[NOTE: August 12, 2016] Um, okay I messed up. This is why I should blog while on the trip rather than a month later (I originally wrote this post August 12). We totally went to Lancaster, Pennsylvania before Pittsburgh. DUH! This post should have been made before the Pittsburgh post. I can’t fix that now, but I have changed the text in this post to reflect reality. I apologize to my readers for the confusion.
July 8-9, 2016
We had a nice drive from New York to Pittsburgh then back to the Chicago area. As you saw, we had a lovely stay in Pittsburgh, but most of it was drive, drive, drive; nevertheless, we did catch a few pics.
We veered of the super slab to sample the wonders of Hershey, PA. Milton Hershey founded the chocolate company back in the late 19th century. He became very rich but he, and later the Hershey foundation, has shared the wealth. As a result Hershey is a beautiful, clean almost storybook town. We walked through the museum and sampled a flight of chocolate.
We viewed exhibits on how chocolate used to be made then hit the road again to get to Lancaster, PA – our stop for the night. Lancaster is the home and resting place for the abolitionist Thaddeus Stevens. He is the person portrayed by Tommy Lee Jones in the movie “Lincoln”. An excavation at the back of the hotel we stayed in has uncovered what historians think was likely a stop on the Underground Railroad – a pathway to freedom for escaped slaves. He was serious about integration; he is buried in the only cemetery in town that interred both blacks and whites.
We stretched our legs around town the next morning before jumping back in the car. I found a few interesting buildings.
A bridge walkway connects the upper floors of these two row houses.
Here is a typical (I guess) set of row houses.
Before concrete was so ubiquitous steps were made of other materials; here are a series of cut stones of varying lengths to create a stoop. Contrast it with the later stoop in the background.
We drove through the much of Pennsylvania toward Pittsburgh, passing through three enormous tunnels in the Allegheny mountains. If you haven’t already, you can read about our Pittsburgh adventures here (I jumped the gun and posted our Pittsburgh adventures early.) We had a two-day drive to get back to the Chicago area to see the kids. The first night we stayed in Lancaster, PA at a hotel situated on a rise which provided a view of the town. This was obviously the center of town back in the day for it was at the intersection of King and Queen streets.
We left Pennsylvania and entered Ohio. Finally we pulled over in Holiday City, Ohio which is just off the Interstate north of Montpelier; there isn’t much there besides a a hotel, diner and gas station. Oh and farmland – lots of farmland. This picture was taken looking south from the edge of the hotel parking lot.
I caught one more picture from our hotel window as the sun went down.
We read for a while then dropped off to sleep, looking forward to getting back to Chicago the next day.
