taking this truly amazing opportunity.  Once in a lifetime.  Spectacular learning experience.  Phenomenal cosmic power, itty bitty living space.  So while we're enjoying everything we get to do, it's wearing.  If only the stupid spring weather that brings such glorious beauty would clear the $%&@ up.

Family and Touring

Tours are just a part of the reason we wanted to visit here.  Ok, it's why we came here.  But while we're here, we may as well visit family.  The last time we were in Colorado, we set up a yurt for my mom.  My mom then got my aunts to come on up and visit.  Famly reunion--yeah!!!!  

We started Monday with a trip to Herr's.  I love their Salt & Vinegar chips, absolutely love them.  Which is good, because it took us almost two hours to get there.  We had to head into Maryland to get back to the right part of Pennsylvania for this tour.  And the roads are not kind to me.  What a sickening set of roads to get there.  And I think Google maps was just playing a joke on us.  I think there must be some sort of major highway we could have taken.  But we made it to our reservation on time, and what a great way to start our day!  After getting to see their production and learn more about the variety of products, we got to sample and purchase.  And just as we were leaving, the school buses were rolling in.  I love going on field trips with so few kiddos.  And who's doing a field trip at the end of the school year?  We managed a full day of touring (Herr's, George's Furniture, Hershey's) before picking up my mom.  And for dinner, we met up with my aunt and uncle, who also made it in that day.  For my other aunt we had to wait for the following morning.  But she did show up, and the gang of us began our whirlwind tour of the area.                            

We revisited Perrydell and checked out the cows being milked, the calves being fed, and the ice cream being scooped.  Perhaps our first day wasn't nearly as whirlwind as imagined.  But it was tasty.  We also did a couple different potato chip tours on their visit.  But the best tour was the pretzel tour.                  

We visited Revonah in Hanover.  Watching them twist the pretzels so quickly was pretty cool.  And I learned that the pretzels I bought from Sturgis (the only hand twisted ones they sell), are actually made by Revonah.  Sigh.  So I didn't buy any hard pretzels, since the pretzels I already bought were actually from their factory, but I did buy soft pretzels.  They were TASTY!!!!  A few of the people who work at the factory have been connected to the factory for a very long time, so that was pretty cool.                                

The tours were fun, but I had the most fun hanging at camp, playing games, sitting by the fire and talking.  Uncle Ray brought his corn hole game, which none of us except Uncle Ray were any good at playing, but we all had a blast trying.  Uncle Ray kept trying to show us how to throw his fancy way, but I don't think any of us are all the fancy, so it just wasn't working!                                  

                       

                       

We got to visit Painted Spring Alpacas.  We enjoyed our trip in Oregon last summer better, but it's always fun to see how people have set up their farms and what they hope to achieve with it.                    

Right before Mom, Aunt Monica, and Uncle Ray headed out of town, we got one more batch of family.  Yvonne and her family came up and spent a couple hours with us.  While we didn't get to spend a lot of time, it was nice to see them all again.  It's been several years since I've seen my cousin and her family, and many more since my family got to see hers.  Along our trip we've gotten to see many family gatherings at campgrounds, and I've been wanting one of our own, so this trip was a little dream come true.

Dairy

Pennsylvania is a HUGE dairy state.  I love dairy.  Love it.  So off to a dairy farm we went!

On the day we went, we ended up missing all the fun.  You can check out the cows being milked, the calves being bottle fed, or you can just walk around and then buy some dairy.  So we chose door number 3.  It was neat to learn about the farm (Perrydell), to see the cows, and to learn that this one farm supports four families on just 120 cows, but the ice cream and chocolate milk were the highlights of this visit.  We need more dairies in our life!

Factory Tours

After Coopers Rock, we headed to the Hanover/York, PA area.  Factory tours galore!  When we were in Scranton last December, I went a little crazy buying Herr's salt & vinegar chips.  They're my favorite chips in the whole world and you can only get them in certain areas of the country.  K noticed that you can take a factory tour, and that's when this part of the trip began taking shape.  When I looked into camping in or around Hanover (which is NOT where Herr's is located, but I had it in my mind it was), I learned that there are a bunch of tours in the area to take.  Yippee!!!!  Since I have family on the east coast, and even some in PA, I asked around to see if anyone wanted to join us.  Since my mom decided to come out, a couple of her sisters decided to also come out, so we've got a mini family reunion going on!  

We arrived several days before the others were due in, so we took some of the further out tours or tours that people weren't interested in checking out.  In Lititz there's Julius Sturgis pretzels.  The tour was VERY popular, with a tour bus arriving just as we got there.  We bought tickets for later, thinking that the tour group would have moved on by then, but we still ended up in a too-large group.  The guide was only so-so, but the sample of little ones at the end was SO good.  Very light and airy pretzels, I've not had hard pretzels quite like them.  Yummy!              

We also went to a Dutch market to check out their jams and jellies.  Turned out to be the rhubarb festival weekend!  It was a very commercial enterprise that's meant to lure in the tourists, but we had a good time anyway.  Walked away with apple butter, strawberry/balsamic jam, hot pickles, and a strawberry rhubarb pie.  We also enjoyed the art gallery they had there, and the gentleman working there was kind enough to explain in a lot of detail to the kids what made some of the art really different.  

Our final stop of the day was at a miniature horse farm.  It's an Amish family's farm, but they have a little store and encourage people to stop by and check out their miniature horses.  It was pretty cool, but there happened to be a tour bus at this stop, too, so it was only cool for a few minutes, then we were overrun by groups of people pushing their way to the horses.  First tour day, fun and done!

Visitors

Bill's parents came up for a quick visit since we were in West Virginia.  The kids showed them around the overlook at Coopers Rock.  Such pretty scenery.  We got an ice cream, played a bit of Boggle, showed off the trailer, and then headed out for dinner.  We love it when we get a chance to visit with friends and family while we're travelling, so this was a treat for us!

Coopers Rock

I've never camped in West Virginia before, so we got to add this to our states stickers on our trailer.  There's an overlook trail that we went to on thr drizzly/rainy day.  It was pretty, and more of a walk than a trail.  Such beautiful views.  And we love the style of the boardwalk and overlooks.  There's an underlook trail, too, which takes you through the enormous rocks.  We took that trail on the way to rock city, another trail in the middle of the park.                                

The kids enjoy getting to walk over and around the rocks. K was a bit disappointed, she rather preferred the Bearfence Mtn trail in the Shenandoahs.  But this was a good, shorter version.                                      

There was a lot to explore, highs and lows.  The kids crossed onto this "island," and I encouraged them to explore down below.  I sat on part of rock up top, and had the kids yelling at me from down below because there were holes in the rock you could see from underneath.  They assured me I was going to fall to my death at any moment, so I moved along.  I think I was fine, though.                                  

Coopers Rock is super close to Morgantown, where Bill went to college.  One of his fellow Eagle scouts (they Eagled at the same time) still lives in Morgantown, so we got the chance to spend an afternoon with them.  Nick & Renee were such wonderful hosts, we had a great time meeting their kids and socializing.                  

We went to the Morgantown Botanic Gardens, where we found this little gem.  Bill immortalized in a tree.  Had to have this picture.  The gardens had nice trails, but not a lot of gardens that we saw.  It was a rainy day (again), so we didn't explore all it had to offer.