Virginia - Front Royal

10/7 Today we left the Hershey CG and headed toward VA. We actually left PA, went thru Maryland (all of about 38 miles), then into VA, then out of VA into WVA, then out of WVA and into VA. Sound confusing??
Front Royal, VA. is located in the Shenandoah Valley of North Western Virginia between the Blue Ridge Mountains and the Massanutten Mountains. The Shenandoah Valley is part of a 1,200 mile long valley extending from southern Canada to Alabama.
Front Royal got its name back in colonial days.  A giant oak, the "royal" tree of England stood in the public square.  There, on muster days, the local militia drilled, composed of raw recruits slow to learn the military commands.  On one occasion, the sorely tired drill sergeant became so exasperated by the clumsy efforts of his troops and their failure to follow his command that he hit upon a phrase all could understand and shouted:  "Front the Royal Oak."  It was repeated many times and eventually ended up as "Front Royal."
Our CG is about 10 miles southwest of Front Royal. The scenery is fantastic.

This is a picture of the Blue Ridge Mountains from our CG. The scenery is fantastic.

On Friday we drove into Front Royal where the Shenandoah National Park begins.
They have a 105 mile scenic drive called 'Skyline Drive," from one end to the other (35 MPH speed limit). We started at Front Royal and were pleasantly surprised when we drove up to the park entrance. We noticed that the rate was $13 per car or $10 for seniors. When I asked the ranger for a senior pass, he asked if we had the Golden Age Pass, (which we remembered that we did), we found our card and got in for FREE!
After leaving the ranger station, the road immediately started winding uphill. I think we got to about 2500 feet before we sort of leveled off and started enjoying the scenery. They had many turn offs where you could view the countryside below. We took so many pictures because it was all so neat, as you will see below:

Eventually we started climbing again to about 3300 feet and stayed at that level for a long way.

Even encountered a tunnel up here:

  Pictures cannot begin to capture the real beauty of the trip.  The entire trip is about 105 miles; we got off after 65 miles and 4 hours later. We came down the mountainside into the valley and then made our way back to Front Royal via Hiway 340 and back to the CG.  The weather was great - temperature in Front Royal was 80+ while up in the mountains it was in the 70's.  A great day for sightseeing!!

Gettysburg

10/3 Today we drove to Gettysburg, PA. You could spend all day here seeing the movie, the displays, etc. The tour was most impressive. We went to the battle sites of each of the three days of the war here. They have kept the grounds as original as possible so that you can actually feel as if you were there. The tour guide was incredible, with so much information about each battleground.  The pictures below are from each of the battlegrounds

The third battleground had the Union Army on this ridge looking down at the Confederate Army.

This train station is where Lincoln came in to before he gave his Gettysburg address and the next picture is of the hotel where he wrote his speech.

Here is a site where you can read about each day's battles if interested:

http://www.gettysbg.com/battle.shtml

I guess we both forgot our American History because we did not remember how decisive this battle was and that it was here that the Union Army turned the Civil War around for the North.  Anyway, it was a fantastic day (re)learning about the battles here at Gettysburg.  I was so impressed that I bought a book that explains it in great detail.

There was alot to see and do here in the area - we hated to leave but we wanted to start our journey thru VA.

Harrisburg, Strasberg, and Amish Country

10/1 Today we drove into Harrisburg (the capital of PA, in case you don’t remember your geography!!) and toured the capitol with a class of 3rd graders:

This is looking up at the ceiling in the center of the capitol building:

And this is looking down from the 4th floor - the group on the steps is another 3rd grade class:

This is the Supreme Court and its ceiling:

From the capitol we found the Civil War Museum.Here are a couple of pictures:

On  Friday, 10/2, we drove to Strasberg, PA to a train museum and saw a large number of old trains, train cars, etc. Each car or train had the actual history about it which made it very interesting.

This was one of the first refrigerator cars, and, to keep the freight cold, they had to use ice.  It's somewhat hard to see, but the person on the ladder was adding the ice:

This one was my favorite:

They also had train rides but we missed the last one.

As we were leaving the museum, we saw this driving down the street:

We are in Amish country here and this was the first horse and carriage that we saw.

On Tuesday, the 6th, we drove over to this area again to learn more about the Amish.  The took a 2 hour bus tour and traveled the back roads to see their farms and businesses.  We visited a local grocery store and bought some fresh bakery goods.  I don't thing we have ever seen so many foods with "gluten free" labels.  We also toured a local shop that was making various types of adirondake chairs and gliders, etc. from recycled plastic.

Towns in the area had some interesting names, such as:

Bird-in-Hand

Bareville

Intercourse

Blue Ball

Paradise

And the tour guide said that he lived in "Satisfaction"  but I couldn't find that one on the map!!

It was a very educational day to say the least!!

Hershey CG and Candy

9/28 Today we left New Jersey and drove to a Thousand Trails CG just outside Hershey, Pa. It is a very nice CG.

Fall is starting here:

Here is our site - down the hill:

 If you wanted to see geese, this is the place:

This is only a small portion;  they are either on this hillside or in the lake, and they can be very noisy at times!!

9/30 We drove into Hershey today which is about 6 miles from the CG. The town is very impressive as everything looks great. Milton Hershey School is here. Started by Mr. and Mrs. Hershey after it was determined that they could not have children. Originally only boys from disadvantaged families were the students but now both sexes are enrolled. There are around 1,600 students.

This is the house where he was born:

Hershey Park is neat. We started at Hershey’s Chocolate World where we took the Chocolate Tour to see how it is all made.

(I did NOT buy that candy bar!!).
Then we went on a trolley around the town.

Here is the factory where they make all the good stuff.

Here is part of the Hershey Amusement Park:

 Of course, we were able to buy some chocolates:

And all so very healthy for you!

Next installment later...