Time Keeps Marching On....We're Still In PA

We extended our stay at Hershey, PA. Why not? It's free, with our Thousand Trails membership. We went for a visit over to the next park on our list, also a Thousand Trails park, (Appalachian RV Park in Shartlesville, PA) which is an hour or less away from the Hershey Park and the atmosphere there was PARTY TIME! Of course, it's Halloween MONTH at RV parks, and it's party time every weekend during October. So the Appalachian RV Park was super crowded, the lanes seemed narrow, with tight turning corners and we honestly felt it would be much more stressful moving again to another park that maybe didn't have as much space to maneuver around with our big rig as the Hershey RV park does. On a less busy weekend, it would not be a problem.

Look at all this green space/tree space at the Hershey RV Park...It's fabulous!

Sparky loves taking walks around the park....the maples are truly massive...at least they seem that way after living in Florida and seeing a whole different kind of flora and fauna.

We went through a wonderful Halloween weekend with the other campers. Lots of activities for the kids. Lots of campground decorations and spookiness. We had lots of trick or treaters. We put the wrapped candy spread out on a table and watched the little ones from afar come up and take just one at a time. Such restraint! Not sure about this dude, if he was collecting his own or for his kids, haha.

Sparky decorated her own pumpkin and had a lot of fun with that, using a Pumpkin Masters carving kit. You tape a pattern to your pumpkin, then punch all around the lines with the puncher poker tool, then take the paper off and start carving. Turned out nicely, she thinks!

Another beautiful day for a ride on the Lebanon Valley Rails to Trails bike trail. Sparky has done three rides of about 20 miles each time. The third time she did 25 miles, because she needed to work out a little  attitude adjustment due to many things going on in the world and in her life. (It's a long story, says E.) Riding the trails is truly one of Sparky's favorite ways to decompress....

There are many memorial benches along certain sections of the trail. It is so beautiful what some people do to remember their loved ones, even their furry ones. Rest in peace, Jezebel. 

The weather is perfect for bike riding...In the fifties at first, and now sixties and low seventies...It's a beautiful trail path, not in the best shape by any means with some rough sections, but the donations for trail maintenance are needed, so hope people continue to support this very worthy cause (the Rails-to-Trails organization), to help people stay healthy and keep moving. Motion is lotion, Sparky heard someone say once.

So, here we are...two days left to go to stay at this beautiful Hershey RV park. 

We head next back to Ohio, sort of a last stand chance to hear and be near if and when our awnings come. It's been five weeks since a whopper tree limb took both of them out, and the RV repair place said 4-6 weeks. That probably means 10-12 weeks or more. At this point, we have to continue with travel plans. You can't mess around and be loosey goosey with your planning. Years ago, we often traveled and planned by the moment and on the fly. You can't do that now. People are flocking to the RV parks in droves, and yes, it is VERY difficult to find places to stay. We are doing well with our Thousand Trails membership, because with our particular plan (there are so many of them!) we can book far out ahead. But then when you travel, you have to find other campgrounds that are not closed for the season, and are not full, and are NOT in our membership plan for some areas, and are big enough for us to maneuver around the campground and get situated with our big 5th wheel.

Until next time...which might be Ohio! See you around....

A Tale of Two Trails....

Hershey, PA.     High: 76.  Low: 51

Sparky LOVES to ride her bike, especially on rails to trails...they are USUALLY level, have a good surface for riding and have beautiful scenery. She has been very lucky so far, with trails at many of the campgrounds we have stayed at. This week we are in Lebanon,  Pennsylvania at the Hershey Thousand Trails RV park. There are several bike trails in the area. Check out this website to see what they are: https://www.traillink.com/city/lebanon-pa-trails/

Sparky has ridden the Lebanon Valley Rails to Trails three times now, and here is what she thinks....First, the closest trailhead to the Hershey campground is about ten minutes or less from the campground. It is #4, the Colebrook Trailhead. Sparky got on here, and rode 20 miles total one day, heading north, ten miles each way. The trail was beautiful, plenty of benches along the way, perhaps the most she's ever seen on a trail so far. Surface was crushed gravel and level for the most part. There is a very rough section where the trail is shared with a few residences as part of their access to their homes. That part is rough and narrow. However, most of the section of the trail from the #4 trailhead to Lebanon, about 8th-12th street is level and paved. It's shady most of the way, there are a couple of bridges along the way, and what a wonderful time of year-fall-to ride the trail. The tree colors are fabulous!

The second time she rode the southern portion of the trail. Leaving at the same #4 trailhead, the Lebanon Valley Trail shortly turns into the Conwego Rails to Trails, (at the Lancaster County border line) and then becomes a lot rougher trail. The trail needs to be graded, and where the surface has worn thru to the substrata below, it's big, chunky gravel in spots both on the left and right sides. Sparky likes to ride Eldo's Trek bike, which has a shock absorption suspension fork on it, for these kind of trails. All the same, it was a bone jarring ride for over 50% of this trail. Sparky cut it short after about 18 miles, as the Conwego Trail dead ends at SR240. 

The trail gets good reviews, and nobody is complaining about the surface eroding, but this 70 year old body definitely felt the irregularity of the surface on this particular section of the trail!

We are really enjoying our stay at the Hershey Thousand Trails RV Park. They have a lot of fun activities for the Halloween month of October. There is a pumpkin decorating contest this weekend, a decorate your site contest, (right up Sparky's alley, but she's trying to conserve money at the moment for Christmas ideas and gifts), a costume contest, and a Halloween carnival. Halloween is a really big deal for campgrounds and RVers. The campground is FULL this weekend and all campgrounds in the area are full for the weekends during the month of October. 

Some non-Halloween activities are gentle stretch yoga every morning at 9:00, (Sparky really should go to that one!) pickle ball, nice tennis courts, volleyball, mini golf, and root beer floats. (Eldo should really go to that one! He's the ice cream nut in the family. 

Lebanon is a good sized town, about 20 minutes from the campground,   and has everything you need, Joann's, Hobby Lobby, and Michael's. Haha...That's everything Sparky needs besides the bike trails. It also has a First Watch, one of Sparky's faves for breakfast, and a Friendly's, one of Eldo's favorites for ice cream treats. Hershey is about 20-25 minutes from the campground. 

There is of course the Hershey chocolate factory tour and a museum as well, if you want to get your chocolate fix. We did the "make your own chocolate bar" factory tour years ago, and Covid has lots of restrictions on these kinds of things, so we didn't do that this time.

One thing we ARE enjoying is the beautiful rides around the countryside to get to Lebanon and Hershey. You don't travel through town after town, stoplight after stoplight to get to these places, you are driving beautiful country roads with beautiful Pennsylvania stone and timber barns and countryside farms. It's wonderful.....

That's it for now...see you later!