9 September 2022 Valley Forge

 On December 3 1777, units of the Continental Army began arriving in Valley Forge. Soon over 12,000 men and thousands of followers had covered the hills and ridges and began the task of cutting down trees and building almost 2000  log cabins to house the horde. General Washington had picked this location for strategic reasons. In late September 1777, the British Army had captured Philadelphia and the Continental Congress moved to York to avoid capture. Valley Forge is only 20 miles outside Philadelphia. Far enough to prevent a surprise attack by the British yet close enough that the Continental Army could keep an eye on the British. It also put the Continental Army in a position to block the British from attacking York and Lancaster. The area was originally family farms. But the fields were soon turned into churned mud as the Continental Army cut down all the trees to be used to build log houses, cook, heat and build defensive positions. The Army built extensive defensive position on the ridge tops and learned to be an army instead of disparate units in the large Grand Parade Ground in the depression between the ridges. The Continental Army occupied Valley Forge until June of 1778 when the British abandoned Philadelphia. Upwards of 2000 soldiers died in Valley Forge due to disease and starvation. But the army learned to be a disciplined force which significantly helped in the future battles. The drive over took us on US30 again. We have driven stretch of US30 from Oregon to New Jersey. Maybe one summer we will drive it from coast to coast. After going to the visitor center to view the park movie, collect our passport stamp and review of the exhibits, we decided to do the auto tour around the park. Very little of the original battlements are still viewable. After the army left in June 1778, the farmers reclaimed their land, tore down the cabins and plowed under the majority of the battlements. Several reproductions of the cabins built by the soldiers are spread around to be viewed. There are multiple monuments to individual units spread around the park. We then sought out a local brewery (La Cabra Brewery) for an adult beverage and a late lunch before the 1.5 hour drive back to the Wanderer.

Park Entrance Sign

Reproduction Log Cabins

The Grande Parade where the troops drilled

Victory Arch. Flag at half mast for Queen Elizabeths passing

General Washingtons Headquarterts in Valley Forge

Example to the Artillery Park where they held the artillery in readiness to move to any axis of attack

Reproduction 3 pounder

Line of cannons.

7 September 2022 Chocolate, Chocolate, Chocolate

 Being in Hershey PA, one must visit the Hershey Chocolate plant. Unfortunately, they no longer offer plant tours since they opened the new plant in 1995. Instead, they have the Hershey Chocolate World. We decided to take the trolly tour of the town of Hershey. We arrived early at the Chocolate World and strolled through the extensive store to see what we might be interested in buying. The store is incredible with the selection of Hershey products (IE candy) and themed clothing. There are many Hershey Candy products in the store that we have never seen in the commercial stores. We also noted there is a Chocolate Tour ride that we decided we would do when we returned from the tour. We loaded up on the trolly and we were driven around (in the rain) the town. The guide kept up an amusing commentary the whole ride with facts about the Hershey company, Milton Hershey and his family, and the many things Milton Hershey built and did to support his employees. We learned many things we did not know about Milton Hershey. He failed six times with different candy companies before he succeeded with Hershey Chocolate. We learned about his wife and her early death and how that affected him. Also, about the orphanage that they built together (and is still running to this date) when they found out they could not have children. We learned about how Milton supported his employees during the depression and how he put his own fortune on the line to employ construction workers during the depression. Including a case where he told a supervisor to get rid of a steam shovel and hire more men to do that work. We learned that between the two factories (new Hershey’s Chocolate Factory and the Reeses plant, they turn out over 5 million pounds of chocolate candy a day and run around the clock, seven days a week, 365 days a year! That’s a lot of candy! Milton built the town and plant in this location due to the availability of fresh milk from the surrounding dairy farms. The cost of building the town and the factory here was cheaper than building a plant in a major city and shipping the milk in everyday. He knew that he needed to build a town for the workers to live in in this extremely rural location in 1903, and that good living conditions would ensure good workers.

When we returned to the Hershey Chocolate World, we walked over to the Chocolate tour and walked through the exhibits on how coco beans, sugar and milk are turned into Hershey’s chocolate. At the end of the exhibits is a ride that takes you through a simulated chocolate factory that is a bit hokey. Back at the store we grabbed a basket and went chocolate shopping! Most of it is for other people, but we picked up some sugar free stuff for ourselves. 

Hershey Chocolate World Sign

Hershey World Store

The Chocolate Tour

Coco Trees in the store

Hershey Characters

Our basket full of chocolate

Hershey Kisses Street Lamps

5 September 2022 Clinton CT to Hershey PA

 The drive to our next location was a bit intense.  The roads were rough with lots of big bumps with the expansion joints. In Pennsylvania, the toll road had a long stretch of construction where we were required to be in the left lane with the concrete barriers just inches away from the driver’s side of the Wanderer and inches  from the vehicles in the right lane. Then it started raining hard. At one point, we had to cross through a stretch of water on the road the the Wanderer did a little slip to the right. Fortunately, there was no one in the right lane and we kept the Behemoth in front of the Wanderer. A real white-knuckle stretch. We are staying at the Hershey Road Campground ($113 per night, no discount. But we did get a reimbursement of our deposit from 2020). The RV site was easy to get into and we set up quickly before the next round of rain moved in. 

