There will be no exploring of this state. We visited the Gettysburg area last year and the Dutch Country several years ago in a car trip. We still need to visit the capital and other parts of the state, but that will wait for a future cross country trip.
We will only be staying overnight in Elizabethtown. After 5 hours and 169 miles we arrived at the Elizabethtown KOA.
ELIZABETHTOWN KOA
This is a fairly nice RV park. We wanted a pull-thru site so we were put way in the back where the pull-thrus are and we had the area to ourselves. There are lots of empty seasonal trailers in this park, so this is yet another park with full time trailers. We got settled into our site when we started hearing gun shots. Several of them and they were very loud; so loud that I found myself jumping every time a shot was fired. I asked a staff woman cleaning the bathrooms where the shots were coming from and she said the large forest next to the KOA property is privately owned. It is hunting season and the owners like to hunt in their forest. So sadly, every time a shot was heard, did that mean a Bambi was dead!? :o(
INTERCOURSE / BIRD-IN-HAND
By the time we got settled into our campsite, it was lunch time. We still had several hours of the day left so we drove a short distance through Lancaster into Intercourse and Bird-in-Hand.
These are two small towns, side by side, in the heart of the Dutch Country. We explored some of the Amish country and looked for a place to eat. We checked out several shops that had unique home décor and Amish crafts.
Driving into Lancaster we spotted several of the Amish traveling the side of the road in their horse and buggy. We past several beautiful farms and you could see the Amish working out in the fields. One farm had the whole family including the children out in the field putting potatoes into baskets. It was very picturesque. We also saw Amish riding bicycles. And the kicker was sighting a long covered stall for parking a horse and buggy in the Costco parking lot!
INTERCOURSE’s original name is Cross Keys. It was changed to Intercourse in 1814. A theory for the name was two famous roads that crossed here; Philadelphia Pike ran east and west through the center of town. The road from Wilmington to Erie intersected in the middle. The joining of two roads is claimed by some to be the basis for the name Cross Keys and eventually Intercourse. Another theory is the use of language during the early days of the Village. The word ‘intercourse’ was commonly used to describe the “fellowship’ and ‘social interaction and support’ shared in the community of faith which was a big part of rural village life.
The legend of the naming of BIRD-in-HAND goes back to the time when the Philadelphia Pike was being laid out between Lancaster and Philadelphia. Two road surveyors were discussing whether they should stay at their present location or go to the town of Lancaster to spend the night. One of them said, “A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush,” and so they remained. By 1734, road surveyors were making McNabb’s Inn their headquarters rather than returning to Lancaster every day. The sign in front of the inn is known to have once portrayed a man with a bird in his hand and a bush nearby in which two birds were perched. The Inn was later renamed to Bird-in-Hand Inn.
OHIO
We left Pennsylvania very early this morning because it was going to be a very long drive to our destination in Ohio. We drove through Pennsylvania on the Pennsylvania Turnpike (Interstate) and saw lots of fall foliage in the hills. The color was peaking and it was beautiful.
We crossed the border into Ohio and saw more color, but not a much as it was past peak and a lot more trees were bare. Ohio is one of the states we have not visited with the trailer. However, we will only be staying overnight and not do any exploring in this state. We will count it, but we will be returning to explore more of Ohio in future cross country trip. So, ten down and one to go. Actually we did explore the Cincinnati area during our 2008 cross country trip, but camped just over the border in Kentucky.
After 7.5 hours and 310 miles, we arrived at Spring Valley Campground in Cambridge, Ohio.
SPRING VALLEY CAMPGROUND, Cambridge
This is a nice campground with about 200 sites. The sites are not crowded, but spread out over a large property that is fairly level and the sites are laid out in nice even rows. There are trees surrounding the property and several trees inside the campground. The sites are spacious and very level. The interior roads are paved and the sites are gravel with grass on both sides. All the sites have a picnic table and fire ring. It is an impressive campground and has a comfortable feel to it.
INDIANA
We had another long day and a long drive leaving Ohio. And it rained all day (in Ohio and Indiana) and all night. We stayed on Interstate 70 and 74 and we hit some major gridlock driving through Zanesville, Ohio. There were some wide loads on the highway and hundreds of big rigs so it was slow going and the traffic came to a complete stop a few times.
We also passed the signs along the road in Zanesville, Ohio flashing “Caution, Exotic animals, do not leave your car.” We heard on the news last night about a jerk who owned many exotic animals (lions, tigers, bears, wolves, and monkeys) had killed himself after opening all the cages and letting these poor animals loose. All, but about 5, were killed (48) by the police. A very tragic story. When we passed by the area, they were still searching for more animals.
After 6.75 hours and 105 miles we arrived at Sugar Creek Campground in Crawfordsville, Indiana.
SUGAR CREEK CAMPGROUND
This is a very small campground with about 44 sites. More than half the sites had seasonal trailers on it. The campground is laid out in even level rows that run along Sugar Creek. Interior roads are dirt, sites are dirt and grass with a picnic table and fire ring. There are both pull thru and back-ins. There is free WiFi with a good connection. There is no cable TV, but you can get several local channels. The bathrooms are in poor shape; old and in need of maintenance.
We had visited and explored Indiana on a cross country trip in 2008. So there will be no exploring on this trip. Since we arrived at the campground late afternoon and only we’re only staying overnight, we did not unhitch the trailer. It was raining very hard and it was cold (in the low 40’s). So we stayed put, turned the heat on, and got out the laptops.
The next day we continue on through Illinois and into the Central US states of Iowa, Nebraska and Colorado.
No comments:
Post a Comment