#100 Hershey Chocolates, PA 5-29-09

I know, I know, I said we weren’t going to drive more than 50 miles away from where the coach is parked, but the home of Hershey Chocolate is only 84 miles away! If we get up early-8:00 am, then we can leave by 9 and get there before lunch. So off we go on Friday.

Look how nice we are greeted at Chocolate World. Aren’t those chocolate people cute?

We go on a Disney like ride through a tour of a chocolate making factory. This is a narrated ride, so you get a lot of information on the making of chocolate and about Mr. Hershey.

We are greeted by happy, singing cows who represent the reason Mr.. Hershey built his chocolate factory here. There are a lot of dairies in the area to supply the milk for making chocolate.

Look! Hundreds of kisses going down the conveyer belt. They are literarily drops of chocolate on a cold belt that hardens the warm chocolate into a kiss.

Here are the bars, getting ready to be put into their wrappers. Too fast for me to figure out what kind of bars. But, I know they have chocolate in them.

A happy cow waves good by to us as he takes our picture.

Next we went to Chocolate University and did our own chocolate testing with a sample bag of chocolates. We learned how the cocoa beans are grown, harvested, dried and shipped. We also learned we didn’t have to worry about the peanuts or peanut butter used in Hershey candies.

After school we jumped on a trolley to tour the city and learn more about Mr. Hershey.

Above is the largest chocolate factory in the U.S. Mr. Hershey failed at three businesses before he started making chocolate. He did succeed in making caramels and sold that business for one million dollars and used all that to start his chocolate business.

On the trolley we met Mr. Hershey’s father and he told us more about Mr. Hershey. Although they could not have children of their own, Mr. and Mrs. Hershey started a school for orphan boys. This was the beginning of the University that is still in operation today.

Above is Mr. Hershey’s mother who told us more about the school and the family. Along the way we also picked up one of the students, and one of the factory workers who told us about life in Hershey. (All of them were the same guy, dressed in different costumes and using different accents. He was hilarious!)

Not only did Mr. Hershey build a school, but during the great depression in the 1930’s he started a building program, expanding the factory, the school and building homes for the workers. Not one of his employees lost their jobs. During WWII the US government came to Mr. Hershey and asked him to make a bar that would have enough calories and nutrition to sustain a soldier while marching. It is told that the words “Hershey Bar” is one of three different phrases all European children could say in English.

In the trees is one of the student residences that were built to house the children attending the University.

Check out the name of the street. Just reading the street names in Hershey makes you hungry!

We are glad to be in an enclosed trolley. Heading down the street, with it’s Hershey Kisses street lights, the rain really started to come down. See all the raindrops on the window? By the time the ride was over it was really raining, so we went inside and purchased some chocolates inside the Chocolate stores. By the time we made our purchases, the rain stopped and we headed back to the RV. A very sweet day!

#99 Philadelphia, PA 5-27-09

We stayed in Quakerwoods Campground in Quakertown, PA. This campground was about 40 miles north of Philly. We arrived on Sunday during the Memorial Day Weekend. There were only two spaces left in the entire campground. Maneuvering our 40’ Motor Home into the space and around all the trees and campers, was really a challenge. One camper had to move his campfire ring for us. Luckily he had only just started the fire and it wasn’t very big. We ended up with 3 or 4 people helping us get into the spot and making sure we didn’t hit anything. Whew! The people there were so nice. After we were parked our next door neighbor invited us over for hamburgers. Said “After driving and parking we didn’t need to cook!” They were nice people that leave their 5th Wheel parked year around at the campsite. They live about 20 miles away and come there almost every weekend during the summer.

We had nice weather for the weekend and Tuesday it rained. So Wednesday, when it cleared up, we headed to Philadelphia to see the Liberty Bell and Liberty Hall. We were going to take the train into town, but at the last minute we decided to drive. The streets are really very narrow and old, but we found a public parking lot and for $18.00 we were able to park all day. Probably would have cost us that much on the train and we would have had to figure out schedules and such. So we were fine with that. It was very close to everything and we walked every where we wanted to see.

In order to go into Independence Hall you have to stop at the Visitor Center and get a timed ticket. Our time was 3:30 p.m. It was almost noon when we got our ticket, so we decided to walk down the street to get a real Philly Cheese Steak Sandwich. On the way we say that B. Franklin had a building to let. I wonder if it could have been Benjamin?

We walked by the old Post Office and lots of other quaint buildings.

After eating a wonderful Philly Cheese Steak, we visited Famous Christ Church.

Inside the church was a docent giving some of the history of the church. We listened for a while. It was all very interesting.

Isn’t it sad to see the graffiti all over this sign.

On to the Betsy Ross House. What a tiny little place this was. Did you know that Betsy was an Upholster? All the time I thought she might have been a seamstress. Her business was the only place to get material strong enough to make a flag. Betsy was married three times. Widowed twice and had to make her own way in her business. She never owned this house, but the ground floor housed her Upholstery Shop.

The cellar doors lead to the kitchen area. All the cooking was done below the home.

If you double click on the picture above, hopefully you can read the information about Betsy Ross.

We had to wait in line to get into the museum that houses the Liberty Bell. It is a pretty awesome sight to see. Below is the inscription that is on the bottom of the bell. I hope you can read it.

We still have about an hour before we can tour the Independence hall, so we decided to take a carriage ride to Society Hill. It really isn’t much of a hill, but the “Society of Quakers” built their plain homes here. The guide was very informative, but the horse knew it was getting close to the end of his day and he really rushed us through the area!

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The picture below is really a “home,” with an address and it receives mail. The people who built the house owned two lots, but only wanted to build a home on one. According to the rules, each lot had to have a home, so they built this one room house on the corner and turned the rest of the lot into a garden.

By the time the carriage ride was over it was time to use our tickets for touring the Independence Hall. Only about 50 to 60 people are let in at one time. Our Ranger guide was quite good, and told us a lot about the building and the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Did you know that the Declaration wasn’t actually published on July 4th? It was signed on the 4th, but printed up on the 8th, and dated on the 4th. It gave the signers time to get out of town and into hiding from the British, because by signing they were traitors to the crown.

Independence Hall was first the Hall of Justice. This is the court where the accused were taken before the judge. The metal cage to the right of the picture is where the accused had to stand. The attorneys all sat together at the round table in the middle. Both the prosecutor and the defense. Now look at the very bottom left of the photo. See that little bit of railing? Before we could go into the building there was a little medical emergency. In the group before us a little boy got his knee stuck between the bars and a medical team had to get him un-stuck! The ranger said it happen fairly frequently.

A painting of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

Above is our Ranger telling us about the history that happened in this room in July 1776.

Above is just half of the room. The big windows must have been opened on both sides of the room during the hot days of July, 1776. Except when the men were planning something secret. Then it would get very hot in this room.

Looking upstairs inside the Independence Hall.

Independence Hall—a monument to our history. The day is drawing to a close and we leave Philadelphia for our campground. It was a wonderful, and very historic day for us.