Well, we have officially began the odyssey at this point. We are on our own and only the open road is in our sights!!! We are heading northwest out of Washington D.C. and going through the great state of West Virginia. Birthplace to one...Courtney Roseanne Foster, whose 22nd birthday was yesterday I may add!!! Happy Birthday Court, we love you!!!! Our first stop was in Martinsburg WV, a little town in the panhandle of the state that was the site of my grandparents house for several years, I lived here as a young tyke for awhile and this wonderful city is also the meeting place for my parents back some 30 odd years ago. Thanks for that by the way, because without that event happening I wouldn't be out experiencing America right now!!! This place hadn't changed at all, since the 80's that I remember! Even the old theater that I saw such great flicks like "Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure" and "Spaceballs" still looked the exact same!!! Wow, what a flood of memories! Even my school that I attended for 2nd and 3rd grade looked exact, with the exception of a snazzy new painted sign!
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| Burke Street School- Home of Mrs. Silver (2nd Grade) and Mrs. Whipp ((Snyder) 3rd Grade) |
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| Hershey, PA |
On the road again...fast forward two hours and we are pulling in to heaven on earth...Hershey, Pennsylvania. The only place on earth where we can get six glasses of chocolate from around the world and Laura won't yell at me for wanting a Hershey sundae as well! We pulled into town and promptly parked at the Hershey Museum and Factory and nestled up to the bar and ordered the biggest chocolaty sundae I've ever seen. As I was paying for this monstrosity Laura taps me on the shoulder and says look at this. It was a "Tasting of Chocolate From Around the World." Without missing a beat I twirled around and ordered one of these as well. It took all of one hour for us to be done with chocolate forever! (Or the next day, but who's counting) As we waddled out to the car, we decided to head up the road to Granny Smith's House!!!
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Chocolate Tasting From Around the World!!!
Yummy!!! |
The next part of this trip was without a doubt one of our most pleasant surprises yet! It had been over 10 years since Laura had the chance to see her Paternal grandparents. With us only being two hours away at this point, how could we possibly pass up the opportunity? So we headed North...to Mansfield, PA, Home of Grandpa and Grandma Smith, two of the most amazing people I've ever met. These two have been together for over seventy years and still joke and kid with each other like they've been best friends forever. As we pulled onto their farmhouse located on 14 acres of rolling hills and gardens, we realized we were definitely in the Old Country. This place was marvelous with no other sound in sight, other than the birds and animals we could see in the woods! When we arrived Granny Smith made us some of the best ham sandwiches we've ever tasted. She had loaves upon loaves of fresh bread she had been making all day and and the smell just permeated the house and provided a feeling of comfort not matched by any other place we've been. After a while, Grandpa Smith arrived home from work and we sat and had dinner and swapped stories. It was almost an interview process we put this wonderful couple through. I mean honestly, how often do you get to sit down with a couple that are both approaching 90, but are so full of life and strong mind, that they recall memories as if they just happened yesterday. I don't even know where I was yesterday!!! The Granny Smiths' were so wonderful and comforting, I know Laura and I will look back on this trip and remember these 24 hours forever and all the history we learned! We love you guys!!!
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| Grandma and Grandpa Smith!!!! |
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