So we arrived on Sunday expecting lively temperatures and got 92 - hottest summer on record! Seems the climate is a'changin! Monday was a day of setting up, shopping and figuring out our plans while in this area. We found a fantastic Amish butcher just a few miles from the campground. What a treat! Real butchers! Hot dogs in casings, Delmonico steaks 1 ½ inches thick, any cut of meat we wanted and then some that we didn't, farmer fresh jumbo eggs for $1.79 a dozen. We even found scrapple and decided this was the time to finally try it. So scrapple is not on our list of but it again stuff. The taste was OK but the texture was total mush! Yuk! It was like making French toast using ooey-gooey white bread and letting it soak in the egg/milk mixture for too long. So the question is why would I want to pay for a meat product when I could just soak white bread and fry it. Ernie did the hot dogs on the grill and got them blackened and popped open just like I like them. Oh the memories - this is what we grew up with and you just can't get them in the South, without having to pay an arm and a leg for them.
Tuesday found us in Gettysburg. We had planned on going to the Visitor Center and getting the lay of the land and determining how we were going to tackle this phenomenal Civil War battlefield. We decided to hire a private guide for the afternoon. John drove our vehicle and spent the next 2 ½ hours making the battle of Gettysburg come alive. He was magnificent! His stories and understanding of the three day battle he was amazing! When we returned to the Visitor Center to drop him off, we both felt that going through the museum and seeing the diorama would have been anti-climatic and repetitive.
We decided to tour the Harley Davidson factory in York the next day. Even though we are not bike people ourselves, we found the tour to be sooooooo interesting. The degree of robotics (using optical fiber tape on the floors to provide computer directed paths for the robots) and the just in sequence build lines was incredible. The workers have 15 seconds in most stations to add their components before the bike moves on to the next station. As for the ergonomic component of factory work, the sleds carrying the bikes are all height adjustable to accommodate the worker. They also change places on the lines every hour to eliminate repetitive muscle use. The tour was almost an hour and a half and was worth every minute.
We've discovered that if you like plant tours, this part of Pennsylvania is plant tour heaven. Since Thursday was supposed to be a rainy and overcast day, we went on plant tours of Snyder's of Hanover and Utz (potato chips and other snack foods). While these kind of activities may not be for everyone, we really enjoy plant tours. Snyder's had a tour guide and Ernie and I had a private tour since no one else reserved at that time. They have an enclosed walkway over their operations and you can see everything but the mixing, shaping and baking of the pretzels and other snacks since these operations are in an enclosed system. Just wish we could have been on the floor to enjoy the smells and sounds. The Utz operation was similar but it was self-guided. We were able to watch the potatoes being taken off the trucks and conveyered (is there such a word?) through washers and peelers (actually machines that abrade the peels) into slicers, fryers, dryers, salters and then onto packing. It was soooo cool. Of course, each impact had an outlet store so we just had to stock up.
There is another potato chip company, Martin's, that provides tours on the floor. We're going to try that next week.
Good news, temperatures have dropped overnight and we got up to 60 degrees this morning. We might have a campfire tonight. Since this campground is an actual working farm, it's fun wandering around. They have an abundance of animals, horses, donkeys, geese, goats, llamas, cows, turkeys, etc. that we can visit. A nice miniature golf course, big swimming pool, an ample rec room and tons of trees.
Tomorrow we will go to the 22nd Annual McLain Celtic Festival and Highland Games. Looking forward to that. Our friend Annie (from the Dominican Republic and Barnegat New Jersey) is going to drive down next week and spend a few days visiting. Haven't seen her since last Fall in the DR. We're really excited about her visit.
We were originally planning on going on to visit more DR friends who live in Batavia NY, but found out that she died from a cardiac event. We are so going to miss her. Don't know if it was that, a long summer, or what but find that I'm ready to get home and settle in for a while. Can't wait to see the family and spend a little time catching up. Maybe the gypsy is wearing off a bit or maybe need to do shorter trips out and more frequent visits back to Texas. Not sure, just have to figure that out. Maybe pondering over a bit f wine will provide sone clarity ----- or not.
Y'all take care!
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