Fun Friday @ Knoebels

Overnight it rained, and it continued off and on as we got ready for the 10:30am shuttle. I also started out with sneezing, itchy throat, and running nose – not a good start to the day. But Amy fed me some Tylenol and Sudafed. It helped me out, the weather cleared, and we had a great day taking the girls around to their favorite rides. Granny decided to do hang back and do some organizing of some pictures and paperwork. We planned to meet for dinner @ the park diner – called the Alamo. Granny would take a later shuttle over.

Some of the rides the girls were able to ride were old favorites, like the Phantom cars, and Antique Cars – kind of large slot cards the girls could drive. The power boats and “The Whip” were also favorites.
When Granny arrived, we headed over for an early dinner – which everyone enjoyed. Toward the end, my meds started wearing off - and I was 'sneezing and wheezing' every few feet. I was feeling pretty worn out.
We headed back to Lake Glory around 6:30pm – and settled in for an old video the girls had not watched for a while – “Beethoven”

Lake Glory & Knoebel's for the weekend

This weekend we are traveling to Central PA - Elysburg PA to go to Knoebels Amusement Park. Knoebel's is a great family place - Great mix of rides, great food, reasonable prices, and best of all, you can just walk around without having to pay an enterance fee - which is great for grandparents. So granny has joined us for this escapade.
The ride up for the first part was easy - started late. Got a few cell calls from work - walked people thru some troubleshooting steps - worked out ok.
We had lunch at Arby's where the Northeast Extention (Rt 476) meets Route 80 in the Poconos - had a good lunch and continued on 80 and ran into some traffic. Took a little longer than planned to get to Lake Glory.
Once we arrived, the park is nice - not great - but has some great areas within. The Lake is nice, the playground needs some repair, and the campstore is pretty small. Also the promised shuttle is a 15 passenger van, adequate, but not a "shuttle". Tommorrow and rest of the weekend we get a "cheese" bus - schoolbus. Seems their regular shuttle is in the shop. Customer service lessons would maybe be in order for the drivers too.
We went to the park for a few hours, and had some dinner - then headed back to the campground. Emily and I took a nice walk around the lake, and along the stream. Perhaps we can try fishing tomorrow.
No cable - so we played some card games and called it an early night. Getting pretty cool right now - under 75

Crystal Cave!

Crystal Cave had been a place I had gone with Oma, Opa, & Frank when I was little - and because of the stories I told the girls, they wanted to visit too. Since we were close (30 minutes!) and Kevin & Leann had no interest in going, we saved this for our trip home.
We did the Last bit of Packing, Then drove down to a flat area by the lake to hitch up RoadToad. After a few false reading, got EvenBrake to respond - and we were off. The roads to Crystal Cave were smaller, and we made one wrong turn on the way - but were fortunate there was a turn-around for tractor-trailers a 1/4 mile down (go figure). The roads wound thru the countryside, following various creeks and rivers. and very wooded - serene and pretty.
When we finally got to the entrace of Crystal Cave, there was plenty of parking for our 40+ feet of RoadAbode/RoadToad combo.
The outside of the Inn, store and cave entrance were about how I remember it, but the facilities themselves I was pleasantly surprised by - everything was pretty well kept.
The cave tour was starting right away (the next would have been 20-30 min later) so we bought tix and headed up the path to the cave entrance.

We first saw a movie/slideshow about the history of the cave and how the geology of the area affected it's creation. Then we were given a tour by a young lady - She did a great job - with just the right mix of information, both in human history and geology - and a bit of humor.
After our tour, we enjoyed a homestyle lunch of Perogies and our choice of chicken or hamburger. All very well made and tasty.
We did a little shopping, stopped in the "museum" and then headed out. All-in-all a pretty cool place to visit!
On the way out, I missed a turn, and ended up going the wrong way for a few miles. But Amy got us back on course, and we were able to see some great countryside in the process!
Rest of the trip was pretty uneventful - which is a good thing.