The first day we left home at about 10:00 am heading to Philadelphia. We knew it would be a long drive so we had the Minivan packed and stocked with plenty of snacks for all and movies to entertain the boys. We decide to head up I-77 into Virginia and then take I-81 up through the Shenandoah Valley. What a beautiful drive. Of course that area is rich in historical sites that I am just itching to see but my traveling companions would be bored out of their minds, besides we have to get to Philly and get a room in order to get to the game the next day. So I keep the hammer down.
Now here is where I need to interject a very important piece of information. As I mentioned in the previous post, my wife Tammy is a planner. She likes to have itineraries prepared well in advance before we ever leave town. But for this trip, she has only a baseball schedule and list of driving times from place to place in hand. This was a little disconcerting for me. "You mean we don't have reservations at hotels? No baseball game tickets pre-purchased?" I was comforted with the reply of "we'll be fine".
Well, I wasn't so sure about that. After all we both had smartphones. We had all the information we needed right in the palm of our hands. It turns out those phones are extremely handy.
On the way up to Philadelphia I thought it would be neat to stop over in Hershey so the boys could see where some of their favorite candies were made. We got there and did the little ride on tour of the factory which disembarked right there in the candy store. And of course we had to get some Hershey's candy made right there in Hershey PA. Check! The boys thought it was awesome.
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That's one big Hershey Bar!
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Next, it was on to Philly to find accommodations. We, or I, had decided to use Hotels.com to find a room. It was a very useful website that allowed us to pick a room based on what we were looking for. We had found a couple of options in the neighborhood called King of Prussia located just west of the city. Instead of booking online we decided to drive by the places first before committing. We looked at some mid range hotels I guess like Best Western and Holiday Inn but on the way in we spotted a Motel 6. It looked pretty nice and seemed to be in a safe location. We only needed it for one night and we would be on our way. Oh boy! Sorry Tom Bodett but you can leave the light OFF for us from now on. Kind of weird when a hotel room has laminate flooring throughout. Tammy was concerned about bed bugs. It was late and we were tired so we decided to stay and make the best of it. We survived the night with an important lesson learned. I don't mean to sound uppity or anything, but discount rate hotels are discounted for a reason.
Not a big deal because the next day we would begin an epic quest that will lead to many awesome experiences!
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| A quick diversion on the way to Philly. |
