Here we are, on the road: We’re in Lebanon, PA

Sunday, July 4^th, 2010 Lorraine’s report

Happy 4^th of July!!! & Happy Birthday USA! We hope this finds all our family and friends enjoying our many freedoms, paid for in full measure by our armed forces, past and present. Without their many sacrifices, who knows where our country would be.

We are in Hershey, PA. We came here Monday morning and did our usual setting up stuff. We met a neighbor from CA that invited us over for pie and ice cream that evening. Ron/Betty are from southern CA and are on vacation. We enjoyed a nice visit with them, as well as delicious apple pie and ice cream.

We drove through this RV Park and saw all the damaged trees, trailers, and homes. That tornado that went through here was rated as the lowest level of tornados, but there sure was a lot of damage. The swimming pool just got its motor so they could run for this holiday weekend. The workers say you can see across places you couldn’t see before, and the logging trucks have been really busy for the past week.

The next day we were up and out to visit Roots, an out door market, swap meet, and farmers market. It’s held weekly only on Tuesdays and was about 45 minutes from us. There are booths in buildings, and outside, too. I’ll bet there were five to six hundred people all doing the same thing we were. We found fresh cantaloupe, tomatoes, fresh-picked corn on the cob, fresh-sweet cherries, peaches, and nectarines. We bought several pies, sticky buns, and fruit bread, and some home made sausages for grilling; all at lower prices than the supermarket. It was a great outing.

On another day, Chuck had met someone from the Tiffin Forum, Ron and Nada from here and they invited us to go to lunch with them. Ron/Nada own an 06 Allegro Bus and we agreed to meet at a nice eatery in Mt. Gretna. They full time and are from the area. Following a good meal, we went and saw their coach, they came over here to look at all the up grades on ours. We spent a very pleasant afternoon getting to know them, and look forward to seeing them down the road.

Thursday was the day we planned to head off to Gettysburg National Park Battlefield.

We knew we would have to take Misty dog, since it is an hour twenty five minute drive from where we have the coach here in Lebanon. That turned into being a good decision, since we left well before 10:30 and didn’t get home until after 8 pm.

Gettysburg, WOW, what a three day battle; if the south had had a little bit more men, equipment (better rifles, guns, etc) and supplies (ammunition, food, clothing, medicines), we could possibly be living in a different world today.

July 1, 1863, General Robert E. Lee, commander of the Confederate Army, hoping for a quick victory over the Army of the Potomac, was pushing his men north into Pennsylvania. He was being followed by Union gGeneral, Joseph Hooker. He had won all his previous battles, so he thought that if he could win one battle on Northern soil, maybe he could end the war sooner.

“The battle started on July 1^st, when the Confederates attacked the Union Troops on McPherson Ridge west of the town. Though outnumbered, the Union forces held their position until afternoon when they were finally overpowered and driven back to Cemetery Hill south of town. During the night the main body of the Union army, now under the command of Maj. Gen. George Meade, arrived and took up positions.

On July 2, the battle lines were drawn up in two sweeping arcs. The main portions of both armies were nearly one mile apart on parallel ridges: Union forces on Cemetery Ridge, Confederate forces on Seminary Ridge to the west. Lee ordered an attack against both Union flanks. Lt. Gen. James Longstreets’s thrust on the Federal left turned the base of Little Round Top into shambles, left the Wheatfield strewn with dead and wounded, and overran the Peach Orchard. Farther north, Lt. Gen. Richard S. Ewell’s evening attack on the Federal right, at East Cemetery Hill and Culp’s Hill, though momentarily successful, could not be exploited to Confederate advantage.

On July 3 Lee’s artillery opened a two-hour bombardment of the Federal lines on Cemetery Ridge and Cemetery Hill.” Both sides fired on each other, but the Union forces held. “Then some 12,000 Confederates advanced across the open fields toward the Federal center in an attack known as “Pickett’s Charge. The attack failed and cost Lee over 5,000 soldiers in one hour. The Battle of Gettysburg was over,”

Lee didn’t learn that on the third day when they lost at Gettysburg, the South also lost at Vicksburg, during that siege. Lee crept out under cover of the night. The south lost over 3320 while the north lost 3500 in that battle. The land ran red with blood.

