I began my two day journey home by meeting up with a friend for breakfast at The Cure Cafe in Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania.
After breakfast, I got back on the road and headed toward Knoxville, Tennessee (my stop for the night). However, when I began seeing signs for Hershey, Pennsylvania, I decided to make a slight detour because it's Hershey, Pennsylvania! Literally a town devoted to chocolate. What more could a girl ask for?!?!
Hershey's Chocolate World is huge! It was bursting with school groups, families on vacation, tour buses, etc. The campus has a ton of things to do from creating your own candy bar, going on the chocolate tour, visiting the theme park, and much more. Also, parking was easy, just follow the huge line of cars. Also, if you are parked less than three hours parking is free.
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| So many people going to Hershey World! |
Since I wanted to arrive in Knoxville before midnight, I chose to only explore the chocolate tour. The chocolate tour is free and lasts approximately 30 minutes. However, even though the line for the tour was constantly moving, it took 30-60 before I was able to begin the tour.
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| Learning about Mr. Hershey's path to Hershey as we know it today. |
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| Cars you ride in through the tour |
I thought the tour would show the behind the scenes of people actually making chocolate in the factory, but instead it was theoretical and featured animatronics (see the video below). Overall, the tour was okay but not spectacular. If you took advantage of some of the other activities on Hershey's campus it would make visiting worth it, but I wouldn't recommend stopping solely to go on the chocolate tour. However, the tour was informative, fun, and I can say I've been to Hershey World in Hershey, Pennsylvania. So there's that ;)
After spending the night in Knoxville, I got up at 6 am, ate breakfast, and was on the road by 7am. Tennessee is beautiful as well!! It's particularly lovely when the the sun is rising and the morning mist is hovering over the mountains. It felt like I was driving through a pastoral landscape painting.
With the time change, I got home around 6 pm. I ate dinner, showered, and slept, lol. I took an additional day off work to catch up on my sleep and do laundry after I returned home. I highly recommend doing this!! Also, before I left on my trip, I cleaned my house and put out my Fall and Halloween decorations. These seemingly small but significant choices made a huge difference helping me physically and mentally get back to "normal" life.
This trip marked a milestone for me. It was my first solo vacation and I loved it! I would absolutely do it again!!
Eating at restaurants by myself wasn't awkward like I feared. Either the wait staff or other customers were chatty or I could catch up on my journaling. Also, when you are a party of one, you get seated right away or with very little wait time. It would have been fun and less stressful (at times) if someone else had come on vacation with me. However, on this trip I could do the things I wanted to do, when I wanted, at the pace I wanted, how I wanted, and change my mind if I wanted. Basically, I could be completely self-indulgent.
On this trip, I traveled for 16 days (4 days were spent in the car driving to Maine and back to Oklahoma). I went through 17 states (OK, MO, IL, IN, OH, PA, NY, MA, NH, ME, RI, CT, NJ, MD, VA, TN, AR) and drove 4,462 miles. Craziness!!
Throughout my trip, God protected and provided for me every step of the way. It was such a fun and life-changing trip! If you are entertaining the idea of going on a solo trip, DO IT!!
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