Aug. 13, 2013

Hershey

Today we went through Hershey, PA.  There are two attractions in the Hershey complex.  Hershey Park is a big amusement park similar to Six Flags, etc. 

Hershey World is a chocolate related area with a free ride (similar in design to Haunted Mansion) showing the chocolate making process.  There are several other pay-for chocolate related attractions mostly aimed at kids.   Large gift store and even larger candy store filled with everything Hershey.  

The ultimate PB Blossom.  Center is whole peanut butter cup.

 

On most of our travels so far we have not seen huge crowds of vacationers.   Gettysburg was pretty busy but everything else was pretty tame.  Until today.  Zoo doesn’t begin to describe the crowd inside and out.  Hershey could use some serious help from Disney in crowd and parking  management.

Tonight we are in a nice quiet RV park tucked in some Pennsylvania hills.  Our drive here followed a large creek (could be even classed a small river) and our camp spot is right on that creek.  Driving up the creek we noted it was very dirty and flowing very fast.  Last night we had rain in Gettysburg.  About three hours duration and pretty heavy at times but didn’t think much of it.  When we got set up here and turned on the news we found that it had rained in this area also.  The town we drove through on our way to the park (town is about three miles downstream) had had significant flash flooding.  We didn’t see any of it where we drove.  The RV park does have a fair amount of standing water. This area received over six inches of rain in 3-4 hours.  Nearby spots had 4-5 inches in the same time.  Even a possible tornado. 

Hershey is in the middle of PA Amish country

Amish farm

Aug 10 and 11, 2013

Gettysburg

Visiting Gettysburg is a task.  There is a lot here to assimilate.  There are also lots of people trying to make a buck off of what happened here.  There must be six or eight ‘ghost’ tours.  Horseback tours, bus tours, several audio tours, guided tours,tours of houses, farms, streets, restaurants named after various people in the battle, and on and on.  Lots of information to be had but learning from a ghost seems a bit much.

We spent several hours yesterday afternoon in the visitor center.  Started with a 20 minute movie giving an overview of the battle.  Next was the cyclorama.  Pretty hard to describe except to say Amazing!.  360 degree picture, 44 feet high, depicting all the events of the battle.  The whole thing was restored several years ago inch by inch.  Visitors stand on a rotating platform and view painting which is presented with narration and special effects lighting.  Truly impossible to describe adequately. 

Portion of cyclorama depicting Pickett’s Charge

Next a trip through the museum, laid out in chronological order and filled with information on battle  locations and participants.  A trip through the gift store was next.  Pretty typical.  Same shirts and cups with different names on them. (Not quite that bad but still pretty typical.)  One difference – tons of books on the battle and the Civil War.  After the store a 45 minute presentation by a ranger describing the progression of the battle.

Today (8/11)was a long one.

First thing, back to visitor center to take bus to Eisenhower Farm.  Only home Eisenhowers ever owned.  (They lived in over 40) Lots of information from rangers and docents and thorough tour of house.  Tour passes through or looks into just about every room in the house.  Over 95% of furnishings are original.  Self guided tour of grounds and Farm 2 (Eisenhower raised prize winning show cattle).  Beautiful place.  Everywhere you look you see green fields and farm land.  No traffic.  No noise. 

Bus back to the visitor center (bus driver gave a nice narration of battlefield sights along the way)  to catch another, smaller, bus.  Goal this time – The Spangler Farm.  This farm is located about a mile from the site of the battle and was used as a field hospital during and after the battle.  Over 1900 men occupied the house, barn, and farm land.  The farm is being restored by a nonprofit historical organization.  Three days a week they give informational tours and the story of the dead and wounded is presented by several  re-enactors who give very emotional presentations.

Back to visitor center to get car and prepare for next tour.

Exterior of Cyclorama building to give some idea of size of painting.

After lunch we toured the battlefield.  We purchased an audio tour which guides you along the auto tour and gives a description of what you are seeing and lots of historical information and some little known tidbits.

 

This monument is located approximately where Lee watched Pickett’s Charge and the defeat and decimation of his army. 

These trees saw the Battle of Gettysburg.  They were in fact the focus point toward which Pickett’s Charge was directed.  Monument at lower left marks the ‘High Water’ point.  Farthest advance of Confederates before being routed.  It took two more years for the Civil War to officially end but the beginning of the end started right at this point.

