We pulled out of Laconia, New Hampshire at noon on Thursday, our goal was Harrisburg, PA. We had a trusty GPS Tomtom who got us to New Hampshire with nary a wrong turn. Uncle Bill had warned us as parting words to avoid the 5/495 South route which would take us through all the major East coast cities--Boston and NYC to name a few. We didn't really pay attention, and decided to just let Tomtom lead the way as it had on our route coming North. Unfortunately, in an attempt to reach central Pennsylvania, Tomtom led us through the very worst traffic possible. We reached a sign that said "Welcome to Bronx County" at 4:15 pm, and the needle bounced between 0 and 5 for the next four hours as we traveled through the heart of NYC at rush hour. It was a learning experience that we won't soon forget: Make sure we know the end from the beginning, and be in control of Tomtom instead of vice versa.
This set us back quite a bit--and we didn't reach our hotel in Harrisburg, PA until midnight. The late nights, time change, and exhausting driving were all starting to overtake us. We awoke the next morning at 8:30 am, packed up, grabbed breakfast, and were on the road again at 10 am. In order to break up the monotony of driving, I had planned into our trip a quick stop at Hershey, Pennsylvania to see Chocolate World. It was a great way to kick off the day. We took an hour to look around the gift shop and we went through the "Make Your own Candy Bar" experience. It was well worth it!
David was ready an rearin' to go in and create a chocolate bar.
This was the design station, where we chose three items to inside our candy bar, and whether we wanted white chocolate or milk chocolate as our base. We also got to choose whether or not we wanted sprinkles on top.
Scan your ticket and pull the lever to begin your candy creation!
Then watch all of those wheels and machines turn as the chocolate bar made its way through the creation stations.
It was fun!
Especially for a little boy who likes every pipe and wheel and machine he can ask questions about.
At the end of the assembly line, we have to wait for our chocolate bar to set.
While we wait, we go into another creation station for our candy bar wrapper.
Then go back to watch the candy bars get matched to our own wrappers.
A very fun activity!
It was the perfect way to break up the driving a bit and stretch our legs from all of that traveling in the car.
(It was also our first taste of the blistering heat and 100 % humidity that we would enjoy for the rest of the trip. Hey, we came to find summer-worthy temperatures, and we couldn't complain!)
Of course, if we had known that Tomtom would get us lost for another hour, and that we would hit Pittsburgh traffic right at rush hour and that it was going to take 1 1/2 hours to trade out our one-way rental car for a round-trip rental car, and that these delays would cause us to miss the wedding rehearsal dinner we were supposed to attend that night in Hermitage, Pennsylvania--then we probably wouldn't have stopped at Chocolate World. But for us, ignorance was bliss, and we had a great time!
Total travel time on Thursday and Friday: 23 hours in the car
By this time, David was mimicking the Tomtom from the back seat, and giving us instructions on turning right, left, following the highway, and making U-turns. He was a lot more entertaining, and nearly as accurate.
Total travel time on Thursday and Friday: 23 hours in the car
By this time, David was mimicking the Tomtom from the back seat, and giving us instructions on turning right, left, following the highway, and making U-turns. He was a lot more entertaining, and nearly as accurate.
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