Hershey, Pennsylvania and surrounding area - June 4 - June 9, 2015

Hershey, Pennsylvania - June 4 - June 9, 2015

June 5, 2015

We made it to Lebanon, (near Hershey) PA today.  We are staying at the Thousand Trails RV Park here for five days.  Yippee – We love a few days in one spot – it feels like we have been spending a lot of time on the road with little respites with family and friends.

We plan to visit the Hershey Chocolate Company tomorrow. 

June 6, 2015

Today we headed into Hershey, Pennsylvania, to visit the Hershey Museum.  What a wonderful tribute to an incredible man.  Milton Hershey tried and failed many times at business, but never gave up.  He developed the chocolate factory from his original caramel company that he started.  Unlike many in his day, he wanted to develop a community in which the workers were able to buy their property and were happy living and working in the area.  Unlike, many of the towns in that time, Hershey survived the depression.  Upon his death, he donated his entire estate to the Hershey Industrial School for orphaned boys. 

After visiting the museum, we decided to try the trolley.  Being a Saturday, we had a bit of a wait.  We decided to come back one of the next couple of days.  The trolley, we are told, goes by the mansion and give a lot of Hershey information.

We had lunch at Houlihan’s.  A great place.  Bev thinks that she remembers a Houlihan's in the northwest.  More research is required.

We visited our favorite place, Costco, to stock up.  Then we planned to return to the motorhome.  However, we plugged in the address of the RV Park and it directed us to somewhere 151 miles away.  We both decided that was not a great idea, so we tried to return home on our own.   Yippee we did it without GPS.

 

June 7, 2015

We stayed at the motorhome and decided to recharge our batteries.  The NASCAR Race was on and we figured the crowds would be greater on the weekend.  So rest and relax is all we did.



June 8, 2015



The Hershey Trolley

Today we got to head back to Hershey’s Chocolate to ride the trolley.  We only had a 45 minute wait.  The trip was well worth the time and money.  The ride was 45 minutes of pure entertainment.  We had a tour through Hershey, visiting the Hershey Mansion, the Hershey Schools and heard about the history of Milton Hershey and his story.   In addition to listening to the conductor, we had a “conductor in training”, Henry Hershey (Dad), Mamie Hershey (Mom), a student at the school, a local farmer, and a military guy that had returned from Germany.  (All of these people were played by a very talented actor that would get off the bus, and change costume on the back of the trolley and reenter.)  We also got to do some sing along songs.  We would recommend this to anyone that travels to Hershey.

 

 




Wilbur the Conductor in Training

 



Henry (Dad) Hershey

Mamie (Mom) Hershey



Student at the Hershey School

Local Farmer



Chocolate Factory Worker

Military man returned from Germany where Hershey chocolates were sent






The Trolley "Dressing Room"

After we finished there, we decided to visit some the Amish communities.  The one that caught our eye was Intercourse, PA.  It has shops – both furniture and quilts, etc. – as well as buggy rides.  We wandered around the town, then continued on to Ronks, PA.  There we went to Zooks and bought a chicken pie and a beef pie.   We are anxious to try them.



Intercourse, PA street sign



Amish buggy



Amish bicycle riders
 

 

Finally, we headed back to the motorhome.   It was starting to look stormy and it turns out that there was a tornado watch in effect.  They asked us to put in awnings.  If it gets bad, we will also put in our slides.  No sense having any extra damage.   It is only 5:30 pm and it is getting VERY dark. 

 

 

June 9, 2015

We drove to Gettysburg, PA, today.  So much history, but we decided that we will get SO much more out of it when we are on the bus tour.  We realize just how much we missed back when we were in High School and didn’t pay that much attention.

View at Gettysburg battle field 

 

Bev went for a walk around the park.  Her FitBit has not gotten much a workout these last few days. 

We tried a restaurant called Hoss’s Steak & Sea Restaurant.  Since it was lunch time, we had their Salad Bar.  It was great.