Hershey, PA -- April 2008

Hershey was nothing I expected it to be. I’m not really sure what I expected, really. Maybe a quaint little village with lots of shops and a candy factory that you could tour. I suppose the largest attraction here is Hershey Park, which is the theme park that has more roller coasters than I’ve ever seen at any one park.

I was not thrilled with Hershey’s Chocolate World at all. It is a good thing that the proprietor of the campground I stayed in told me that it was aimed towards the kids, so I was semi-prepared for what was ahead. If you are kid, it’s great; if you are an adult, it is OK: A Disney-type ride through an animated tour of how Hershey chocolate is made.

There was an animated 3-D movie that I didn’t bother with, but I did take the trolley tour through Hershey. I was so in awe and amazed at what I learned about Milton and Kitty Hershey, that I was near tears through most of the tour.

Hershey built his candy factory here in Derry Township. As his business grew, he put the majority of his profits into the community, the least of which includes a theater and sports center. When Milton and Kitty learned that they would never be able to have children, they decided to build a school for orphaned boys (later opened up to girls in 1976). Originally started as a trade school, it evolved from being only for orphans to being a K-12 school available for oppressed children all over the U.S. There are currently 1700 children who attend the school today. All of their needs are met from clothing to food to shelter to education to transportation. When a child graduates, he/she is given a crisp $100 bill (a tradition still practiced today because Milton Hershey used to say, “If you have a $100 in your pocket, you can do just about anything you desire.”) In addition to the $100 bill, all graduates receive $77,000 to continue a college education.

Three years after Kitty Hershey died, Milton gave the bulk of his estate ($60,000,000) to the Hershey Trust to manage and run the school which still utilizes that money to this day. For every chocolate bar or Hershey’s Kiss or Reeses Peanut Butter Cup that you buy, a portion of that money goes into the school. I will never look at a Hershey bar the same again. The stockholders of the Trust company are all Alumni of the school and stock can only be sold to Alumni.

Hershey did not treat his employees any differently. He built homes for all of his executives and even his gardener. He knew that his employees could not work 24/7 so he built them the amusement park. He gave Penn State millions to open a medical center and school and he gave money to public schools, as well, because he felt that all children should have an equal opportunity to education.

It saddens me that big business has evolved to making profits for their stockholders only. Yes, they do give contributions to various organizations, but those organizations are also big buisness. Not many companies give to their communities like they did back in the late 1800’s-early 1900’s, so many communities are struggling and depending on grants and other monies from the state – which ultimately comes from taxes, not contributions.

I also went to the Antique Car museum. It was way too cool. They had cars from the first car ever made to Henry Ford’s Model A and Model T to Packards and Studebakers and Buicks and Plymouths and a Citroen and various other cars I’ve never even heard of. There was a whole exhibit of buses and pick-up trucks and also a small exhibit of motorcycles and scooters.

I am watching the weather now and it isn’t supposed to rain on Tuesday, so I’ll probably go to Hershey Gardens and the Chocolate museum in the morning and then head home in the afternoon.

Hope has been so, so good. Ever since I got this van, it’s been a struggle getting her in it, because she still associates a van to the Van of Disgust. I had lunch at Frann’s on Sunday before I left and I told her, as we were preparing to leave, that Hope would probably not get into the van. Well, she surprised me and jumped right in.

She either sat or laid down between the two front seats for the whole ride down. When I got to the campground, I let her come out to stretch her legs while I set up. She was right next to me as I pulled the hose and electric cord out of the storage compartment. Just a few moments later, I looked around for her and couldn’t see her anywhere. I looked all around the van and across the field and over to the campground office and couldn’t find her. I started panicking as I called her. Just for the heck of it, I looked inside the van and there she was, huddled between the two front seats, shaking like a leaf. I guess she now feels that the Van of Discovery is a safe house. I am glad because it will make future trips so much better.

Hershey Gardens was nice but what a cold day. I had two jackets on and I was still chilly. The tulips were out in full bloom and some of the trees were in flower. Other than that, much of the gardens was still pretty drab. I was very disappointed that the butterfly house was closed down. I suppose it is just too early in the year for butterflies.

My last stop in Hershey was at the museum. I found it quite interesting as it touched a bit more on the production of chocolate. I especially liked the exhibit where employees told of what their typical day was like: how the longitude room temps were 108-degrees and the work was back-breaking laborious, but people loved their jobs anyway.

