Our trip into Hershey, PA - Post #3

We headed over to Hershey, PA on Sunday. I love that place. Here are some pictures of the outside of Chocolate World, some on the Trolly we took a tour on, and around town. I love the street lights they have lining the main street. The lights are Hershey Kisses. To learn a little more about Hershey, PA, just Google on it and all kinds of things will come up about it. It was Milton S. Hershey that founded the Boy's school/orphanage along with his wife. Now days they have it for both boys and girls. Of course they have the amusement park, but I myself have never been in it, however Dave did as a young boy. My first time to Hershey was in July 1970 when we went on a walking tour of the real factory. It was way cool. Chocolate World today has a simulated factory in it with real chocolate, and you go on the tour in cars,...kind of like "It's A Small World" at Disneyland, only there you are in boats. They take a picture of you as you are coming to the end of the tour. It was really neat. You get a small sample of a Hershey bar when you get out and the ramp takes you down in to this huge store. I got a few souveniers for family members, but you gotta' have money in the bank to buy everything you want. I had a limit! There is a picture in this post of the inside of our trolley along with me and the two conductors who did a really cute skit during the whole tour. On the trolley ride we went all over the Hershey grounds which included the home of the Hershey's and we saw the original chocolate factory also pictured in this post and another of the amusement park with the factory in the background. It's quite large. You will notice the two huge brown smoke stacks Iif that is what they are). The smoke stacks has the word Hershey on them. We went all around the town of Hershey, PA. We took alot of pictures, but just didn't want to bore anybody with them. We had a really good day!

Pennsylvania - Birthplace of my Hubby - Post #2

We then headed in to Pennsylvania towards Gettysburg. We made a stop there and went in to the Cyclorama there at the visitor center, plus we saw a movie about the battle at Gettysburg in the theatre (I'm going to post some pictures at Gettysburg in my last post about this trip because we stopped there again after leaving the Harrisburg area on our last day in PA and on our way back to the airport in Baltimore). After doing that, along with spending some time in the gift shop, we headed to New Cumberland which is south of Harrisburg to hour hotel. Dave was born in Harrisburg. We stayed there for 3 nights. After we got dinner and went for a ride (we went and found Walmart), we settled in for the night. Next day we got up, got ready and drove over to Rutherford where Dave grew up. We went and saw the Sprankle home and all his friend’s homes and where they lived in conjunction to Dave. We went over to the schools him and his sisters attended and saw a big huge cornfield that lines the old neighborhood. We drove down this little country road where he use to ride his bike with no worries of getting hit by a car, but that has changed a lot. The traffic is rather heavy, and the ups and downs and curves and trees make it very dangerous as it would be hard to notice a bike rider or any body walking or jogging when traveling at the now posted speed limit. We stopped by this old churchyard cemetery. It had graves in it from the mid 1700’s +. There is a marker that said, “Here lie the pioneers, defenders of the frontier soldiers of the French and Indian wars, the American Revolution and the War of 1812. Among them are: (then it lists known names, but there are probably more in there). This marker was erected by Harrisburg Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution June 19, 1924 in celebration of their thirtieth anniversary. I don’t know about any of you that reads my posts about different places, but I find things like this very interesting. There is so much history back east that I have been exposed to over the years, especially since getting married to and traveling with Dave in the Army and years since. Hope you find it interesting too!

Maryland/Pennsylvania Post #1

I wanted to post some stuff on our trip back east in June. Since we had already scheduled annual leave for Dave's birthday week, we delayed it until the end of that week in to the next because Dave had training in Maryland in a town called Chesterfield, I believe. He traveled there on Monday, June 15th, he flew me there on Friday, June 19th. I flew in to JFK in New York City, which was pretty cool because we came down from the Great Lakes region and flew south of the city, out over the ocean, then flew along the coast line. I was on the left side of the airplane, so I got to see the city from over the water, flying north then turned inward and flew over the western side of the city in to the airport, at least from what I could tell. We never did get to the gate at the terminal we were suppose to pull up to. After waiting the whole 30 minutes we were early, they finally parked us out on the tar matt and had a people mover come to the plane and get us. We rode in to a different terminal than we were suppose to. We were running late by then and so I immediately headed towards my gate, but made a quick stop in to the ladies room, then on to the gate. I get down there (one of the last gates in that terminal) and they tell me the flight I’m going out on to Baltimore was changed to another terminal all the way on the other side of it. I was literally running with a bag in each hand through this what seemed like a maze of hallways. I heard the “last call to board” 3 times before getting to where I needed to be. I was the last paid customer on the plane, and one “stand-by customer” followed me. Whew! It tires me out just thinking about it. That night we stayed in Frederick MD. Next day we headed towards Emitsburg, MD to stop and see if the National FEMA Center had changed at all. Dave went there to a Fire course back when my cousin Terry and Margaret Spencer still lived in that state. I stayed with them while Dave was at training. We stopped and took a couple of
pictures in front of the big sculpture of the firemen. It started to downpour rain so that was all we ended up doing there. We then headed in to Pennsylvania towards Gettysburg.

