Meandering is an understatement

Hi Everyone,

Total trip mileage is 5700. Today's miles were about 250.

You might think we don't want to go home. That's what I was thinking as we were driving over 150 miles east!. Karen had a desire to visit Hershey, PA. Well, since Gettyburg is on the way and Intercourse, PA is only a litte bit further east, that's we did.

We left Front Royal a tad after 9:00AM and headed northeast. We were on a secondary road and about 2 hours after our start we landed at the Gettysburg National Military Park. It was warm so we took off our motorcycle outer wear and locked it to the bike. It was very busy there but it is Saturday and the weather was warm and wonderful. We had an early lunch in the cafeteria then looked into our options for touring the battlefield. We decied to walk as the tour buses were sold out and took more time than we thought we wanted to spend there.

I found the experience of walking on these grounds suprisingly emotional. Even though it was a long time ago, I thought about the carnage, suffering and death that occured on this major battleground. Gettysburg was the furthest north the Confederate army was able to pentrate before being pushed back in a battle that raged for many days. At the end of the first day of the battle, the fields were littered with over 8,000 wounded, dead and captured soldiers. It was enlightening and very interesting. If you are ever in the area, I would highly recommend a visit here. Take a tour bus though. We only covered a very small area of the 26 miles of road that meanders through the park.

After leaving the park and we rode through the town of Gettysburg and found it to be a cute, busy and engaging tourist trap. Escaping the traffic and we headed east to Lancaster, PA and Intercourse, PA, beyond.

It was late last night when I programmed the GPS and had routed us through the middle of the city of Lancaster. What we found was a scene that was quite interesting. We came upon many blocks of row houses. People were sitting on their "stoops" visiting with neighbors, etc. There were many shops, stores and restaurants in these neighborhoods. It was something that I had only previously seen in old movies that might have taken place in some borough in New York or some place like that. But here we were riding right through the middle of these people's lives.

After sloughing our way through Lancaster we finally found the countryside we were looking for. The closer we got to Intercourse the more scenic it became. The farms are large and the buildings are all well kept. We saw Amish in their horse-drawn buggies and Menonites peddling bicycles. That part was really cool to see. The countryside is beautiful. We continued east for awhile then turned north and finally west towards Hershey.

Fortunately, we had made reservations at the Comfort Inn in Hershey and rolled into the parking lot at about 6:00PM. The rooms are expensive here but that's because of Hershey Park and Chocolate Town.

Tomorrow morning we are going to visit Chocolate Town and ride through the small downtown area of Hershey before heading north. We will try to make Niagara Falls tomorrow but it's at least an 8 hour ride so I am not sure we will make it tomorrow. Whenever we do get there, we would like to have a layover day there and spend some time looking around the town and of course the falls.

Take care,

Dave and Karen