The Van of Discovery

The more I drive and camp in this van, the more I absolutely love it. It is the best purchase I have ever made for myself. I do, though, think that I mAy NeEd ShOcKs As I bOuNcEd ThRoUgH tHe WhOlE sTaTe Of NeW yOrK.

Driving: I had no problems with trucks, either psychologically or physically. Recent discussions on RV groups were concerned about the sway that trucks caused when passing. I found no problems of this kind with my 170. I kept the cruise control at 55 and only three times did it downshift to second gear. The first time it happened, I never felt it, just heard the motor and momentarily panicked because I didn’t know what was wrong with my van. When it shifted back into Drive, I barely felt the transition.

Camping: A day or two ago, I had no propane, so Patrick gave me fabulous instructions on what the problem was and how to overcome it. I got to the campground and I couldn’t get the hot water heater to light. After ½ an hour of walking in and out of the van in the rain and mud switching the power on or off and/or watching the pilot light blow out, I finally surmised that if I lit the stove and kept the gas flowing, maybe the hot water heater would light. So, I came back in to light the stove: no gas.

So, I resorted back to Patrick’s instructions: Turn the gas slightly, wait ten minutes; turn the gas slightly, wait ten minutes; turn the gas slightly, wait ten minutes, etc. Didn’t work. Tried the whole process again after turning the gas off and waiting 15 minutes. Didn’t work. Next attempt: stay at the dial and turn it a fraction, wait ten seconds, turn it another fraction, wait ten seconds, turn it a fraction, etc. It took me 15 minutes to turn the dial one full turn. In the mud and the rain I am stooped under the wheel well of my van and my finger gets stuck behind the dial, wedged under some propane tank orafice or bracket. Panic is starting to set in as it is now getting dark. I took a few deep breaths trying to get myself to relax, turned the dial very slowly back and forth a few times and managed to free my finger. I gave up on the gas idea for the rest of the night.

Next morning: With no gas, how am I going to cook my eggs? I really don’t like microwaved eggs, so I decided I’d try a different approach with the gas. No matter how little I turned the dial last night, I still got that psssst rush of gas at that first quarter turn. I thought, maybe if I turned the dial ever so slowly so that I wouldn’t get that psssst, it would work. I tried it and it worked. I had gas for the rest of my camping adventure.

Last night: I don’t know if it was out of desperation, boredom, or curiosity, but I decided to try out the shower. Between setting up the shower curtain and the hose, placing my soap and shampoo within reach, taking a shower with two drips of water per second, drying off, drying the curtain and putting it away, and mopping up the three inches of water that flowed to the front of the van, my shower experience took over an hour. I already know I need a new shower faucet because it leaks. I think I will also shop around for a lighter shower curtain. After observing the curtain clips, it looks like this will be a major undertaking to replace the one that I currently have.

The more I use and experiment with this van, the more I come to the conclusion that it wasn’t used much in its eight-year lifespan. I truly believe that it sat more than it was used. The previous owner purchased it and drove it to Alaska from Cape Cod and, according to her daugher, “lived in it for awhile.”

I’ve “lived” in it for approximately eight days total since the day I purchased it last October and I have already managed to break a plastic piece off the passenger chair, slice up the cutting board, scrape the cement curb of my garage, and hit a stone wall in my driveway (both moves damaging the fiberglass storage door). Did I ever mention that I was clumsy? If this van was “lived in” by the previous owner, she was either an extremely fastidious person or she drove to Alaska and back but LIVED somewhere else – like with a friend or in a motel. The only clues that this van was ever used at all were the 38,000 odometer reading, the stains on the carpeting in the driving area, and the body damage: dent in upper right rear quarter, broken tail light, bent support and running board on passenger side.

The generator had 6 hours on the clock. After reinstalling the generator and observing the hours I’ve used so far, I doubt if this generator was ever even started by its previous owner. The six hours that was on the clock when I first picked it up was probably run by Onan or Roadtrek.

There are no stains or rips on any of the upholstery, no clips broken on the curtains, no stains or rips in the curtains, minimal dings and bangs in the cabinetry, no burn marks on the stove or in the microwave, no spilled stains in the inside of the cabinetry, and no mold on the shower curtain (in fact, not even any dried water stains or soap scum).

We still have a long way to go to repair the outside damage. For a fairly new RT, it looks like a train wreak, but it is fully functional and I love it completely.