Today we went to Hershey, PA, where we soon found that this is the birthplace and manufacturing center of Hershey’s chocolate. They have a World of Hershey which is a museum about the guy who started the business and founded the town along with Hershey’s Chocolate World which is an enormous store to buy anything Hershey (or Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups) in addition to some droll rides you can take if you want to see all the Hershey city sights or the chocolate factory. Right next door is Hersheypark which is a theme park for those who love chocolate and roller coaster rides that induce the recently eaten chocolate to come back up so you can buy more.
We passed on the museum and Hersheypark and popped into Hershey’s Chocolate World. The place was mobbed with prospective chocolate buyers who were only outnumbered by the chocolate buyers. I noted that some of the folks had shopping baskets and carts that were filled with a variety of chocolate and chocolate-covered peanut butter items that they had lined up to purchase. They all were going to be required to ultimately depart from the gaudy air-conditioned environs of this chocolate Mecca to re-emerge into the quite warm and humid outside environment where all of the recently purchased items could melt into a gooey puddle in their broiling hot cars. Doctors that treat diabetics and dentists that drill away decayed teeth should all contribute liberally to this chocolate monster since this place seems plainly to be a substantial source of their inflated incomes
We escaped with only two big chocolate bars, a killer size box of Whoppers and only two chocolate cookies with chocolate chips. I suppose shortly after departure my blood sugar had a spike that would have been suitable for killing vampires as they sleep. Although quite tasty, these items are probably inherently bad for most people which I ignored as I slam-dunked one of the cookies down the grocery hole. Damn, they are tasty.
We drove about a little in Hershey which seems to have a big variety of really gorgeous residential and commercial buildings, primarily made from brick masonry although some are stone and a few are wood. We wandered up a side road from the chocolate epicenter and soon found the Antique Automobile Museum which is associated with the Smithsonian. There are not a tremendous number of cars here but all of the rigs spread over three floors are unique. They have many classics which are one-of-a-kind because back in the day auto manufacturers were mostly guys putting machines together in their garages. They have a nice selection of 1906 to 1910 Fords, not less than 3 Tuckers and quite a few types of cars that I have not heard of previously. They also have a big selection of motor scooters like CZs, Cushman and Vespa-type scooters with names that I could not recognize. This is a great place for car buffs but if you are going here, go to Chocolate World afterward to keep your chocolate from congealing into a misshapen gob after you depart.
From the auto museum we drove around the countryside on our way back to the Invader and we happened to pass through Lebanon, PA. Lebanon must be the slums for the underpaid workers that make chocolate or nothing because it was pretty rough-looking. Lots of run-down buildings with scrawny slum dwellers lurking on the porches was the main view from Hwy 72 which runs through the middle of town. I suggested to Peg that she not do a lot of side road exploring in this part of the world so we headed back toward the Invader. On the way, we noted the sky was turning an ominous shade of dark gray so we turned on the radio and almost instantly found a station that had Emergency Broadcast System announcements indicating we were about to experience some severe thunderstorms and possible tornadoes. We hustled back down Hwy 322 to our campsite so we could be sucked into the sky while in our trailer instead of being sucked into the sky in our pickup truck. It turned out that no tornado developed but the thunderstorm certainly did. We spotted a little lightning before hearing some very impressive thunder which immediately preceded a torrential downpour. All the fun was over in about two hours but everything in this part of PA is no longer thirsty.