We left Poland, New York around 10:30 Friday morning, October 13 (we should have taken this omen seriously!) following Highway 8 then 28 south. The road followed West Canada Creek for quite a while. West Canada is a beautiful, clear, fast-flowing creek that would be great for canoeing in the summer. We thought it would be a pretty easy day since it was only 147 miles to our planned destination. We predicted that we would settle in to our next campground by 3:00 - HA! Unfortunately, it turned out to be a harrowing day that will long live in our memories!
We had plotted our journey on our GPS-guided software, Co-Pilot, that allows us to plan the routes that are best for Bubba, given his size and weight. You know, we love the two-lane highways and backroads but we have to be careful that we don’t end up on a road with an underpass height that’s less than 13 feet or a bridge that won’t handle our weight of 13 tons, including Pearl (our truck). Traveling the backroads, we saw a number of beautiful creeks and brooks along the way and even a waterfall. But, for the first time in our travels, we had two occasions where the directions given by the GPS voice (Lisa) resulted in our missing turns and having to turn around and backtrack to get back on route. Now, turning around with Bubba and Pearl, at 65 feet in total length, is no small matter. You cannot back up so you have to find a big area that allows you to drive in a circle. Church parking lots and shopping centers are about your only hope. By early afternoon, we were beginning to understand what our friends, Robin and Bert Parker, meant when they warned us that you CAN get lost with a GPS.
As the day wore on, matters got worse. We ended up on really narrow roads – roads we NEVER should have been on. But, there (literally) was no turning back. We had selected a private campground near Honesdale, PA in Wayne County, in the heart of the Poconos. We couldn’t locate the exact address in the GPS so we selected what we thought was a nearby address . . . WRONG! We ended up totally lost in the middle of nowhere on roads that were too narrow for Bubba and oncoming traffic. When we reached the area where we thought we were supposed to be, we were out in the boondocks. The GPS kept telling us to turn on roads that had different names - there were no roads that matched Lisa’s directions and I grew to dislike her greatly. And then, we reached a NO OUTLET/PRIVATE PROPERTY/NO TRESPASSING sign and knew we were in trouble. Match that with the fact that we were in front of a junkyard with a sign that read “Armed guard on duty” - and we knew we were in deep doo-doo. There was no where to turn around. Our only option was to unhook Pearl and back up on this narrow little road until we came to a driveway that was wide enough for Bubba to back into so we could turn around and get the hell out of Dodge. Have you ever backed up a 36-foot long, 8 ˝ foot wide vehicle? Believe me, it’s not a pretty sight. But ole Jer, being the excellent Bubba-driver that he is, made it (with my verbal assistance, of course). The only problem now, aside from the narrow road, was that we had no idea where we were or how to get back to any form of civilization and Lisa was no help. She obviously didn’t know where we were either! Jerry’s patience with the navigator (me) had worn thin. We finally reached a crossroads and decided to take the road that had the stripe down the middle, since we hadn’t seen one of those in a while. That prompted Jerry to coin a new guiding principle for Bubba-travel: Never take roads that don’t have middle stripes. We had made the right choice and we finally managed to reach Honesdale.
Since we never found the campground we were originally headed for, we decided to go to Promised Land State Park in the heart of the Poconos. We found the closest 4-lane highway (never mind that we had to drive additional miles) and stuck to it until we reached the exit for the park. By the time we selected just the right campsite for satellite reception (tomorrow is Football Saturday, you know), registered, and filled our tank with water, it was 6:45. It had taken us over 8 hours to drive that 147 miles! We have never been so glad to settle in for the night in our lives and we were most thankful that Friday the 13th was drawing to a close. Jerry has had a cold or allergies for several days and needs some rest.
Promised Land is open all year, a sure sign that we had moved south, as most parks in New York were either already closed for the winter or closing by October 15. We awoke Saturday to a gorgeous day - perfect for watching college football. We did, however, spend some time working on the blog and switching over to a different GPS software package as we had “had it” with Co-Pilot and Lisa.
Promised Land was beautiful. There were several camping loops and a number of lakes and creeks that ran through it. The fall colors were at their best. On Sunday, we decided to take a day trip to the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area. We made a large loop by taking I-84 east to Milford, then US 209 south (right through the middle of the recreation area) to East Stroudsburg, then finally turning back north to Promised Land. As elsewhere in the northeast, there were lots of people. There were also lots of waterfalls and we tried to see them all.
The National Recreation Area extends for 40 miles along the Middle Delaware River between Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Our first waterfall was Raymondskill Falls which began as a small creek with a 4-5 foot drop into a pool, then a cascade into another pool, then a third drop into another pool. It was beautiful. Our next stop was at the Dingmans Falls Visitor Center where we took a short hike to see a couple of falls - the first being Silver Thread Falls. We found the water here to be tannic, as we had found in Minnesota. We learned that the beautiful old Hemlock trees once found in the Water Gap area are in decline because of an Asian aphid that is killing them. The aphid was first found here in 1951, has now infested many of the trees in the area, and they are cutting them down - so sad.