We hired a guide that drove our car around the battlefield for two hours and gave us the history (short form) while pointing out all the important positions each army held. He was very good and well worth the money. He also stopped at the important memorials/statues that have been placed by the different states from the north, honoring their fallen soldiers. There is only one for the south, General Robert E. Lee on his favorite horse, honoring all the fallen men from the south

I didn’t know that Pennsylvania and New York lost the most men who died in the Civil War.

The movie and the cyclorama were very interesting and gave a good overview before we went on the personal car tour. And I loved the museum inside the Park center, included in the price of the movie and cyclorama. This was one of the best parks/museums we have been in and well worth the time and money.

Friday, we had heard that The Green Dragon Farmers Market was not to be missed while here in the area. It is only open on Fridays, so we got up and took off to the market.

While being similar to the Roots market, this market had its own flavor. Green Dragon had more swap meet stuff, less farmers market and more shops inside buildings. We picked up a few things, then headed for Walmart for the rest of our supplies.

The next day we decided we needed to head into Hershey’s, the candy factory. We got to Hershey and drove through the town. Then it was off to the Story of Hershey, the museum. We were disappointed with this museum, not much stuff there and a little pricy for what we saw.

From there we went to Hershey’s Chocolate World, along with hundreds of other people. This attraction was very crowded, noisy and hectic. We took the ride of how the candy is made; and like Mike and Linda, we found it to be hokey.

But Milton Hershey’s story was a good one, showing how he never gave up in business until he succeeded. Then he did what a lot of other rich men don’t do, he gave most of his fortune away; he started an Orphan’s Home for boys, that is now a school for both boys and girls. He planned the town of Hershey, PA as a company town; he encouraged his hourly workers to buy their own homes for the unheard of price of $2000. He was a man ahead of his time.

So that has been our week. In between all of this, we still have our daily chores to do. Kinda makes you wonder if we’ll ever slow down….Until next time……Lorraine

7/4/10 Chuck’s report

Happy 4th of July to one and all. Our country’s birthday, yea! Even with all the problems, sill the only country I want to live in.

Last Sunday was our last full day in Lancaster so we took another drive in the afternoon and went out for dinner in the evening. We tried to find a local steakhouse but the GPS wasn’t having anything to do with that so we settled for Texas Longhorn Steakhouse. Good but still a chain.

We contacted 1000 Trails first thing on Monday morning and found they were starting to allow campers into the park at Hersey. This is were they had the tornado touch down and took out over 100 trees, they lost power, water and sewer treatment so they kept everyone out until they got some of the mess cleaned up and all the utilities back in order.

Once again we set the destination in both of our GPSs and once again they had different routes they wanted to send us. We followed the one set for trucks and that was a mistake, it took us down some very narrow, back country roads, some so without enough shoulder to even paint a line on the side. A couple of places the trees were overhanging the roads enough to force us to take our half out of the middle. Lucky for us, there wasn’t much traffic on these back roads while we were on them.

But once we got to the campground, everything was fine. This is supposed to be one of the best 1000 Trails park in their system. We were able to get into what is said to be the best area, on the hill overlooking the lake and the rest of the campground. We have full hookups, including good 50 amp electrical service. We’ve met a few of our neighbors, in fact, we had pie and ice cream with Ron/Betty who pulled in right in front of us a couple of hours after we got set up.

Since this is where we were originally scheduled to stay, we had an idea of what we wanted to see/do around here. Some we had already experienced when we were in Lancaster, i.e. drive the Amish countryside and go to an Amish store to see their wares but there was enough to see/do around here to keep us busy for the remainder of our stay.

Tuesday and Friday we decided to check out two of the biggest farmer’s market/flea markets in the area. We sure enjoyed these, both the farmer’s stuff and the flea market stuff. We did purchase some of the produce and bakery good, not too much of the flea stuff.

