11/11/2020
As usual I am behind in my blogs. It's been a busy few weeks since my return to Florida but that's no excuse. I'll try to get these blogs done in a more timely manner in the future.
Al Lowich and I had been talking about trying to get together for a short trip somewhere where there was no mandated quarantine. The solution was to head into Pennsylvania after meeting each other in New Jersey. I was able to work out staying in New Jersey for less than 24 hours upon arrival toTrenton as well as departing within 24 hours so that I could comply with New Jersey regulations that I would be considered as "passing through" and not required to quarantine for 14 days.
Al and I headed to our first destination on Thursday 10/15 to Lancaster, PA. I had booked a room in Lancaster outside the main city so that we could cycle through the Amish countryside and hoping as well to see some fall foliage. We were lucky to do both. I found a route on the Lancaster Bicycle website that was 51 miles that included a covered bridge, a bakery and two ice cream stops. Due to a afternoon start we were able to cover less than half the route but we saw everything except the last ice cream stop. Here are some photos from that route. It was a beautiful afternoon . We started at 1:30 PM when the temp was 63 degrees.
Conestoga Covered Bridge
Conestoga Covered Bridge
Amish Country farmlands
An organic llama farm. Is this the GEICO hump-day" celebrity llama?
A horse enjoying his meal
Amish Ice Cream stop
Unfortunately we arrived here at 4 PM.....just at closing time. At this point in the route we decided to turn around and head back but my Garmin had other ideas. It lost the route....due to operator error...and we had to use Google maps to find our way back to the start. It was late and I was not sure how to switch the map from car route to cycling route so we were stuck going back on busy roads. It still was a great ride!
We made it back to the start by 5:30 PM and it was still light. We were never so glad to see Al's car at the start of the route! Whew......
The hotel desk person recommended the restaurant next to the hotel. There was no dressing up required and that suited us just fine. What we didn't know was the chef/owner was a past chef for the White House.
This book was on display at the restaurant and of course available for purchase. We flipped through it and saw some great recipes. We also learned that the chef prepared meals from Obama as well as George Bush. I would highly recommend this restaurant if you are visiting the area. The food was excellent, moderately priced and the inside was cozy and inviting.
This is the front of the restaurant.... The Greenfield.
This is a photo of the front of the restaurant....The Greenfield Restaurant and Bar
Fall foliage in Lancaster in front of the hotel
The next day it rained as predicted. We were glad that we rode the day before. We decided to head up to Hanover, PA early even though it was suppose to rain there as well. As it turns out....the rain stopped and we were able to check into our hotel early at 10:30 AM. We stayed at the Hampton Inn in Hanover, PA....the same hotel that the Philly Bike Club stays at when they have their fall foliage weekend. Unfortunately due to the virus the trip was canceled so we decided to recreate our own fall foliage weekend.
After settling in at the hotel we ventured off to Gettysburg to tour the Gettysburg National Military Park. It was very busy when we arrived at the park. We went into the visitor center to get some help planning a tour of the park. We have been here many times...cycling around the park on one of our visits.. and were looking for a different twist to the tour. The park ranger told us about the Eisenhower Farm and we decided to start there since we had never seen that part of the park. We didn't even know it was part of the park. However it didn't turn out that way. We couldn't find the farm and we decided to take the regular tour. Disappointing.....until we found the Eisenhower Farm when we were driving near Little Round Top on the regular Gettysburg tour. Here are some photos of the Gettysburg part of the tour as well as our stop at the Eisenhower Farm.
For more information on these sites click on the links below.
https://www.nps.gov/gett/index.htm
https://www.nps.gov/eise/index.htm
The Florida Monument
A Map of the Eisenhower National Historic Site
The Eisenhower Farmhouse. Only part of it is original. The park ranger gave a talk and mentioned that part of the house was a log cabin underneath and had to be torn down and rebuilt to make the farmhouse habitable
Eisenhower greenhouse
I highly recommend a stop at the Eisenhower National Historic Site while touring the main park at Gettysburg
We had a full day of sightseeing and were looking for a inexpensive restaurant when we got back to the hotel. We ended up at a local Italian restaurant, La Cucina. The food was excellent, a local favorite and the owner even waited on tables.
https://www.lacucinaitalian.com/
We expected cooler temperatures in the morning and boy was it cool.....33 degrees at 8 AM. Thank goodness we were able to have breakfast included with our hotel stay so we didn't have to go outside. There was no way either of us were going to cycle until it warmed up. We found an Amish farmer's indoor market and picked up some shoofly pie as well as some whoopie pies in peanut butter and regular creme flavor to bring back as gifts. You can't go to the Amish country without bringing back some shoofly pie!
By 9:30 AM it was 41 degrees....a heatwave...and we decided to explore Cordorus Sate Park. It wasn't a far drive from our hotel and it has lots of areas to walk around and explore. It is definitely worth a visit. There are marina's in several parts of the park as well as a Veteran's memorial and disc golf.
https://www.dcnr.pa.gov/StateParks/FindAPark/CodorusStatePark/Pages/default.aspx
Here are some photos of the park
Cordorus State Park became a big part of the rest of our trip there. Al decided not to ride and since I knew the way to the park by car ....I felt it was safe to go back to the hotel and ride up to the park. Al followed behind me with the car just in case I needed a sag. The ride was hillier than I thought but I got 20 miles in for the afternoon. I had to wait for the temps to get into the 50's and it was not until 2 PM that it was warm enough to ride.
We had spotted a local restaurant on that route and decided to try it for dinner. It was a local diner and not worth a trip back for a future meal.
When we woke up on Sunday it was 32 degrees and again too cold to ride. Bummer. After breakfast we went back to Codorus State Park, walked a few miles and visited the part of the park that had disc golf (photos above)
We decided to head back to New Jersey early and stop at Valley Forge National Historic Park on the way back.
https://www.nps.gov/vafo/index.htm
We drove the Encampment Tour which was a nice drive with the final highlight of the Washington Memorial Chapel. There were some other interesting stopping points along the tour as well. By the time we got to the park the temperature was more moderate. There were a lot of visitors that day.
It was getting late....and we got lost finding the PA turnpike on the way out of the park so it took us a little longer to get back to New Jersey to pick up Marty K for dinner at DeLorenzo's in PA. They have 50% restaurant seating virus mandates so we made sure we made reservations. The tables are space 10 feet apart and there is outdoor seating as well.
If you enlarge the photo you can see that my mask says DeLorenzo's. Al bought it for me as a souvenir of our trip.
Marty,Al and I enjoyed the tomato pie which I can't get in Florida. I make sure I have tomato pie each time I come to New Jersey/PA....unless the virus would prevent me from accomplishing the task.
We had a great trip. What I neglected to mention is that we were got lost on most every adventure on this trip including getting lost in Lancaster on the ride, getting lost in Gettysburg trying to find the Eisenhower house and getting lost trying to find our way back on to the PA Turnpike to get back to NJ. Thank goodness for Google Maps!
