Day 8 (Fri June 18) to Day 12 (Tues June 22)

Clarion, PA to Harrisburg, PA:

We were particularly excited to head to the Harrisburg area because it is a neighbour to the town of Hershey (i.e., the chocolate), civil war stuff, and Amish folk (whose activity hub is in a town called Intercourse... Tee hee). Here's how this day breaks down: As we were entering Hershey, all the streets were lined with faux streetlamps, which were actually decorations - black iron poles with Hershey Kisses hanging off the end. We had some lunch at Red Robin (preferably never again) and then went to Hershey Chocolate World. Basically just a big chocolate store where mass amounts of chocolate are sold really cheap. People were checking out with pounds of the stuff - we just bought a Peanut Butter Cup twin set and split it! The woman at the counter thought it was pretty bizarre. We also did a "ride" through the factory to see how chocolate was made, and got a sample at the end. Next stop was the *new* Hershey Museum where we learned all about Mr Hershey, and did a chocolate tasting/learned about cocoa beans etc. We also "made" chocolate, i.e., poured melted chocolate into moulds and added "flavours" to it (cinnamon, chilli flakes or "nibs").

On our next day in Harrisburg, we were quite domestic - fixed the Duke (an oil change that lead to a rear U-joint replacement) and did some washing (or "laundry" for the Americans out there). Went to the Civil War Museum in the afternoon - saw people dressed-up in old timely fashion and in character to boot (including a piper)! They did some musket firing demonstrations, and had the Generals giving a rundown of their history etc. Besides that we generally wandered through the museum and read about stuff. That night, we spent a few hours at a micro-brewery across the road - had some beers (Tim did the sampler!) and had some bar food (onion rings and the like)... It was Sat night after all, and we had to splash out!

Harrisburg, PA to Knoxville, TN, via Amish Country (and Harrisonburg/Wytheville, VA):
We left Harrisburg on a Sunday, so the Amish weren't out working but they were getting around in their buggies! Every physical stereotype of the Amish that you can think of is true... The clothes, the hats, the beards, the transportation - it was very cool to see in person. We were a bit disappointed it was Sunday and we couldn't get a feel for how they go about a regular day (i.e., couldn't see them out working the fields etc) but was good to be amongst it when we'd carefully pass them on the road (our pony Duke goes a bit faster than their horses). Quite a tourist industry has been built up around the Amish too as we saw a few faux Amish villages (one even had an authentic Amish "3D experience"... We didn't do this, but we imagined robots of some kind!), and there were bus tours around the county with guides too. And one hilarious pamphlet quoted a happy customer as claiming how good the tour was because it really "humanized the Amish and made them relatable as real people"!! We did get in on this a little and do a buggy ride (although it wasn't Amish authentic - just some random hillbilly set-up), but he did take us out for 30mins down some back roads and talked to us a bit about the area which we think was good... at least the bits we could understand through his 6 teeth.

We arrived into Harrisonburg, VA quite late, and were hot and exhausted. Had a swim in our classy highway-side pool, then wandered out to find some takeaway (landed on Quiznos). We had to travel through West Virginia to make it to Harrisonburg, and it was 45 of the scariest minutes of our lives. It was a little touch and go when we stopped for gas and encountered our attendant called "Skeletor", but we managed to escape before needing to call upon the services of Heman. And fortunately, the one pitchfork that managed to make contact narrowly missed the fuel tank.

Next stopover - Wytheville, VA (pronounced With-Ville). We left Harrisonburg early, and went straight to the visitors centre upon arriving in Wytheville. The nice old lady who helped us was so full of southern hospitality that we felt very welcome - and it came out that she was 81 - what a trooper!! We had a lovely lunch per her reco ("left at the third set of stop lights"), and then went to the Shot Tower (where they made bullets during and pre- civil war). Settled into the hotel then went to the Chautaqua festival (an outdoor festival), where we had dinner while listening to some local bands (rock and acoustic) - mainly doing covers (Sweet Home Alabama was clearly the highlight). And of course, Little Miss 81 sent us to the festival, and as she said, it was "good for watchin' the people".

A final tidbit for this entry.... a new phrase we're starting to notice is a key piece of Southern lexicon: "I appreciate you." ... we guess in place of "thank you"!

More on TN/KY to come in the next entry!