Leaping the Dips in Penn’s Woods
Wednesday, August 10
Jim had been planning a roller coaster trip for some time but the Covid pandemic had put it on hold for a couple of years. He and Lynne decided to head to Pennsylvania and combine the amusement park visits with other attractions to get a change of scenery. We planned on leaving the house at 6:00 AM but our cat Isabelle decided we needed to wake up earlier than the alarm clock had been set so we hit the road a bit earlier than planned.I-71 north through Columbus was uneventful and traffic was fairly light. North of Columbus we encountered heavy rain which had let up by the time we stopped for breakfast at exit 151 for Mt. Gilead. Our route so far had been identical to the route we took on our presidential site trip in June but finally differed when we caught I-76 to Akron before switching to I-80 into Pennsylvania. Traffic remained light as we headed east and construction zones barely slowed us down. We exited I-80 at Danville crossing the Susquahanna as we made our way south to Elysburg.A little after 3:00 PM we arrived at Knoebels Amusement Resort. Knoebels is very much a remnant of another time with free parking and free admission. Their food is highly rated in amusement park circles so our first stop was the Alamo Restaurant, a sit-down diner with table service. We put them to the test with Lynne ordering spaghetti and meatballs while Jim had fish and chips. Our verdict was the dishes were well above average for amusement park food.
We bought ride tickets and headed towards the back of the park. First stop was the Flying Turns, a recreation several years in the making of a classic bobsled ride. The cars looked like little airplanes and the trough was made of wood making the ride the only one of its type. Lynne passed on the roller coasters at the park so Jim rode solo. Next was Phoenix, a rare example of a wooden roller coaster which had been relocated (it was originally the Rocket from Playland Park in San Antonio, Texas). We had planned on visiting the Haunted House but the heat and humidity were wearing Lynne down so we headed back towards the front of the park with Jim grabbing a quick ride on the Twister roller coaster along the way. We took a ride on the Ferris Wheel to catch the breeze before taking the tram through the parking lot back to our car. Pennsylvania 54 and 901 took us through heavily wooded hillsides and past small farms to I-81. A few miles past Hershey we reached Harrisburg where we reached the Comfort Inn on Briarsdale Road, grabbed some fast food for dinner and gassed up the car.
Thursday, August 11
After a quick breakfast at the motel we drove south past the airport to see the Three Mile Island power plant, site of the 1979 accident which resulted in a partial meltdown of the nuclear fuel in one of the plant’s two reactors. Cleanup of the damaged reactor was completed in 1993. The undamaged reactor continued operation until 2019.From Harrisburg we headed east to Hershey’s Chocolate World. Hershey bills itself as “The Sweetest Place on Earth” with plants there producing millions of pounds of candy on a daily basis. We arrived just before opening and were able to book the first tour of the day, the Historical Trolley Tour. History of the area, the Hershey family and Milton Hershey’s legacy were given as we passed the factories, homes, schools and other landmarks. Downtown Hershey has streetlights which look like Kisses. They alternate between silver-colored and dark brown (wrapped and unwrapped). The tour was both fun and informative and several samples of Hershey products were handed out as we traveled.Back at Chocolate World we took the Chocolate Tour. This simulation shows all the steps in creating chocolate candy from the processing of the beans to the packaging of the finished products. The attraction replaced tours of the actual plant which had grown so popular they began to interfere with the plant’s operation. After the conclusion of the tour we looked through the huge gift shop but the huge line waiting to check out convinced us to order some souvenirs after we got back home.
From Hershey we proceeded north on US 22 and US 15. Eateries were scarcer than we anticipated and we ate a late lunch at the IHOP in State College. I-99 took us south to Tipton, home of Delgrosso’s Amusement Park. The parking lot was packed and skies were threatening rain so we decided to skip our visit and continued on to Altoona. Our navigation system made sure we missed the driveway to Lakemont Park but we were able to turn around and park close to the entrance. Where Delgrosso’s had been packed, Lakemont was practically empty.Leap the Dips, built in 1902, is the oldest operating roller coaster in the world. It is the last of the side-friction figure eight coasters around. We bought our tickets, the ride operator pushed us out of the station to the lift hill, and we were off. With its tallest drop being 9 feet and steepest descent at 25 degrees the coaster sounded tame but the operator warned us it would be bumpy and he was proven right. We survived our trip and have commemerative ticket stubs for souvenirs. Jim also rode the Skyliner wooden coaster (he was the only one on the train) before we hopped back in the car and headed south.I-99 took us south to US 30 and the Flight 93 National Memorial. Flight 93 was one of the four aircraft hijacked on 9/11. The passengers and crew found out the other three aircraft had been used in suicide attacks so they fought back against the hijackers who then crashed the plane near Shanksville. It was later discovered their intended target had been the US Capitol. We arrived as a light rain began to fall and just as the visitor center closed. The memorial is built along the flight path and overlooks the wooded hillside where the plane hit. A memorial plaza pays tribute to the passengers and crew.
From the memorial we continued west on US 30 through Ligonier and past Idlewild amusement park which we had visited 20 years prior. Passing south of Pittsburgh we made our way to I-70 and stopped for the night at a Holiday Inn Express in Belle Vernon where we ate very tasty Chinese food for dinner at the Little Bamboo restaurant.
Friday, August 12
We had hoped to find something of interest on our way home but Lynne had to be back in time for a mid-afternoon meeting at her mother’s nursing home so we left the hotel early and drove on I-70 through thick fog. As we approached the Belle Vernon bridge over the Monongahela the fog cleared and we got a good view of the massive Speer Railroad Bridge. In West Virginia we stopped for gas and found it was 70 to 80 cents a gallon cheaper than in Pennsylvania. I-470 took us through Wheeling and into Ohio where we rejoined I-70.A little past Zanesville a motorcyclist cut us off forcing Lynne to slam on the brakes and giving us quite a start. A few minutes later we saw a crop duster spraying a cornfield. I-270 ran us south of Columbus to I-71. Picked up lunch at Skyline on route 48 and pulled into our driveway a few minutes before noon.
Milestones and highlights:
Hershey’s Chocolate World, Leap the Dips, Flight 93 National Memorial.
States and provinces we visited:
Ohio, West Virginia and Pennsylvania.
Capital cities we saw:
Columbus, Harrisburg.