2017-14
Lebanon Pennsylvania
Hershey Pennsylvania
Greene New York
Stoevers Dam |
Campground: Stoevers
Dam Park, Lebanon PA: $12 for a 30 amp electric site + $3 per
person. Total cost, $15 per night, one of the best prices I've paid
this season. No water or sewer. Campground is on a nice lake and
park is busy with picnickers on weekends. Really nice walking trail
around the lake. Less than 2 miles to the local Walmart.
Campground:
Cook County Park, Greene NY. $20 central water and 30 amp. Dump
station and showers available. Boat rentals available. Most of
the campsites are taken by seasonal campers who pay a flat rate for
the whole summer. Setting up their campers, screened in tents and
little flower gardens filled with gnomes. The park even has raised
vegetable beds for the seasonal campers to plant and harvest their
own vegetables.
many seasonal campers at Cook County park might go overboard on decorating their campsites |
Distance
traveled: 178 miles
As
I left my campsite in Virginia, I would end up driving through the
corners of West Virginia, Maryland and into Pennsylvania. Seems like
an awful lot of states in one days drive, but they amount to just
over 50 miles for each state, so not bad at all.
I
once again found the next campground using the app Ultimate
Campgrounds which lists only public campgrounds, no commercial
campgrounds. What a great app for finding those hidden gems
especially city and county campgrounds. Often saving me lots of
money as I travel the country.
Hershey Pennsylvania
Hershey Corporate Offices, Hershey Pennsylvania |
I'm only about a 18 mile distance from Hershey Pennsylvania ( The Sweetest Place on Earth) and of course I had to go see the town and museum. The museum covers the Hershey legacy and how Milton Hershey got his start. After many failures, he made his first fortune making caramel candy. Selling that and believing that chocolate would be the next big thing, he experimented with many formulas. Loosing his business a couple of times before finally inventing the right formula for Milk Chocolate. He would build the town of Hershey and eventually build a second town called Hershey in Cuba after purchasing a sugar cane plantation to ensure a steady supply of sugar for his candy bars.
part of Reese's Peanut Butter Cup factories |
front office complex of Reese's Peanut Butter Cup factory |
One of the flags along main street |
The Hershey story/Museum |
Now
the Hershey factory has closed in town and only the Reese's Peanut
Butter Cup factory remains active. Still the corporate offices are
here, the museum, a large amusement park, a still vibrant looking
town with its quintessential Hershey Kisses lights along the main
thoroughfares. The factory would be moved to Mexico and in 2012 the
Hershey factory in Pennsylvania was torn down making no mistake it
would never reopen in this town again.
Townhouses around Monument Square in Lebanon PA |
Here
in Lebanon, the town is much more depressed after Alcoa Aluminum and
Bethlehem Steel closed their factories in the early 70's. As I drove
around town, a compact tight feeling as many townhouses and downtown
businesses are so closely packed together. Parking meters still fill
the downtown area and as I stopped to check out the Chamber of
Commerce, I had to scramble to find a quarter to put in the meter. I
rarely have much if any change on me. At least I had 30 minutes on
the meter to find out about the area, have a quick cup of coffee in a
local shop, one of the few that appeared open for business.
Lebanon Pennsylvania |
Downtown Lebanon shops, most are closed |
parking meters |
It's
not a happy looking town, with many buildings being made of a dark
brown brick, narrow streets. So many of the townhouses and
businesses are run down and shabby looking. A black man sits huddled
in a doorstep alcove. I walk past a Comic Book store with posters
and fliers covering every inch of window space behind an inner chain
link fencing. Few people are walking down the street as I enter the
restaurant for coffee. The owner eagerly jumps up, only to walk away
when I say all I want in a cup of coffee. A foreign woman serves me
coffee at the counter and goes back to her seat at one of the tables
and continues to look at her tablet. I am the only one in the shop.
