20170729 - Day One in PA

20170729 - Up in the am, everything packed and we headed out.  The odometer started at 11,755 and we started the trip as my mentor would by listening to Holiday Road by Lindsay Buckingham. Before we knew it we were in West Virgina.  State seems a bit more empty with aunt Martha gone...  Didn't take us long until we hit Pennsylvania and G was very confused as to how we got through WV so fast.  We swung through Somerset to see a giant elephant and a globe tower on the way to our lunch destination the Castle Restaurant in Stoystown for an awesome meal.  G&I chatted with the owner and learned all about the place he grew up in.  After we filled ourselves up we headed on down the road to the Flight 93 National Memorial.  


The memorial was truly amazing and much more moving for me than I thought it would be. The black line that marked the glide path through the memorial was amazing. The displays in the memorial were very educational and there was no way I would be able to listen to the phone messages left by the passengers to their loved ones... We walked the path and read everything trying to explain to the boys what all happened and why the site was important.


Back on the road and we passed what once was Storyland in Schellsburg and a coffee pot shaped building in Bedford.  Then for dessert we stopped at a ice cream sundae shaped ice cream place we have been to before for a treat before seeing the world's largest quarter.


Our day was far from over as we headed through the Amish lands to Port Royal to meet up with our good buddy Marko we lived next door to in Wilmington NC when D was born. Marko is a huge sprint car race fan and just happened to be in our neck of the woods so we joined him for the first sprint car race for all of us. I have never seen anything like this; a dirt track, cars sliding around at 120 mph and crashing and flying into the air and the thunderous noise was incredible.  We stayed for nearly all the races, but it was getting very late and we were freezing. We got to our hotel in Harrisbug very late. What a great day with loads of awesome experiences and sights.