Lancaster, PA; and Hershey, PA

10/25/15, Sunday - Left Quakertown campground.  It was very noisy.  Lots of kids.  Everybody was partying as the campground was closing next week.  They had a hay ride on a tractor full of hay for the partying folks.  Lots of yelling, loud horns, and noisemakers UNTIL MIDNIGHT.  What ever happened to 10:00 pm quiet time???   Drove to Thousand Trails Circle M Campground in Lancaster, PA.  The campground is completely surrounded by the Conestoga River and covers over 100 acres (about 400+ campsites).  We parked in the middle at the high ground (expecting rain).

10/26/15, Monday - Went to the front office to ask about the surrounding sites.  The lady at the front desk could not be more happy to help me.  She pulled out maps and brochure and laid out a tour of several Amish towns and all that they offer.  She just loved this area!  She especially loved the food. We followed her tour, but added a stop at an Amish woodworker shop that made children's furniture and toys, all handmade.  Excellent workmanship.  I asked the lady at the front if her husband was the marvelous woodworker, and she said, "Yes, and my son".  When we left, I noticed the beautiful buggy in the back of the shop.

Off to find the famous "Bird-in-Hand Bakery".  Yes, there really is a town called Bird-in-Hand.  We found the bakery, and Oh My!-- the goodies were everywhere.  We also caught beautiful fall colors.

The parking lot at the bakery

We bought three small pies, Peach, Raisin, and Vanilla, and a single piece of Shoo-Fly pie to try; also peanut butter cookies for Tom and molasses cookies for me.  Boy - this trip is going to cost me calories!  The next little town was Intercourse, PA.  There we wandered through the Kitchen Kettle Village (about 40 little boutique shops).  Only bought postcards, dog cookies, and one piece of homemade fudge.

Kitchen Kettle Village

 We sat at a signal at one point and watched an Amish horse and buggy with the most beautiful horse I have seen, come prancing (yes, prancing) through the intersection.  He was chestnut brown, with a satiny shiny coat.  His head was held high and he lifted his legs and pranced, like I have seen in circus horses--just beautiful.  It happened too fast for me to get a picture - sorry!

Next stop was at Zook's Bakery in Ronks, PA where they make homemade meat pies; chicken, beef, and sausage.  They sell to over 100 farm markets and through a packing company, but all the pies are made there in Ronks.  Their store front is almost invisible from the street.  Without a very small sign, we never would have found it.  Of course, we bought 3 frozen meat pies for dinners.  On the way out, we passed many Amish children walking home from school.  Each group numbered about 6-8 children and one adult - the girls in one group, and the boys in another group, all dressed up with their vests and hats.

We left to head back to the campground, but drove around some of the countryside.  We saw many horse and buggy rigs.  Here is one I was able to catch with my camera.

Amish Horse and Buggy

The countryside is beautiful and the farms are very well maintained.

We actually saw a farmer tilling his field with a Clydesdale horse and a plow with blades on the back. The Amish live a very simple life, but they seem very clean and happy.

10/27/15,Tuesday-Had to stay in the RV all day, waiting on the insurance adjuster for the motorhome, and a repairman for the wiring on the TV.  The adjuster showed up at 3:30 p.m., and the repairman never did.  His office called me at 4:45 to tell me that he had an emergency and wanted to reschedule.  I told her that we waited all day for him, and it would have been courteous to call us to let us know he was tied up.  We did not re-schedule.  We really don't watch TV anyway.  But, we wasted valuable touring time waiting for him all day.

After checking on the weather, we decided to move our tour of the Hershey Factory from Wednesday to Thursday, as a heavy rainstorm with thunder was expected.

10/28//15, Wednesday - It rained all day.  We got a break in the heavy rain in the afternoon, so I got out to the local town of Millerstown and got a haircut.  I spent most of the day on credit card bills and emails, so all was caught up, and I could enjoy our tour tomorrow.  About midnight the thunder and very heavy rain started.  Lucky got scared by the thunder and ended up with Tom all night.  Good news, the roof patch that Tom fixed seemed to have worked - no more roof leaks.

10/29/15, Thursday - We are off to Hershey, PA.  It is less than an hour from here.  Here is the front entrance to the Hershey Chocolate World.

Hershey's Chocolate World

The building houses several attractions and a free tour and, of course, the candy store.  The tour is on a Disney-like ride where they show pictures of the actual factory.  They closed all of their actual factory tours in 1973 worldwide, when the number of visitors they got could not be accommodated and still maintain a clean environment for the factory.

Here we are on the ride.

Hershey Tour Ride

Next we took the Hershey Historical Trolley Ride through the town of Hershey.

Tom and the Hershey Trolley

It ran about 75 minutes, and we had a great tour guide to explain not only the history of Milton Hershey, but all that he did for the workers and the community.  We learned more about the man than I expected.  He was a complete failure at business in 5 different cities, and filed bankruptcy twice, losing everything.  But he was persistent, like all successful businessmen.

His break came when he received a large order for his caramel candy (that is how he started - with caramels, not chocolate) from England.  At that time, he didn't have the money to hire the men and buy the equipment to fill such a large order.  He went to the bank to get a loan (with his past failures, he was a very bad risk), and the loan officer knew that the bank would not loan him the money.  However, the loan officer had so much confidence in Milton Hershey's drive and business plan, that he co-signed the loan himself.  Can you imagine that happening today?  The rest is history.

Milton Hershey used his new-found wealth to build a town and community.  He also founded a school for orphaned boys, then other schools, community buildings, a library, etc.

Milton Hershey School - Catherine Hall
(the Middle School)

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The Hershey Middle School

 He married in 1898 at the age of 40 to an Irish Catholic named Catherine, who was 26.  In 1905, he  built the chocolate factory in Hershey PA.

The Original Factory

 After his wife's death in 1915 (at the age of 42), he was devastated.  In 1918 , at the age of 61, he gave his entire fortune to a Trust to care and maintain the schools, and the other buildings, then valued at $60 million.  Today, the stock alone is valued at over $12 Billion.

Another good story was about H. B. Reese.  He was a local dairy man that sold his milk to the Hershey Chocolate Co.  He also worked at the factory as a foreman.  He had 16 children, and he found that they kept adding peanut butter to the candy bars, so he developed a new candy bar himself, the Reese's Peanut Butter Cup.  He set up a candy making factory in Hershey and Milton Hershey sold him the chocolate at his cost.  Later, during the Depression, Mr. Reese couldn't afford the chocolate, so Milton Hershey GAVE it to him.  When he died in 1956, his six sons inherited the candy business.  They ran it for 7 years, then sold it back to Hershey for a stock swap - they got over 666,000 shares of common stock for the sale, valued in 1963 at $23.5 million.  Today, that stock s worth over $1 Billion.  Also today, Reese's Peanut Butter Cup is the biggest selling candy bar on the market,surpassing the original Hershey Bar.

Another piece of trivia for you--Hershey requires 340,000 gallons of milk/day from local dairies to produce the Hershey products.

Needless to say, we went back to the Hershey store after our Trolley tour an bought a bunch of Hershey chocolate.