Throw Back Thursday (Great American Road Trip 2006 #1)

I realized that my blog (as well as my youngest!) was non-existent in 2006 when I went on "The Great American Road Trip" with my two oldest children~ they were 8 and 6 at the time. We left on July 6, and returned home 1 month later on August 6. DH joined us halfway through, flying into Montana.

Anyway, I thought it would be fun to use some Throw-back Thursdays to document our trip because it really was an amazing time.

July 6 found us tooling through New England states, parts of New York, NJ, and on into Pennsylvania. A quick word about NY~ we stopped at the summit of Bear Mountain State Park on the west bank of the Hudson River. I was attempting to avoid the city and traffic, and took a very circuitous route to do so. The view was lovely:

However, the pull-off was a little eerie~ we were the only ones there when we stopped for a quick lunch. There was graffiti all over the signs, and then a couple of cars with totally black windows pulled up... and sat there... I very calmly gathered the two children and loaded them back into the van and left~ with a somewhat unsettled feeling. You'll have to wait for the very end of the series to hear more about Bear Mountain State Park in NY. ;) 

Our next stop was Morristown, NJ where we visited Jockey Hollow, home of portions of the Continental Army during the "Hard Winter." We watched a movie, visited with the park rangers, and Middlest (at that time the youngest) purchased a musket ball. *I* purchased our National Parks pass, which was the most-used pass on this trip. We didn't get to see the Ford Mansion where General Washington quartered during the hard winter, but this park is definitely on my want-to-return list.

After that we pushed hard and arrived at the home of a FIAR family near Hershey, PA who graciously offered their hospitality to us. How wonderful to meet people that I had only known as "cyber-friends" until that point. We spent part of the next day with them, touring the Hershey factory, and enjoying the quaintness of the town before we set off on our next leg. 

We drove through much of Pennsylvania, and stayed at our first hotel (Country Inns and Suites~ GREAT chain!) just over the border in Youngstown, OH.

Stay tuned for the next installment of Throwback Thursday~ hopefully I'll be on time next time! (It *is* still Thursday PCT!)
Blessings~