The audio tour takes over 2 1/2 hours to play.  It took us nearly six hours to do the tour.

Last stop for the day was the national cemetery. 

Monument to Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address.  Not location it was delivered.  Plaque on right is address.  Plaque on left is invitation given to Lincoln on the occasion of the dedication of the cemetery and inviting him to “say a few words”.

Address was given from a wooden platform near where this memorial now stands.

Aug. 9, 2013

Flight 93 Memorial

In a field in southwest Pennsylvania, several miles from anything remotely resembling a main road, is an almost inconspicuous part of the National Park System.  The memorial to the passengers and crew of Flight 93.  The whole memorial is very low key.  The road in is a simple lane through the country.  The visitor center is a simple one room building.  The path to the memorial is unadorned with a low black granite wall on one side.

The memorial is a series of marble slabs in a line along the path the plane took prior to impact. 

Each slab has one name.

At the end of the wall is a symbolic pathway with a large gate across it.  Through the gate you can see the path that leads to the site of impact, marked by a large stone. 

Aug. 7, 2013

Cheese, Amish, Pro Football Hall of Fame (and Tornado Warning)

Started our day with a visit to a cheese factory in the middle of Ohio’s Amish country. 

Unfortunately they have the same schedule as the basket factory – no production on Wednesday.  Unlike the basket factory there was no opportunity to make our own cheese but there was a very nice elderly Amish man sitting at the information desk (small cardboard table ) who gave us a personal tour and description of the entire process.  Would have been nice to see the operation real time but he gave a very good description of how cheese is made.

  Associated with the cheese plant is a large store and gift shop.  That factory makes over 40 kinds of cheese and every one of them was available for tasting.

Many different and distinctive tastes.  Prices were not bad either.  Across the street was an Amish bakery with a large variety of very tasty looking baked goods and very reasonable prices. 

An observation on Amish in Ohio.  In Indiana the Amish we saw seemed to follow quite closely the Amish ways and traditions.  They blended in with ’Englanders’ in many ways but there were no blatant displays of commercialism and most of their productivity was farming related.   They were also very friendly to interact with.  The town in Ohio where the cheese factory and bakery are located looked like a tourist trap with an Amish theme.  Lots of restaurants and gift shops Lots of tourists stumbling over each other.  Most of the stores were run by Amish – mostly women (the men probably working on farms).  The cheese factory was mot making cheese but there were a number of Amish young women at work in the store packing cheese and stocking.  The thing that struck me was their dour attitude.  They went about their tasks and acted like there were no other people in the room.  You could look at them and smile and get no response.  The sales clerks were pleasant and friendly as was the tour guide but every one else we saw acted quite standoffish.

The country itself was very Amish.  We saw several hay fields with hay drying in many small haystacks.  In one field the hay was being collected by hand pitching the stacks on to a large flatbed wagon being pulled by two large horses.

Many buggies on the road and parked in parking lots. 

We passed an Amish station wagon.  Buggy with two little girls and mom in back looking curiously out the back window at the carbus and dad and son on the front seat.  Also saw several Amish related industries.  Several good sized buggy shops and many furniture works.  Amish are known for fine woodworking.

From Amish Country it was on to Canton.  Home of the National Professional Football Hall of Fame and place where professional football began. 

The hall of fame is very well done.  Lots of interesting displays both static and interactive and good flow of information so there is always something new to look at.

We spent over two hours touring the hall.  As we finished the displays and were about to go through the gift shop there was an announcement.  The Canton area was in a tornado warning.  When we entered the hall the sky was partly cloudy.  They moved everyone in the building to the basement.  It is a large building and there were a lot of people in it.  So our tour was extended by a 45 minute stay chatting with several employees who shared a corridor with us.  Turned on my cell phone to check on the weather and got a weather alert as soon as I turned it on.  Pretty cool.  When we left the building after the warning expired the ground was very wet but the skies were again clear.

