We left our hotel this morning and headed a bit further West along the Historic Lincoln Highway.
Our first photo opportunity is the Cozee Court Motel, Lancaster PA.
Brian Butko has written several wonderful books about the Lincoln Highway. These books contain many many photos and driving instructions and great insight into little known facts about the road. We are trying to stop at most of the highlights in Brian’s books Greetings from the Lincoln Highway and Lincoln Highway Companion.
Another stop is the Prospect Diner. Home of the 99 cent breakfast. Where can you get 2 eggs, homefries and toast for 99 cents. This is a modular diner made by Kullman and was originally put on the property in 1955.
At this point we are going to divert away from our exploration of the Lincoln Highway to follow another passion… that of the almighty cocoa bean and Chocolate. Just a few miles North of the Lincoln is the town of Hershey Pennsylvania… home of Hershey Chocolates.
We knew we were getting close when we started seeing street names such as Cocoa Avenue and Chocolate Drive and the clincher was these creative street lights.
We pulled into the large parking lot and began our tour of the Chocolate Factory.
The actual tours of the plant have been discontinued because of the sheer volume of people wanting to participate in the tours, so Hershey came up with this reasonable facsimile of a tour. It is a ride that is similar to the Disney World ride “Its a Small World”. You sit in an arcade style ride car and it takes you on a journey through all the processes of how Hershey Chocolates are made. Called the Hershey's Chocolate Tour. The photos didn’t turn out so great because of all the spinning and movements of both the ride car and the factory machinery, but here are a couple of photos.
At the end of the ride, you are dropped off smack dab into the middle of the Hershey Chocolate Store… who can walk through this without buying something.
We ate lunch (pizza) and had Hershey’s Chocolate milk shakes… Yes we also bought chocolates to enjoy later.
We drove out of Hershey Pennsylvania and got ourselves pointed back towards the Lincoln Highway, but along the way we passed right by the Three Mile Island Nuclear Facility. I had no idea we were anywhere near this facility until I read the sign. The plant is widely known for having been the site of the most significant accident in United States commercial nuclear energy, on March 28, 1979, when one of the reactors suffered a partial meltdown. According to the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the accident resulted in no deaths or injuries to plant workers or members of nearby communities. The reactor core that melted down has since been removed from the site, but the site has not been decommissioned.
Back on the Lincoln Highway we found this plaque in a small park.
We drove over the 1930’s Veterans Memorial Bridge that crosses the Susquehanna River.
The 1950’s Jim Mack’s Ice Cream shop is worth a stop.
And we found a 1928 Lincoln Highway Concrete Marker. These markers define the route and are found from one end of the Lincoln to the other, but this is the first one we have seen in Pennsylvania. This one is located in Hellam PA.
We pulled into the driveway at the Haines Shoe House, but unfortunately it is not open today. Only open on Wednesdays to Sundays. It would have been a fun roadside attraction to see.
The Chateau Motel.
The Flamingo Motel.
Maple Donuts where we stopped to purchase some donuts.
The Modernaire Motel.
Don’t ask to use their pool though.
And Barnhart’s Inn.
We pulled into our hotel for the evening.. The Super 8 in York PA. and we walked right back out again and took a room across the road at the Wingate by Wyndham. This Super 8 was creeping me out. The room smelled, the bed was sagging, the furniture was old and abused, the wallpaper was peeling off the wall. I asked the manager to cancel our reservation and not charge us, we were not going to be staying. He obliged. He wanted to know what was wrong and I simply said that this hotel is not up to the Super 8 standards we expect.
We consistently stay at Super 8’s, Ramada's, Best Western's, Days Inn etc and rarely have any complaints or issues, but I just could not bring myself to lower my minimum expectations and stay at this Super 8.
It surprises me that there is no “minimum” standard for a hotel to be allowed to operate under the Super 8 name or any "brand name". More and more as we travel, we are finding hotels that are below the standards that you come to expect of the “brand name”. I walk into a McDonald’s and there is a certain expectation or consistency that I know will be there and the same should be true of a hotel that is licenced by the name brand.
Ok, that’s my rant for this evening.
Type to you tomorrow.
To see all of our photos from today you can find them on my FLICKR site.
No comments:
Post a Comment