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Got to Hershey Thousand Trails at night, tough to find a good spot but we lucked out and got a great spot with room for the dogs to play. Got internet and satellite tv so all was good.
First day in Hershey, headed out to explore. Came across chocolate world! Went on the tour and got awesome extra dark chocolate. Gotta love the hershey kiss street lamps. Lunch at houlihans, very good fish tacos. What a beautiful area this is, so green and natural.
Today we went on a 3 mile hike in the Governor Dick State Park to the top of Mt. Gretna with the dogs. At the top was a great observation tower overlooking the surrounding hills and farms. Mt. Gretna was a cool little art community with a crazy packed lakeside beach. Went to ride the Strasburg wine and cheese train but was full so we found Lancaster Brewing Company, great Milk Stout Beer!
Drove to a dog park outside Harrisburg. Not a great park but met a few nice people, Jinjy almost got attacked, found a creek to swim in and got “mommy” muddy. Went and hung out with Monica and her family. The “kids” met Gideon, a puggle puppy. Jacknormous was too much of a oaf to play but Jinjer taught him to run and wrestle, she was great with him. Found a great tavern in Quentin to have dinner at. Nice back patio, large menu and draft beer selection. Met Jake our server, a fellow mountain biker and plan to bike together.
Mt Gretna was the goal today. I went on an 8 mile ride to the top and back down some of the bumpiest fun singletrack ever. Very technical and fast. The trail route was 2 to 3 to 10 to 12 to 13 to 14 to 5. Afterward went to have ice cream at Jiggerspot. A great place in the hills, great ice cream, such a nice evening!
Sharon and I started the day off going for a Mt gretna ride. Weird car running with someone in it. Possibly sleeping?? Sharon climbed the mountain like a champ, we sped down rode through some singletrack back to the jeep. What a nice cool sunny summer day. Had an excellent lunch in a cute little lunch spot, great food. Such a nice atmosphere. Another good day.
Well today I went for another ride at Mt Gretna, same car still running, maybe someone is dead?? Went to the Appalacian Brewing Company (via the ghetto) with Monica and Ray and had a wonderful evening. Beer cheese soup was more like nacho cheese but the rest of the food was great and the beer was good. The stout was alright but the Kipona was the best beer in my opinion. Sharon had the barley wine which she really enjoyed, but was too small. MANY THANKS for the dinner to Ray and Monica, sorry we overindulged, we owe you :)
Well we went to Hershey Park to do a power tour of the roller coasters. We started on the Comet, not bad kinda fun actually, but tame as far as roller coaster standards go. Next we rode SuperDuperLooper, oldie but goodie, then Big Bear, getting better, then we hit jackpot. The Storm Runner. Being hurtled at 75 mph from a standstill was a rush, the straight up then down also a rush, but most fun were the loops and twists afterwards, the 0G , lifting you outta your seat fun! The Wild Mouse was, well Sharon said it best, “Did not like that at all”. The Wild Cat was a rough, fast and amousing wooden coaster, a great way to end the day with a mild concussion. will be revisiting in a few days with Glenda and the kids
Finally got to ride the Strasburg train, of course in our usual style after zipping through all back roads we arrived 3 minutes before the train was to depart. The train was gorgeous, we rode in the first class parlor car. But the ride…was a let down. We rode 4 miles (approx 15 minutes) down the tracks, then stopped and the engine changed ends and took us back to the station over the same track :( We do want to make a note to visit the cornfield maze next time we are in Strasburg.
Dinner was at Lemon Grass Thai restaurant, pretty good, rate it a 7, small portions, no red curry, but a nice variety of other menu items. We stopped at the Quentin Tavern on the way home for a beer. Great atmosphere on the deck, 15 or so beers on tap. We tried Troegalator (dark beer) very good, Mocha Lager (dark) also good. Met some older RVers who were great people, nice to talk with. Were amazed the we are full-timing at such a young age. The one guy told me of a story of how him and his wife took a year off to motorhome around US at age 47 and got snubbed because they did not earn the right to do it. Told us to never worry about those people because they are really just jealous they could not do it.
An interesting day today. We took the dogs for a hike on the Rail Trail. They were getting thirsty so we led them down to a pond. But to my misfortune it was a boggy marsh with the soupest softest mud I have come across. How do I know you ask? Because as I went to grab Jinjer who got stuck in it I sank to my thighs in an instant. And when i tried to lift my leg my flip flop remained in there. I tried to no avail for quite sometime to locate it by submerging my arm to my shoulder in the muck, eventually finding it and fishing it out. I was covered in mud :( Smelly nasty mud! But you have to laugh at that point, it was quite funny according to Sharon.
Back to Hershey Park, Glenda, Nanny, Keith, Nathan, Tammy, Micheal and Daniel came from Baltimore to go to the park with us, we got them a cabin at our campground. We had a great day with all of them, highlighted by a campfire sitting with Glenda and Nanny exchanging stories, which I will keep secret except to say that Glenda is the “equalizer” :) Now we are off to Baltimore.
PS. The compass is in the bag!
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