As we continued our roadtrip to New York City, we passed through Hershey and discovered the founder of Hershey was a very remarkable man who worked hard to build a strong community for his employees. We also discovered in a chocolate-making class, that ground red pepper tastes good in milk chocolate!!

Further south in Lancaster County, we had hoped to visit the establishments were the Amish work and sell their products, but it was Sunday and they were at church and with their families. We did visit the Amish Village, however, and took an interesting tour of a former Amish farmhouse.

The “Pennsylvania Dutch” are actually not Dutch at all, but German – the “Dutch” came from a mispronounced “Doetsche” earlier in American history. The Amish came to America to escape the religious persecution they faced in Europe, and they choose not to use electricity because it would bring things into the community that would be difficult to control. This is very true, when you think of the electronics that are available to modern-day youth.

The tourguide explained many aspects of Amish living, much of which hasn’t changed for centuries. For instance, women may not use any buttons on their clothing, so they pin their dresses together with straightpins – every day! The Amish in Lancaster County do, however, use propane to power lights and many appliances, and they use gas generators to run their wringer washing machines.

The horses and buggies remain the same, and on this 95-degree day, the horses were very warm.
Wisconsin to NYC Roadtrip Series:
Roadtrip Tips
Gettysburg
NYC September 11 Tiles
Philadelphia, PA
Lancaster County
Princeton University
NYC Before Occupy Wall Street

Next stop on our Wisconsin-to-NYC roadtrip was Philadelphia! We were pleased to find out that many of the attractions in Philadelphia are free to the public, much like they are in Washington, DC. We visited the Liberty Bell, Constitution Hall, Carpenter’s Hall (the site of the First Continental Congress) and we listened to storytellers on the benches situated around historic Philadelphia.

Our favorite story told of the day when Susan B Anthony marched down to Constitution Hall and demanded equal voting rights for women. The storyteller did a fabulous job of retelling that important part of history.

For small fees, we also visited Betsy Ross’s house and heard the story of how she designed the stars, and created the flags in secret, recycled from British flags. We also visited Christ Church cemetery, the final resting place of Benjamin Franklin.

TIP: Arrive early! We were in historic Philadelphia by 8:15 AM and were able to get a parking spot on the road next to the visitor’s center. It was $5 for 2 hours and we paid twice. Our SUV was too tall for the underground parking at the visitor’s center, so we were happy to find a shaded spot on the street!

Wisconsin to NYC Roadtrip Series:
Roadtrip Tips
Gettysburg
Philadelphia, PA
Lancaster County
Princeton University
NYC September 11 Tiles
NYC Before Occupy Wall Street

In northern Wisconsin, the morning of September 11, 2001 was a beautiful, sunny, warm fall day. I had just dropped off my four-year-old daughter at preschool and was taking my toddler son for a walk in his stroller. I wasn’t working at that time and we were going to visit Dad at the high school. I hadn’t turned on the TV or radio since early morning.

We went into the high school counseling office through the resource room and saw the TV on (which was unusual) and everyone was watching it. I watched, in shock, the footage of the first plane hitting the tower. Then I watched the second hit and was momentarily confused before I realized it wasn’t just repeated footage. My feelings shifted drastically from sadness to fear. The second hit meant we weren’t witnessing a tragic accident, but an attack on our country. The discussion about this tragedy would become a common experience for Americans in the following hours and weeks and years.

When we visited New York City this summer, we wanted our now 12- and 14-year-olds to visit Ground Zero, but there wasn’t much to see unless you took the tour into one of the surrounding buildings to look down into the construction zone. Much work has been done, but from the sidewalk beside it you can only see chain link fence.

But on the bus tour, we went by this Tiles for America fence with thousands of beautiful tiles memorializing those who were lost on September 11th. When we return to NYC, we’ll have to visit the completed World Trade Center memorial. Hopefully our nation will continue to heal.

Wisconsin to NYC Roadtrip Series:
Roadtrip Tips
Gettysburg
Tiles for America
Lancaster County
Philadelphia, PA

Along the beautiful Southern Pennsylvania section of our Wisconsin-to-NYC roadtrip, we spent an afternoon at Gettysburg National Military Park. It’s an eye-opening walk through history and offers various ways to learn about this significant event during the Civil War.

We happened upon a ranger talk discussing amputations during Gettysburg, and learned about the then-new system of triage which had been established for managing the many wounded and dying.

The ranger also explained how the surgeons had devised a way of using horse tail hair as a replacement for silk thread when suturing. Because the silk thread was scarce, they found that boiling the horse tail hair made it as pliable as silk thread. What they didn’t know is that boiling the horse tail hair was one of the first examples of sanitizing.

We drove throughout the 26 miles of the car tour and saw probably hundreds of memorials donated by the friends and families of the military groups who fought there. The museum tickets we purchased included both a film and cyclorama – a vintage circular piece of artwork, with audio which explains the key points of the Gettysburg battle.

A trip to Gettysburg is a fascinating part of anyone’s history education. I don’t think we grasped the vast space occupied by what we knew as “Gettysburg”. If we return, we’ll be sure to hire a ranger for the auto tour – we’ve heard the stories along the trail are very good.

Wisconsin to NYC Roadtrip Series:
Roadtrip Tips
Gettysburg
Philadelphia, PA
Lancaster County
Princeton University
NYC September 11 Tiles
NYC Before Occupy Wall Street