On the Road Again. A Jaunt Through the Mid-Atlantic States. Part 2: Pennsylvania Amish Country

   We departed Endless Caverns about 10:00, in no particular hurry.  We were scheduled to attend a social at our Country Coach International rally in New Holland PA at 5:00, and had plenty of time .... or so we thought.  Google maps suggested it was a 4-hour drive.  We had to make one stop for fuel, lunch and groceries. However, Google maps underestimated the time to get around Hagerstown MD and Harrisburg PA.  Our fuel/lunch/grocery stop in Falling Waters WV took longer than expected, and we arrived at Spring Gulch RV Park in New Holland PA at 4:00, just as the club happy hour was scheduled to start.  

We had a pre-assigned camp site number, however, when we arrived at our assigned campsite, #1551, we found it still occupied.  It was well after check-out time, and the squatter was nowhere to be found.  Furthermore, it was obvious he hadn't planned to leave As he had toys, firewood, laundry and all his other belongings scattered across the camp site.  We unhitched our car and Dorcas drove about 1/2 mile back down the hill to the office to get things straightened out, while I hung out at the coach near our campsite to see what I could find out.  None of the neighboring campers knew where they were. Finally a maintenance worker showed up and called back to the office trying to find us another site.  After about 1/2 hour of back and forth between the worker and the office with no resolution, the worker abandoned me when I had my back turned.  CRAP!!!  Finally Dorcas came back, and said the office told her to park on #1531.  I drove down the lane to #1531, just as another RV pulled onto it. DOUBLE CRAP!!!  It turns out, the coach that had just parked on #1531 was part of our group, but actually was holding conflicting credentials indicating they should park on either #1531 and/or #1532.  Wanting anything but to go back back to the office, we negotiated a settlement, and they stayed on #1531 and we parked on #1532.  By this time happy hour would have been over, except it was canceled when the park made a mistake scheduling the location of our social.  It's a miracle these folks function at all.

As we set up camp it was obvious that heavy tree cover would prevent the use of satellite TV, so I hooked up the park cable.  Guess what: it doesn't work. CRAP!!!  OK we'll use the over-the-air antenna but find out there is no usable signal.  DOUBLE CRAP!!!   Ok, so, instead of watching TV, I'll make good use of this time updating my blog on the resort WiFi.  WRONG!!!  I could connect to their network, but could not create an account to log in, and could not get to the Internet. Another park worker came to our site, but he could not get either the cable or the internet to work.  It's a miracle these folks function at all.  

OK, that's enough whining about Spring Gulch RV Resort.  I'm over it now, but I did return a scathing survey and will post some negative feedback on our favorite campground search sites.  

Except for the resort issues, namely getting parked and the cable and internet issues, we had a really fun rally. 

"I lost my horses!"

This was a week-long rally and we had some really good activities planned.  The first outing was to The Choo Choo Barn in Strasburg PA. 

Group photo at the Choo Choo Barn

Following are some still photos from the Choo Choo Barn, but stills don't do it justice.  Click HERE to see the video, which shows many of the animations and the trains, cars and figures in motion. 

Our next outing was to the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania, also in Strasburg.

Then we took a ride on the Strasburg Railroad, which featured live entertainment in the form of "The great Diamond Heist" including eight professional actors and audience participation. 

On another day we visited Hershey PA and the AACA Museum, considered one of the best classic auto displays in the country.

A pair of Deloreans

A hot rod and a hot Mama

The exhibit also included several very rare Tuckers, built by Preston Tucker and the Tucker Corporation. Only 51 1948 Tucker Sedans were made. The Tuckers contained many inovative features that were well ahead of their time.

We were only able to see about a third of this museum before our bus left for the climax of our day: Hershey's Chocolate World.

First we took a trolley tour around the town of Hershey. One highlight of the tour was the chocolate treats liberally dispensed by the conductor. 

Another highlight of the visit to Hershey's Chocolate World was the Create Your Own Candy Bar experience.  You choose all the ingredients and packaging and watch it as it flows dow the production line.

The still photos below just don't do the experience justice, so you guessed it, I produced a video. Click HERE to view the video. 

They make you dress funny in order to enjoy the experience.

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I chose a white chocolate base; Dorcas chose dark chocolate.