Hershey Road Campsite
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3 September 2022 Mystic Seaport Museum

 Just a bit further east on I-95 from Groton is the historic town of Mystic. The grounds of the former Greenman Shipyard and Mill have been turned into a historical New England Mystic Seaport museum ($27 per person entry fee). Some of the buildings are from the original shipyard and others have been moved here from around the area. The shipyard is still in operation and does renovation of historical wooden ships. The Mayflower II we saw in Plymouth had just finished a refurbishment at this ship yard. In addition they have several wooden sailing ships docked at the site. After a quick lunch at the Spouter Tavern, we toured the exhibits about whaling before boarding the former whaling ship Charles W Morgan for a tour of the whaling ship. There we learned some of the grislier facts about the whaling trade and life aboard the whaler. She sailed 37 times over 80 years. With each sailing going for several years. She roamed all over the world in search of whales until 1921. The whales were hunted primarily for their blubber which we would be rendered down to oil on the ship. The whale oil was very expensive until the discovery of petroleum oil. After her retirement in 1921, she had a brief stint in the movies before being turned into a exhibit ship in New Bedford. She was moved to the Mystic Seaport in 1941. We then visited the Fireman, a retired New York City Fire Boat that was on duty in 2001 and helped pump water onto the World Trade Center wreckage after 911. Her active duty was from 1938 to 2010. We then wandered through the historical trade buildings including the cooperage, the ship forge (we had to ask the lady there is she watched Forged in Fire (she hadn’t)), the shipwrights, and the former Plymouth Rope Walk. We eventually ended up at the shipyard where they repair the historical ships. They have a Swedish ship currently in restoration. After wandering through the wood working shops for the ship yard, David thinks he could enjoy working here! After a visit to the gift shop, we headed back to the Wanderer.

Mystic Seaport Museum north entrance

Charles W Morgan

Forward deck with the fire pits for rendering the blubber

Aft Deck

The Fireman

Better view of the Charles W. Morgan

The ship forge

The ropewalk

The lighthouse

Swedish Ship in the shipworms for repair

Swedish Ship in the shipworms for repair

2 September 2022 Subs and Wine

 The campground is not far from Groton Connecticut, home of the Electric Boat Company (famous for their submarines) and the US Navy’s New London Submariner Training base. Adjacent to these two is the U.S. Navy Submarine Force Museum and the historic Nautilus (free entry). Unfortunately, the SSN Nautilus has just finished a major maintenance cycle and was still being cleaned up, so it was not open for tours. The Nautilus is the first nuclear power submarine and served in the US Navy from 1953 until 1980. She was the first submarine to reach the north pole submerged and the first to navigate under the ice from the Pacific to the Atlantic. The museum contained loads of information on the evolution of the US Navy submarine fleet, from the Turtle in the Revolutionary war to the latest Virginia Class Fast Attack boats. We spent about 3 hours working our way through all the exhibits including a very moving section on submariners that had been awarded the Medal of Honor. A brief visit to the gift shop yielded some more Christmas gifts. On our way back to the Wanderer, we stopped at the Chamard Vineyards (our 14^th state for wine tasting). These wines were much more to our tastes and we thoroughly enjoyed the wine. So much, we stayed for dinner as well. They had a nice selection of dry red wines, several bottles of which went home with us. The grounds were beautiful as well.

Entrance Sign

Submarine Force Museum

Hand Powered Revolutionary War Turtle Submarine

SSN Nautilus

Chamard Vineyard Entrance Sign

Chamard Vineyard Grounds

The Wine

The Sail and rudder of the NR-1 nuclear powered research submarine

31 August 2022 Gillette Castle

 When we planned this stop, we really did not research the area much. Once we arrived, we started looking around for interesting things to do. One that was at the top of the lists was Gillette Castle State Park. Our research found that the park is the former estate of William Gillette, a famous stage actor in the late 1800s and early 1900s. He wrote the stage plays for the series Sherlock Holms, in which he stared as the famous detective for over 40 years. The pictures of the estate were interesting so we drove the 21 miles over to the state park taking backroads. Connecticut is a pretty state and the drive on the back farm roads was beautiful. The house that William Gillette built between 1914 and 1919 resembles a rustic European castle. The wood working inside was done by shipwrights and is absolutely beautiful. Each of the 27 wooden doors in house is unique and hand-carved wood (no metal hardware except for the hings and springs) that are amazing in their craftsmanship. The interior is modest when compare to people like the Vanderbilts, but is exquisitely done. There are mirrors built above the windows that are angled so that he could spy on his guests on the first floor. There is a hidden passage that allowed him to suddenly appear and surprise his guests with a grand entrance. He built in a fire suppression system as part of the house design. In his later years, he built a three mile railroad on the 122 acre property that he would take guest for rides in. He had a steam powered and electric powered locomotive. His guests included the likes of Albert Einstein and his wife and Helen Hayes. The views looking out over the Connecticut River are beautiful and the primary reason why he chose this location for his retirement home. This is definitely a hidden gem and well worth the $6 entrance fee. There are trails in the park as well but we did not have time to do them. We drove south from the park and connected to US1 and took it along the coast until we had to turn north for the RV park. The coastal area is very congested compared to the rural areas north of I-95. There are some really nice homes along the coast with Long Island on the horizon.  It looks exactly the way you would expect Connecticut to look!

Castle Gillette

Castle Gillette closeup

Great Room fireplace

Great Room

The Solarium

Guest Room

Bathroom

One of the unique doors

Another Door

Another Door

View of the Connecticut River

The patio

Electric Train Engine

Passenger cars for the train

Gate

Display in the visitor center