Thursday, 11 June (Hershey & Lancaster): Today was our day to visit Hershey and the Amish country around Lancaster. After our morning coffee, we headed for Hershey to visit Hershey’s Chocolate World. We had no trouble finding it, although it seemed a lot further than I’d thought. We came into Hershey from the east on Hwy 322 and found signs directing us to the “Hershey Attractions” in the north central edge of Hershey. Besides Hershey’s Chocolate World, they also have a big amusement park (Hershey Park), a stadium (Hershey Arena), the Hershey Trolley Works, and ZooAmerica. Across the highway is a cool antique auto museum too. We’d really only come to see Hershey’s Chocolate World and take the free tour. Parking was a bit of a shock, with up to 2 hours free, 2-5 hours @ ... read more

Tuesday, 9 June (Capitol KOA to PhiladelphiaWest Chester KOA): We left the Capitol KOA a bit after 8am and along the way to the Philadelphia /West Chester KOA (93 miles), we called the Herrs Snack Food Factory to schedule a tour at 10am. The tour was pretty neat, informative, and free. They make a variety of chips, pretzels, nachos, and popcorn, but only distribute as far south as North Carolina. Near the end of the tour, we all go to try some ruffle-type chips right out of the overn… yum! They also gave us a free bag. It was a great deal, especially being free. We arrived at the Philadelphia/West Chester KOA (hereafter referred to as the Philly KOA) just after noon and even though their computer was down and check-in time was normally 2pm, they ... read more

Sunday, 7 June: We woke up in plenty of time for our shuttle, so after the morning necessities, we were on our way to our first day of touring Washington D.C. There were about 12 other KOA folks on the shuttle. We arrived at our drop off point near the Capitol Building and decided to look for coffee before boarding the Tourmobile, but ended up touring the Museum of the American Indian for almost two hours. The place was quite fascinating, to the point that we had to drag ourselves away so we could see other sights. I did get my coffee there though. From the museum, we headed back to our drop off point to hop on the Tourmobile. We wanted to get a better idea of what to see, so we took over half ... read more

Friday, 5 June We got up a bit late since it was raining, then took showers and headed to the beach. Parking was a bit of a problem, since this early in the season some of the lots were closed and those that weren't wanted $5.00 for any amount of time. We finally located some metered spots around 23rd Street where you pay 25 cents for 15 minutes. We strolled along the beach for about an hour and a half. Virginia Beach is much more commercialized than Pensacola Beach, with high-rise hotels, souvenir shops, and restaurants everywhere. They do however have it very nicely set up, with a cement boardwalk for pedestrians and a paved path for bicycles, with benches and landscaping along the way. We found out that apparently they were holding some sort of ... read more

Wednesday, 3 June: We left Serena's around 8:30am, heading for Mason's Mine, near Franklin, N.C. After about 3 hours of driving mostly on small roads, we arrived atg Mason's Ruby & Saphire Mine. I believe this is the only place where you can still dig your own dirt and isn't "seeded". They maintain a board listing all stones found there over 10 carats. There were already quite a few this year, and two were added that day. Unfortunately, neither of them were mine or Manoli's. We spent about 5 hours there and had a good time. It didn't rain and it wasn't that hot. Manoli found 2 smaller, but nice stones about 1 or 1 1/2 carats each. I found 8 stones ranging from 1/2 carat to almost 4 carats, with 2 or 3 nice ones ... read more