You could track your bar as it progresses down the production line:

My bar, the one with sprinkles shown below, malfunctioned just before being packaged, not laying properly in the tray.  It caused a shutdown of the entire line for about 10 minutes, until the jam could be cleared. FUDGE!!!

See our customized packaging, covering a metal container

The final highlight to Hershey's Chocolate World was a 22oz Hershey Chocolate Porter with our lunch.

Of course, Dorcas stocked up on her favorite Special Dark Chocolate.

Stay tuned for A Jaunt Through the Mid-Atlantic States: Part 3

Video of the Week: Watch Them Sparks!

 On our most recent trip to Stone Mountain I broke out our Solo fire pit for the first time.  The Solo fire pit is engineered to burn hot and to be essentially smokeless .... but apparently not spark-less.  Watch here as Dorcas enjoys our first fire. Ouch!!!

The fire also threw a spark that burned a hole in my GCI RoadTrip Rocker, a not inexpensive chair.  I guess my next investment will be for a good spark screen for our Solo fire pit. 

On the Road Again. A Jaunt Through the Mid-Atlantic States. Part 1: Stone Mountain State Park

My knee surgery was successful and physical therapy has been going well.  My surgeon has released me to do whatever I feel like doing, so there's only one sensible thing to do: Road Trip!!!

Country Coach International was having a rally in Lancaster County, which is Amish country, in southeastern PA.  We had not previously seriously considered attending, but now it seemed like a good destination.  We made a plan to first visit a favorite state park, Stone Mountain State Park, then head north for a week in Pennsylvania for the rally, and finally spend a week at Brunswick Maryland.  The only downside to such a plan was the extreme heat forecast for the month of July, and the record high prices of diesel.  But what the hell, you only live once and you can't take it with you.

First stop: Stone Mountain State Park, where we camped for 4 nights.

Stone Mountain has a beautiful campground.  There are two loops with large paved sites with water and 50A electric, very suitable for RVs.  There are also a number of primitive sites great for tent camping. 

Site #62

Dorcas enjoying our new Solo fire pit

We did a hike to the Hutchinson family homesite at the base of the mountain.  The hike was only about 2 miles with moderate elevation gain, but my post-surgical knee was feeling it later.  Ice is good!  Drugs are better!

Stone Mountain is a 600-foot granite monolith

Dorcas is perpetually happy

While we didn't carry a boat on this trip, but our paddling friends Tom and Diane joined us for this segment of our trip.

Tom, Diane, Dorcas and Myron

The Hutchison family homestead circa 1850

I did some easy biking around the campground.  At first I had to raise my seat pretty high in order to bend my knee on the up stroke, but after biking a while I could lower the seat and pedal comfortably.  This suggests that biking is increasing my flexibility.

On Thursday, July 14 we left Stone Mountain and headed north towards PA.  We had made a reservation at Endless Caverns RV Resort near New Market VA.  This would break up our trip to Pennsylvania into two short travel days, 247 and 223 miles respectively.  Endless Caverns RV Resort is, you guessed it, at the Endless Caverns attraction.  It is a Passport America park, which means the Whitleys score half-priced camping. Passport America parks are not always the best, but we were pleasantly surprised with this one.  It is built on a moderately steep hillside, with well graded roads, but the sites are large, level and very attractively terraced with large rocks.

Site E-40 at Endless Caverns, a nice pull-through with satellite access

While at Stone Mountain we had met a couple traveling in a Newmar New Aire motor home. Our Dutch Star is made by Newmar as well, so we tend to talk to other Newmar owners.  The New Aire is a shorter luxury diesel pusher, and we seriously considered buying the New Aire before we bought our Dutch Star.  Click HERE to read why we didn't buy the New Aire.  Anyway, we saw this New Aire at Stone Mountain, and I spoke to the owners.  Then, just across the road from our camp at Endless Caverns another New Aire was parked that looked suspiciously like the one we had seen at Stone Mountain.  It turns out that is was one and the same.  We spent the evening with Dean and Susie, knocking back some cool ones and sharing tales about our travels and our Newmars. It's a small world in the RV community. 

Nice terraced sites on a steep campground

We did not tour the caverns this trip, but this seems to be a very pleasant resort, so maybe we will come back again.  Northward to Pennsylvania!