Chocolate and Bacon

We made the trip to Hershey, PA yesterday and arrived safely aside from a couple of hiccups with the RV engine showing its age.  We know the workaround but it is still unnerving when the turbo stops working in the middle of traffic on an Interstate.  We thought we had it whipped because the engine had been working well until we got into the hills of Pennsylvania.  The engine doesn't like the long downhill stretches and there are plenty of them here.

Even the street lights here are Hershey Kisses!

I regretfully have to report that there is no aroma of chocolate along Chocolate Avenue or Cocoa Avenue in Hershey, however the streets are paved in chocolate brown colored asphalt!  The owner of our current RV park relates to us that the original chocolate factory (on Chocolate Avenue) has been closed.  We looked on a package of Hershey bars in the RV and it says "distributed by Hershey Corporation, Hershey, Pennsylvania.  We will visit The Hershey Story Museum of Chocolate to confirm this dire state of affairs.

Alas, it is true, the original factory was closed and moved to a new facility here in town that does not give public tours.  Interestingly the company has factories in Lancaster and Hershey, Pennsylvania and also Canada and Mexico!

The tour of "The Hershey Story" was a great substitute that shared the story of Milton S. Hershey's life and how he developed the famous Hershey Chocolate business.  He was the first person to use condensed milk rather than powdered milk which gave his chocolate a much smoother consistency.  He and his workers developed mechanical ways to work with the chocolate mixture to make it even smoother yet.  One of his workers developed the mechanical means to wrap Hershey Kisses after years of workers doing each piece by hand.  Mr. Hershey built a town around his factory and established a school for children here that has functioned since 1909 (for orphan boys originally but now the school also includes girls.)  It is a cost-free, private home and school for children of low income, limited resources and social need.

Did you know there were five cent Hershey Bars until 1969 when the price changed to ten cents.

Our park has limited wireless, so photos may be a challenge for the next few days but we will work on it.  The plan is to visit Gettysburg and Pennsylvania Dutch country before the RV show starts next week so there should be some interesting scenes coming our way.

RV discovery to share:

If you have not yet tried Microwave Ready Hormel bacon, try it!  In three minutes in the microwave you have perfect, crispy bacon with no mess to clean up afterward because of the very convenient packaging.  Ideal for the RV or anyone who occasionally likes bacon and eggs or a BLT sandwich.  Another recent find has been Gortons Simply Bake Haddock in garlic herb butter...yummy, easy and no mess clean up as well.  These are both perfect products for one or two servings.