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Halloween in Hershey, Pennsylvania
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October 31, 2005



YEA!! NO MORE RAIN!! We arrived down in Hershey, Pennsylvania on Friday to sunny skies and cool temps. There is no rain in sight or in the forecast. FINALLY!

So far most of the campgrounds we've stayed at were half empty. This time we pulled into the Thousand Trails Campground in Hershey, PA to a packed campground. Of the 250 campsites, all but a dozen were used. Our RV campsite was on the end, up on a hill, and overlooking the rest of the RV park. We were able lookout over the campgrounds at the many campfires burning and BBQ grills cooking. The aroma of burnt wood, burgers, hot dogs, and steaks filled the air.

There were a lot of kids in the park because of a Halloween celebration with a costume contest and trick-or-treating. The boys had attended the "Fall Festival" at First Baptist Church Orlando in the past, but have never gone trick-or-treating before. The next morning, we headed out for WalMart. We picked up a few bags of candy for passing out. Adam choose a Darth Vadar mask, but instead of a costume, we picked out some black jeans and a black hooded sweatshirt. This way he could wear them anytime and needed some heavier winter clothing. Lucas decided he didn't want any kind of mask to wear. He choose a camouflage shirt and pants and went as an army soldier. This too was a warmer cloth and he could wear anytime.

We returned back to the RV around lunch time and had a quick bite to eat. Then the boys had to get ready. The costume contest was at 2pm followed by trick-or-treating. Neither of the boys had won the contest, although the crowd gave Lucas a big cheer. Cricket had gone back to the RV to pass out candy, while I walked around the RV park with Adam and Lucas. They were having so much fun! Almost all the campers were participating and we had only completed half the RV park. By that time the boys bags were full and their feet were tired. I tried to encourage them to continue, but they had had enough. I wanted to them to get as much as possible, because that also meant more for Cricket and I! Once we returned to the RV, they dumped out their bags. Then, one by one, they took each piece of candy and either put it back into their bag if they liked it or into a new bag (the mommy & daddy bag). I think we ALL had candy for dinner that night!

We also found out that Hershey Park was open for the weekend. Normally they close for the season, but reopen for Halloween and Christmas weekends. So yesterday we went into Hershey to visit the chocolate factory and the amusement park. At the chocolate factory tour and museum, we got to see how the Hershey Kisses were made. While there we couldn't pass up the opportunity to taste some fresh chocolate. Cricket purchased a stuffed Hershey Kiss pillow. While Adam purchased a chocolate brown colored Hershey baseball cap, which I couldn't understand since he's not a big chocolate eater.

After the chocolate museum, we headed over to Hershey Park for some ROLLER COASTERS!! And they had 10 of them! And better yet, they had special pricing for the weekend. Just $24 per person got you a wrist band to ride as much as you wanted. That was almost 50% off the regular in-season price. The first roller coaster we rode on was The Comet, a wooden roller coaster that was a lot of fun. It wasn't too rough like some roller coasters. They had another larger wood coaster there that about shook my kidneys out. Anyhow, the one I enjoyed most was the Storm Runner. It was a steel roller coaster that was fast. Instead of using a slow chain lift start, it shot you out from 0-60 in just 2 seconds. The whole ride was extremely fast and smooth. A great coaster!

Hershey Park also had a trick-or-treat trail set up. They boys got to get some more free candy, made by Hershey of course.

Today was a work day. School, laundry, etc. Not much fun, but the necessities of life. I also had to deal with computer problems again. The new motherboard that was replaced in the laptop had issues and after a while I could not even turn it on anymore. So I shipped it back to ATEC Computers in Albany, NY so they could check it out.

The next few days, we'll be going to Harrisburg, Philadelphia and Gettysburg.

Talk to you again soon.

Mark









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