My
last day in Lebanon takes me to a local park called The Union Canal
Tunnel Park. Canals were begun around the turn of the century before
the invention of the steam locomotive. Boats and barges were the
best way to get goods from one place to the next. The concept of the
Union Canal was first proposed by William Penn in 1690. It was
designed to connect the Schuylkill
and Susquehanna
rivers. The canal wouldn't be completed until 1890, using money
collected from a lottery. It would take twenty years to collect
enough money from the lottery to build the canal. Millions of
dollars from the lottery would go to the lottery players and the
canal project would reap only $270,000. If you are fortunate
enough to be here on a Sunday, you can board a canal boat and
experience a part of the canal by water even going through the
tunnel.
Well
it's gotten hot and steamy here. The last couple of days have been
in the mid 90's with a fair amount of humidity. I do my walks around
the lake early in the morning before it heats up too much.
Mid-Week
Distance traveled: 183 milesGreene New York
a super large silo and stone building next to it |
I
didn't have too much choice in heading north into Upstate New York,
so I chose I-81, thinking it would probably be a nice change from my
county road driving. I'd be able to maintain a speed around 65 mph
and get there more quickly. Yikes, was I wrong. This is one
interstate that is really in terrible condition. Along with ongoing
repairs, the highway alternated between concrete and blacktop
pavement. Each seemed in worse condition as I drove over each
section The concrete already had stripes of asphalt across the
highway most likely where original cut lines in the concrete where
formed. Along with uneven laying of the concrete creating a thump
thump thump pattern as I drove over it. The asphalt wasn't any
better and as a reverse, they oddly were patching sections of the
asphalt with concrete. Go figure. Potholes and whole middle
sections of asphalt were missing. One wonders how so much asphalt
could be lost along the center line of the highway. Oh and that 65
mph speed limit I was expecting along highways originally designated
to be 70 mph, were now down to 55 mph along long stretches of the
highway. The final insult being that many of the rest stops were
closed and the welcome center heading into New York was open only to
cars as it was under construction. Bummer, as I was hoping to get
some good ideas of places to explore and sight-see once in the state.
I'm
just outside of the Binghamton New York area. A number of highways
cross through this area and with that numerous concrete walls have
been erected to cut noise in adjoining neighborhoods. What's
interesting is that the walls are half concrete with the top half
composed of glass windows, proving the houses a visual scene through
the top half and eliminating what would normally be a solid wall
blocking sunlight along with the noise suppression. Looks nice too.
Binghamton Ny was the beginning of the Link companies flight simulators I would work for the Navy's Simulation and Training Div. 10,000 simulation trainers would be used in WWII to train 500,000 pilots |
Excellent collection of primitive masks from around the world, a private collection |
not a large art museum but I did enjoy a number of their collections |
for all my model train enthusiasts Binghamton NY has an awesome display |
miniature train display |
one of the best train displays I've ever seen depicting the town of Binghamton NY |
I took a tour of the Roberson Mansion and Science Museum in Binghamton. The mansion is in it's original condition, but after the owners gave it to the city after passing, the town sold all the the furnishings to help maintain the house. What a shame. It is now used for local parties, weddings and other functions
entrance to Mansion and Museum is out back |
mansion and museum, but entrance is out back |
third floor ballroom, many of the rooms were locked so we couldn't see in them |
grand staircase was definitely the main feature of the house |
In
the little town of Greene NY. It has a wide boulevard with parking
in the center. I discovered a five and dime discount store that had
a few items I would normally purchase at a grocery store. Gevalia
Coffee, Breakfast bars (low carb) and even some peanut butter cups
(no sugar) all at steep discount prices. What a great find. The
rest of the town consists of a number of hometown restaurants, but
sadly, none that I've gone to so far are good. No antique shops or
stuff like that. At the impressive looking library there is
supposedly a museum, but I was told it's only open one day a month.
The library in Greene New York |
nice downtown area, but few shops open |
restaurants in town were sub-par |
more photos:
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