Wednesday we made arrangements to meet with a couple we met online though Tiffin Owners Forum. Doug/Nada used to live in the area before they sold their home and went fulltime in their motorhome. We met them for lunch then we went to their motorhome for some show/tell before they came to ours for more of the same. After our visit, they left us with the full timers saying, “We’ll see you down the road someplace, sometime, Keep in touch.”

Our plans here included a visit to Gettysburg and we were able to get that done on Thursday. This was one of the largest battles in the Civil War. Boy have we been exposed to lots of history since we’ve been on the East coast. We’ve now been to three large Civil war battlegrounds, memorials and museums. We’ve sure learned a lot about the war by all these visits.

Here we toured the museum and afterwards hired a personal tour guide to drive our car and explain the battlefield. What a good experience that was, well worth the money we spent. Our guide had studied the information for 5 years, had to pass a written test and pass a tour with two of the more experienced guides before he could get his license to be a guide. It was sure nice to hear about the battles, see the area and get details we wouldn’t normally have gotten.

Up until the battle at Gettysburg, the South hadn’t lost a battle in the war. General Lee thought if he could fight and win a battle in the North, it may turn the sentimental tide of the North and maybe hasten the end of the war. But in the three day battle here, the South won many skirmishes but were unable to get much headway or take over much territory. They started our with 13,000 troops but lost over half of them. After the battles on the third day, they pulled back and returned to Richman, never more to fight a battle this far North.

Some say this battle and the surrender of Vicksburg one day later were the biggest turning points in the war. Sure makes one wonder what our Country would be like had the South won.

Saturday we finally made our visit to the town of Hersey. Milton Hersey built his chocolate factory and developed a “Company” town where his workers lived. He set it up so they could buy their homes, allowed them to start businesses and basically have a good life both at work and in their community. One of the major reasons he chose this area, besides the fact he was raised around here, was the availability of good workers and a very good source of milk.

We toured the museum (not worth it, in our opinion) and went to the Chocolate factory. We went on a little tour of the plant which left us off right at their store. We left that area loaded down with candy and do-dads, boy does their marketing work!

After leaving the factory, we drove over to the Outlet Mall to check out an area to see their fireworks tonight. We’ve been checking out a few places where they are having fireworks displays and think we will go back to Hersey tonight to watch theirs.

The weather has not been as hot as it was the previous week. We are getting into the mid 90s during the day but the humidity is much lower. Now don’t misunderstand, we are sure glad we have air conditioners and they are on all day long but it’s not unbearably hot. And we haven’t had any more thunderstorms!

We are planning on being back in Washington (the state) in early August for our annual doctor visits. Looking at the calendar, checking different routes and checking the timing, we may leave here tomorrow instead of Tuesday. If we do that, we will have to reschedule our appointment in Iowa and then get started heading West a bit more leisurely.

We have a couple of stops planned on the way plus we don’t like to hurry to get anywhere. We don’t like to drive too much in any one day or drive more than two days in a row without stopping for at least one day. But at this time we aren’t even sure of the route we will be driving from here to Iowa. The Northern route would be mostly toll roads but a bit shorter than the Southern route. Either way would be new territory for us in areas where we would like to explore a bit.

So with that ambiguous look ahead for our schedule, I guess I’ll add some pictures and try to get this posted today. Our connection here isn’t the best and I may have to go to activities center to use their access to post it, we’ll see.

More pictures of the Amish and their community.

Our campground showing some of the damage from the tornado that went through here on the 23rd.

This Trailer was here during the tornado, its awnings are blown off and some damage from the falling trees.

This cabin and tree is right across the road from us.

At the famer’s market/flea market.

Doug and Nada, we met them for lunch and got to know them a bit.

Our trip to Gettysburg, both the town and the battlefield.

The fence on the left stopped the major confederate charge on the third day, caused one of the largest death tolls in the whole war.

A cyclorama picture of the third day’s battle, painted a year after the battle. The picture has been redone twice and now they have added special effects for the cannon fire and such. The detail in this picture is great, even shows the terror on the horse’s faces. Very nice display at the museum.