Aug. 6, 2013

Baskets

Quick stop at Costco to replace Sue’s camera and Sam’s Club for some food basics and then east.  Goal for the day – Longaberger Basket factory.  We got there at 12:45 and found we missed the last factory tour of the day by fifteen minutes – and – they were closed tomorrow.  But, there was an alternative.  If you can’t watch then do.  On the grounds is a building where you can make your own basket – under the watchful eyes and instruction of a seasoned basket maker.  And on Tuesdays the second make-a-basket is half off.  We each made one.  Everything is set up so it is pretty straight forward especially with expert guidance.  the man helping us has been making baskets for 22 years.  Fun souvenir if a bit pricy.  Still it ended up costing about 60% of a retail Longaberger basket would cost and we made them.

Corporate Headquarters located about ten miles from factory.

Cheesy photo op.

Largest apple basket.  This is a replica made from metal.

 

This is the real deal.  Worlds largest basket.  Actual woven wicker(like) materials

Aug. 5, 2013

Into Ohio

Today we headed north from Bardstown toward Ohio. We generally travel using maps and two(sometimes three) forms of electronic navigation.  My navigation program tends to plot the most direct route.  That means that if two large roads meet at an apex but there is a smaller road that avoids the two longer sides the program will route over the smaller road.  Usually not a problem but you have to be careful because the program does not know how small the road or what the road surface  is.  Just west of Lexington we had just such a situation.  There was a small road that avoided going into Lexington.  The road looked fine so we took it.  Small country road similar to many we have been on.  Freshly resurfaced and very smooth.  Within a hundred yards the road narrowed into a country lane with a lovely tree canopy.  Still very comfortable driving but at a reduced speed and had to be careful passing oncoming traffic.  The really neat thing was that the road passed through something we had been looking for our entire stay in Kentucky – miles and miles and miles of horse farms with manicured pastures, beautiful ponds and lakes,  and large and stately stables and homes.  Beautiful!  The only difference from the postcard pictures is that all the fences were brown, not white.  In fact we have seen very few white fences at all.  Probably one of the prettiest stretches of road we have seen this trip.  At one point we turned a small bend and crossed a VERY narrow bridge over a creek/small river.  Just upstream from the bridge was a dam creating a pond in the creek.  At the edge of the pond on one end of the dam was an old mill.  All of this in a little hollow with trees all around.  The whole road was filled with picture ops and Sue took lots of them.  Unfortunately we had a small setback.  Once in Ohio we stopped at a rest stop.  Several miles after leaving the rest stop Sue could not find her camera.  Returning to look for it would have been quite involved and quite problematic.  So – all we have of that lovely road are memories.  We called a semi-local Costco that was on our way for tomorrow and found that they had several of the exact camera in stock.  She will have little interruption in her picture taking and only the loss of one days pictures.

Aug. 4, 2013

Bats and Music

Up to Louisville.  We parked the carbus at a Walmart about ten miles from downtown and drove the Suzuki downtown.  Our goal – Louisville Slugger museum and factory where over 80% of bats used in major league baseball are made. 

Great museum with static and interactive displays covering many baseball greats and immortals. 

Tour takes you onto the floor to watch all steps of bat making in progress.  Tour starts with demo of how bats used to be made by turning by hand on a lathe.  Expert woodworker takes about 20 minutes to turn a bat.  Automatic lathes used now take less than 15 seconds to turn a bat.  Main production bats are cut using one of several templates to guide lathe.  MLB bats are cut using computer guided lathes.  Personal specs for every major league player are in data base.  Two or three keystrokes and lathes can crank out as many bats as needed tuned to a particular players wants.

Recent addition to museum is a room of things baseball done in Legos.

This next picture is a clever idea.  The picture shows a baseball action scene all done in Legos.  Within the picture are all the words to “Take Me Out to the Ball Game”. The word Legos are raised slightly.  Looking straight on you don’t see them but from the side they pop out.

Back to get the carbus and then south to Bardstown.  In Bardstown is a state park (nice campground) which encompasses the house and grounds of the home that was the inspiration for Stephen Foster’s song ‘My Old Kentucky Home’. Also on the park grounds, not far from the home, is an outdoor amphitheater.  This is the summer home of a production now in its’ 55th year. The Stephen Foster Story.  Two and a half hours of Stephen Fosters’ music tied together by a romantic story line and performed VERY well by a cast of about twenty.  Some cast members have been part of the show for 20-30 years.  We thoroughly enjoyed the whole production.