Visited the Harley-Davidson factory in York, PA. It is a great tour where you actually walk around the plant and see the assembly line, the laser cutter, paint shop, etc. You have to wear safety glasses and go through security.

We also visited Gettysburg and toured the battlefields with a tape cassette for your car that allows you to proceed at your own speed - it is really well done. It is very moving as the fields of the 3 day siege are preserved and contain over 1,100 monuments to the regiments that fought on both sides of the battle.

As we drive around the Amish area you see beautiful neat farms, laundry hanging out on the lines, horse carts on the roads, farmers with horse drawn plows in the fields, and stores selling Amish furniture and other goods. It is all intermingled with what we consider more normal, but seems to work fine together.

We are now in Stockton, New Jersey visiting our friends Susan and Tod. They have a lovely country home with a core that dates from the 1600s. There is a red barn, pond and beautiful grounds. We are parked by the barn with a restful view of geese in the pond and visiting deer.
Had a lovely dinner at the Stockton Hotel. It was the inspiration for the song , "There's a Small Hotel, with a Wishing Well...." Susan and Tod have returned to New York and Washington DC for their respective jobs and will join us again, here at the end of November. We had a fun weekend together and are now enjoying this restful setting alone for a couple of days.

Wednesday we are flying home for 2 weeks. It's Festival of Trees time and decorating time for Linda, Bob is putting carpet in Mark and Jeans's new house, and we will have Thanksgiving with the family. Will come back to New Jersey on the 29th and spend a few more days enjoying the Christmas fun in New York and Philadelphia.

We are still in Pennsylvania. Spent several days at a park in Honesdale . Its in NE PA in the Pocono Mountain region. About the higest elevation we saw was only 1900 feet! The rolling hills are pretty with lots of brown/gold trees this time of year. The Poconos are a tourist resort area of another era. Lakes, small motels, cottages, and lots of diners. Coal and railroads were important in the early days. The whole area pretty much buttons up for the winter - there are lots of signs that say, "See you in April.".

Our weather continues to be good. There were 2 days of heavy winds and about 3 nights where it rained during the night, but the days have been clear and great for touring. The forecast is for several nice days with temps above normal.

Visited a great National Park Service Steam Train Museum in Scranton. Its a working museum where there were several engines being restored in the round house. Saw the nearby Nicholson Railroad Bridge - the earliest large reinforced concrete structure (2375 feet long and 300 feet high) that had 10 arches and is really impressive and beautiful.

Also visited the Anthracite Coal museum and Bob went on a mine tour. Anthricite coal is hard and is a very clean burning fuel. (Bituminous coal is the softer variety and the one that has the bad reputation for being dirty.)

A few practical difficulties: 1. Motorhome parks have the water turned off and it is hard to find places to fill our tanks. It has not really frozen yet, but they think it might any minute. Apparently no one travels in the Northeast after October! West Coast parks are much more prepared for off season travel. 2. The water is off in most rest areas, parks, etc. making finding rest rooms a challenge when taking day trips by car. Thank heavens for McDonalds! 3. Same problem with motorhome park laundrys - they are closed.

We are now in New Holland PA in the heart of Amish country. More gently rolling hills, pretty farms and small historic towns. Visited Lancaster yesterday and also went to Hershey! Yum, yum, we took the chocolate world tour - its a bit like Disneyland, but still fun. It smells great there and you get a chocolate bar at the end of the tour!

We are currently in Pennsylvania at a Barns & Noble bookstore as we do not have internet reception in our motorhome park. You will have to wait until our next destination in a few days for an update.