Dave standing in front of the Firemen sculpture at FEMA in Emitsburg, MD

Here we go! On our way in to PA

The Cat and the Beetle Bug

Thought I'd share some photos of Nathan and Pamela's cat whose name is "Xerox". The name was given to him because he is a copy of his daddy through and through. The dad's name was "Crouching Tiger" and I added "Spoiled Rotten Cat" to it, because he was. Anyway, when I was down in AR at their house, we were out on the back deck and I noticed this big ole' beetle bug. It seemed huge until Xerox noticed it and then comparing his paw to the beetle, the bug didn't seem as big. He played really nice with it tho'. Never did kill it or torment it really. Just played. Eventually the beetle made it's way over to the end of the big long deck and got down on the side of it then fell down into the grass. Xerox noticed where it went and jumped down himself. No,...he did not jump on it, he just played a little more with it until he got bored. It was way funny to watch him. He was so cute with it.

Daddy/Daughter Day Out

Christopher has this week off from work so he took Diana down to the Gateway via The Front Runner train. He took these 4 pictures of her so I thought I would share them. She will be eleven (11) years old on the 19th of August! It is unbelievable!

Diana at the Olympic Fountain - Gateway, Salt Lake City, UT - 7/13/09

Diana again at the Gateway having fun posing for pictures by her Daddy! Diana walking on the moon at the planetarian in Salt Lake And again, only she's on Mars and can't breathe due to lack of Air

No More Hot Springs After This One ! ! !

Last day with Pamela and Nathan

in Hot Springs, AR

This is a lake that Nathan, Pamela and I visited the day before I left to come back home from Hot Springs. It was beautiful, peaceful and a great way to spend the day with them before leavings. We started out by heading to this place called "Hot Springs Village",what seemed to only be about 15 miles from Hot Springs, give or take. It sounded like a really neat place to go check out. Kind of thought it was a resort area or a park of some kind or an old time village with stores, souvenir shops and fun stuff to go look at. We passed it up without know it on the way getting to it and ended up the highway a bit towards this lake we found quite by accident. After leaving Lake Ouachita State Park (go to the previous link to learn a little about the state park), we went back down towards "Hot Springs Village" to see what it was all about. Guess what?,.....we didn't even get in! We got STOPPED at the gate by a security person that we thought was going to wave us right on through. NOT !!!! He said, "What can I help you with"? Nathan said, "we thought we would go in a take a look around,....". The security guard interrupted what N8 was saying and said, "You can't do that, this is a gated community". (In other wards, we don't let the every day rif-raf in here). He was very rude and bluntly said, "You'll need to turn around on the other side of the guard shack and head on out". Well,..did that make me mad? You bet it did! He didn't even give us a chance to say why we were wanting to see the place. Does nobody believe in Customer Service anymore? After all,....we thought it was a park! Anyway, this is it on our trip to Hot Springs. You're probably saying ya-hooooo! Right? Our trip there was great, and I hope that some of you thought these posts were somewhat worth reading about that area. Enjoy some of the pictures that were taken at Lake Ouachita.

Thanks for stopping by!

Relaxing by the lake taking in the piece and quiet

Making their way up the hill with the lake in the background

This is the bark on the pine trees you see in the background. I thought it was unusual for a pine. I like it so much I have it as my background on my little lap top for now.

Close view of the pine tree with the "bark"

And another

Some more. You'd think I like the trees more than the lake, huh?

Nathan and Pamela amongst the trees with some water showing,...honest!

Ahhhh! Pine trees in the pretty blue water!

If you are curious at all, here is the link that talks about Hot Springs Villiage. Guess I was wrong about it being a park, eh? In fact, it looks like it is a very popular place to be,....if you can get in that is!

Post #4 - Natural Hot Springs - A Way To Get Good Water

Here is a couple of pictures of Nathan and Pamela getting their drinking water. And by the way, it doesn't cost a cent, unless of course you go buy your water jugs. They use whatever they have to get the water. There are at least 4 or maybe more of these areas in down town Hot Springs, AR where you can pull over and get the water from the spickets. The water is very warm when it comes out of the ground, but that isn't a problem to most people because they take it home and refrigerate it or just pour it over ice for a nice big glass of ice water that tastes good and is good for you!

N8 getting his share of the water

Pamela and Nathan filling what ever jugs they have available

Pamela getting some of the jugs filled and loving it!