Today we slept in until after 9am and it felt great after our long day. I didn’t get the best sleep possible, but I think that had more to do with the side of the bed where I fell asleep. We ambled downstairs and managed to be in the lobby just before Noon. I asked the concierge for some directional assistance to our destinations today and I got to see the Ritz approved iPad device on display. Nothing like a little temptation!
We headed on the road and hit our first stop – the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. These steps were made famous by Sylvester Stallone in the first Rocky movie as he ran up the steps to the inspirational hit, “Gonna Fly Now” aka the theme from Rocky. We parked and headed up the steps for some photos and Daniel video recorded me running up the steps. It felt so touristy, but sometimes you just gotta do it!
It was then time to hit the road to my 36th State – Delaware. It only took us about 30 minutes to get to the border, and I was a bit disappointed that they didn’t have a visitor center for convenient photos, but we managed to get a quick shot of the “Welcome to Delaware” sign and some random street signs. Lunch was at Burger King in Talleyville, DE and was OK other than the dead bug in the sign on the drink machine. Little did we know that just over the hill there were many different opportunities to eat that would have been much better.
Next up, we headed to Amish Country. We headed towards Intercourse, PA which is in the heart of Lancaster County. I was excited to visit this area since I had heard so much about it. We stopped at Kitchen Kettle Village to look at some of the arts and crafts from the area. It was very touristy, but we did manage to get some magnets. It was already 5pm by the time we were there so we did not have the chance to go to any of the house and crafts tours, so we spent time just driving through the back country and admiring things from afar. At the Kitchen Kettle Village, we saw a map of covered bridges and decided to go try and fine some.
The first bridge was closed to vehicle traffic, but we managed to get a photo of the side view. The second bridge turned out not to be a covered bridge at all and was actually a pedestrian bridge through a development site. I finally turned to the web to find the next closest one – Bitzer’s Mill Covered bridge. It was an adventure to get there, but we finally arrived. We were able to cross this one, but there were no good spots to get photos. We decided to try one more before hitting the road to Harrisburg. The next one up on the list was the Pool Forge Covered Bridge. This one had a little historical park next to it so once we found it, we were able to pull over and get some great photos. I talked to the people in one of the little houses near the bridge and they were having a historical festival the next day. I thanked them for their time and we set off for Harrisburg.
Daniel was wanting some of that home made root beer he saw advertised along the way, so we headed back towards Intercourse. We passed through Blue Ball and some other nice towns and found the house that was selling the root beer. There was a nice Amish Boy, maybe 10 or so selling Root Beer and other desserts. We opted for 3 small bottles (which were still good size!) and then headed down the road. Daniel enjoyed the root beer though he said it smelled more like real beer and those root beer barrel candies. As we made our way through the trees and small towns, the sun started to set directly in front of us. This led to some tense moments as I missed some signal lights as they were turning red and I almost missed the turnoff for Harrisburg.
We stopped briefly at a Cracker Barrel since Daniel and Leslie had never been there. It was then for the final 30 minutes to our hotel. Once again, I missed a turn (although I think I misinterpreted where Google was trying to tell me to go) and we took a scenic route back to the hotel. We got settled in the room without much hassle and immediately went out to Target to get some breakfast and snack items for the next few days. Daniel then decided to die his hair with some Kool Aid, and I went and fetched a pizza while they created their masterpiece with his hair. Initial results look promising but we won’t know until we can see it in the light. It was then wind down time with some TV and me getting caught up on my email and my Trip Diary. Tomorrow it is off to Hershey Park and meeting up with Susie!