Sunday, October 2, 2016

Continuing east in Pennsylvania

Beautiful start to the day

Heading east from Pittsburgh, our next stop was Gettysburg.  Tom studied the atlas and our Mountain Guide - East, and determined that our best option was going to be the PA Turnpike.  It was going to be costly, but it was our only good choice.

The day started out quite nice, and we made it through our first tunnel with no issue.  I had spent some time online the night before, trying to find out if there were any restrictions on travel through the tunnel, but I didn’t find any – we didn’t even need to turn off our propane.

Tunnel #1

Driving through the tunnel wasn’t bad,

In the tunnel

but there was a quick turn as we exited the tunnel that was pretty interesting!

Quick turn coming out of the tunnel

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As we climbed into the mountains, the clouds started settling in, and we were dealing with some fog and mist.

 

Crossing the mountains

Climbing closer to the clouds

 

 

A couple more tunnels to go through, including one where we had to cross over and face opposing traffic with only a double yellow line separating us from them.

One more tunnel - this one under construction

Just outside Harrisburg, we exited the turnpike, paid our $58.00 toll,

Sad smile

and travelled south the Gettyburg.  There are several campgrounds in the area, and we selected Artillery Ridge because it was the only one that accepted Passport America, so for $30/night we had a decent pull-thru site with full hookups and decent wifi.

When we called to make our reservation, they were originally directing us toward the loop of sites in the back of the campground behind the horse corral.  I had seen in reviews that the wifi was pretty bad back there, though, so I asked if there were sites available where the wifi would work better.  The woman on the phone responded, “Oh, I’m glad you asked – I’ll put you on site 61.” 

We arrived and got set up on site 61 – it was a little tight, but we had enough room, and the facilities were good, including the wifi. 

Site 61 at Artillery Ridge

Site 61 -- Artillery Ridge

We planned on 3 days in Gettysburg, giving us a day to explore the battlefield, and a couple days for me to work.  The weathermen were calling for several days of rain, so we decided to just hunker down and wait it out.  We ended up extending our stay to a 4th day.

We had a beautiful day for exploring the battlefield (blog post in the works),

A day at the battlefield

Downtown Gettysburg

 

and a little bit of time between rain showers for exploring historic downtown Gettysburg.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When the rain slowed down Thursday evening, Tom and I took a walk around the campground.  The middle of the campground has sites for people camping with their horses, as well as small indoor stalls that they can rent.

IMG_1584

There are also a group of cute cabins for rent, which look like a small western town,

Cute cottages

More cottages

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

along with another row of horse stalls.

More stables

Behind the stall was the corral for the horses.  The campground offers horseback rides and tours of the battlefield, so they have a group of horses that live on the property.

Horses at dinner

They're watching us

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Behind the horses, we could see the loop of RV sites in the back.

Another camper loop behind the horse corral

They were large and open, so I can see why they try to put the big rigs back there, but they were also lacking in gravel and loosely defined, and after two days of rain, pretty muddy.

I’m glad we were in the area up front.  Overall, it was a nice park, and with the PA discount during the week, it was a good deal.  I don’t think it’s worth $60.00/night, though.

2 comments:

  1. Glad the weather cleared up so you could enjoy your stay in Gettysburg.
    Be Safe and Enjoy!

    It's about time.

    ReplyDelete
  2. So glad you were able to visit Gettysburg...it is quite impressive. Unfortunately, most campgrounds in the Northeast are overpriced and sadly aging. The northeast truly is not Big Rig friendly. We are very careful on route planning when we head that way.

    Safe Travels...

    ReplyDelete

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