We stopped at the Log Cabin Bar and Restaurant for lunch and Ann had her first cheesesteak sandwich of the trip. The waitress told us that she grew up in Boston calling them “grinders”. I’ll have to confirm that with my good friend, Liz Genz, a native of Boston. The staff of the restaurant was setting up for a Texas Hold ‘Em Tournament scheduled later in the day so the crowd was interesting.
After lunch we visited Bushkill Falls, referred to as “The Niagara of Pennsylvania”. It is a privately owned enterprise within the National Rec Area, once owned by the Bushkill family, hence the name. There are a number of walkways built over and across the creeks and falls in the canyon to provide visitors with birds-eye views. Visitors have their choice of easy versus more strenuous hikes - of course, we opted for the more strenuous and it was spectacular. It was overcast, hampering our picture-taking efforts, but we made the best of it. Most of the falls in the canyon were tannic in color. We assume the color is the product of the soil and the kinds of trees in the area. Our assumption was further supported as we entered a section of the trail that was mostly hardwood trees and found Bridesmaid and Bridal Veil Falls to be clear in color. It was a strenuous hike but worth every pain!
On Monday morning, October 16, we awoke to a temperature of 25 degrees - brrrrrrr. We drove to Rickett’s Glen, west of Scranton, which offers 22 waterfalls within a short distance. We intended to stay overnight in a private campground just outside the park entrance (the State Park’s campground was closed for the season). However, when we got there, we found the campground to be below our standards and decided to move on. We ended up in Bloomsburg, PA at Indian Creek Campground - not a destination but okay for overnight. It rained all night - we are tiring of rain!
Tuesday morning, we headed for Hershey. Mmmm- I could already taste the chocolate! It was a harrowing day - rainy and windy - and there were many steep grades to go up and down. Bubba doesn’t like steep grades – especially the 11% and 12% type that are prevalent in this area. We took another wrong turn in Hershey and ended up having to unhook again to get turned around but we finally managed to get to the Hershey High Meadow Campground and settled in for the evening. We immediately noticed a wounded squirrel trying to climb a tree in our campsite so we adopted him and Jerry named him Gimpy. He walked like our latest foster-dog, Robin - sideways kinda’ like a cockroach. Jerry got out his squirrel corn and scattered it around the campsite so the little fellow could gain some strength.
Bubba was born in Paxinos, Pennsylvania, only a few miles from Hershey. We called the factory twice to make an appointment for one of their free plant tours but, I am sorry to say, we could never reach a live person and no one ever returned our call. Bubba was sad.
Wednesday, after lunch at the Soda Jerk Diner, we headed for Hershey’s Chocolate World. We opted to take the trolley tour first and it was so much fun! Our conductor, Fred, was a pretty funny guy and gave us lots of reasons for laughter. But he also gave us lots of information about Milton S. Hershey, the man. And what a man he was! And I don’t want to forget to mention the chocolate . . . During our one hour tour, Fred passed around baskets of Hershey’s Kisses, Hershey’s Dark Chocolate Kisses, Hugs, and Reeses Peanut Butter Cups. And, as we got off the trolley, we each got a full size Hershey Chocolate Bar. My kind of tour!
Milton developed the town of Hershey because he wanted his workers to have a model town in which to live, work and play. He built quality affordable homes for them, and funded public schools, a public transportation system, and recreational and cultural facilities. He built mansions and sold them to his executives for $1. And when they left the company, he bought their homes back from them at fair market value.
During the Great Depression, when chocolate consumption dropped, Milton didn’t want any of his workers to be out of work so he created many public works projects to assure that their pay continued. One example of his generosity and philanthropic spirit came when he was having a new building built. The foreman brought in a brand-new contraption called a backhoe and bragged to Mr. Hershey that it could do “the work of 40 men”. Hershey told him to get rid of the backhoe and find 40 new men to hire. Hershey is a pretty little town and there is much civic pride among its residents. Hershey is known as the “sweetest place on earth” and Fred says it’s the only place where you can breathe and gain weight. I believe him - you really can smell chocolate in the air. Interestingly, it has never been incorporated as a town although there is a Hershey Post Office. They are governed by the township’s leaders.
During our trolley ride, we saw the largest chocolate factory in the world with over 2 million square feet of floorspace and over 3,000 employees. They have 12 huge silos that hold a total of 90 million pounds of cocoa beans. It takes 72,000 cows to produce the 250,000 gallons of milk needed by this facility EVERY DAY. They produce 1,500 hershey kisses each minute - 24 hours a day, 7 days a week - that’s 2,160,000 kisses a day in this one plant! Total kisses made each day in all Hershey plants - 70 million!!! And, of course, there are dozens of other Hershey products being made, too.
Our only real stop on the tour was at Founder’s Hall, a building built as a tribute to Milton Hershey. Born in 1857, just a few miles from the current town of Hershey, his parents were Mennonites. With only a fourth grade education, he dropped out of school to help on the family farm. But he didn’t like farming so, after a few years, he entered into a 4-year apprenticeship with a candy maker in Lancaster. After his apprenticeship ended, he made several attempts to start his own caramel-making business but failed several times before he finally succeeded with his Lancaster Caramel Company, later renamed the Hershey Corporation, after he perfected the recipe for milk chocolate in 1899. Hershey’s Kisses were introduced in 1907; Hershey’s Milk Chocolate Bar with Almonds came in 1908; Mr. Goodbar was born in 1925; Hershey’s Syrup in 1926, Krackle in 1938, and Hershey’s Miniature Chocolate Bars in 1939. The recipes have not changed since then.
Milton met the love of his life, Catherine (Kitty) Sweeney, and married her in 1898. Three years later, they learned that they could never have children. So they decided to use a portion of their wealth from their chocolate empire to found the Hershey Industrial School in 1909. The School opened its doors with just four young boys who not only lived at The Homestead - Milton Hershey’s birthplace - but also attended classes there. Sadly, Catherine Hershey died just a few years later at the age of 42. Milton vowed that he would never marry again and, in 1918, endowed the school with his personal fortune ($60 million) to provide for their continuation throughout all time. After Milton’s death in 1945 at the age of 88, the name was changed to Milton Hershey School (MHS). They accepted their first minority students in 1968 and the first female students in 1976. The Deed of Trust was changed that year to eliminate the requirement that students be orphans.
Today, MHS is the country’s largest pre-K through 12 home and school for boys and girls, with 1,550 students from families of low income and social need. The school owns the controlling stock, Milton’s gift, in the Hershey Corporation. So, everytime you buy a Hershey product, you are supporting the students at the Milton Hershey School. I will never buy Mars products again!
All students receive the School’s services free of charge, including housing; education; clothing; meals; and medical, dental, religious, psychological, and other services. When students are admitted, they sign a contract that they will follow all rules, including the mandatory rule that all students will attend the nonsectarian Chapel service every Sunday. 1,550 students are housed in homes on the campus, supervised by house parents. To qualify, students must: Come from a family of low income, limited resources and social need; Be from the ages of 4 through 15 at the time of enrollment; Have the potential for academic achievement; Be free of serious emotional and behavioral problems that disrupt life in the classroom or the home; Be able to participate in the program offered and, Be a U.S. citizen.
Founders Hall was built in 1970 as a tribute to Milton. The first thing visitors notice is the towering ceiling of the rotunda. At 74 feet high, it is the second-largest rotunda in the world - only St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome is larger. The canopy of state flags overhead represents the geographical diversity of the student body. While the majority of students come from Pennsylvania and five surrounding states, there are many other states, including Arkansas, that have had students enrolled at MHS. Upon graduation, if students do not wish to attend college, they are given a set of luggage, a new workplace wardrobe, and a $100 bill. If they choose to attend college, they are provided with a set of luggage, a new wardrobe, a laptop computer, and up to $67,000 in financial assistance for any college they choose in the U.S. Amazing . . . we were told that the MHS endowment is the third largest in the country. The only endowments that are larger are Harvard and Yale - ivy-league institutions of higher learning. MHS receives NO government funds. In fact, the Trust is so well-funded that in 1963 the school gave $50 million to Penn State University to build a new medical school and teaching hospital in Hershey. - WOW! All because of one man’s vision and heart.
After our trolley tour of the town of Hershey, we returned to Chocolate World for a ride through a simulated chocolate factory. It was fun and cute and, of course, ended in the “Everything Chocolate” gift shop. We couldn’t believe how many different candies and other products Hershey makes. They even make Jolly Rancher, one of Jerry’s favorites. So, of course we loaded up on all kinds of sweets with the promise that we would ration them and not eat them all at once.
We then participated in a cute activity where we had the chance to be Hershey factory workers, complete with a “factory worker” hat! It was fun and a good way to end our visit to Chocolate World. We then took a drive around town and stopped in at the Hershey Hotel, one of the many buildings Milton had built. And, he loved the lobby so much that, in his will, he stipulated that it can never be changed. He insisted that the dining room be circular because he never liked to eat alone in a corner; hence, no corners! The hotel is truly beautiful and another symbol of the greatness of this man. We truly loved our visit to Hershey. Tomorrow, we venture into the history of Pennsylvania and our country.
Happy trails to you . . . til we meet again!
