Day Twenty Three

Up early, packed and in the car by 8.20am for a travel day and a look at two opposite ends of the US social spectrum.

First up we travelled the short distance to Hershey and parked up at Hershey Chocolate World, For the uninitiated, Hershey is the American equivalent of Cadburys. The place, Hershey, is named after Mr Hershey who chose it for the site to build his factory. Now it is a capitalist's dream of an area. A theme park, stadium, Chocolate World. We thought we'd stop by as the likelihood of us ever being back to the area is small. 

As we were travelling our plan was to be in and out in an hour, so we were only going into the free bit. Parking was also free if you were under three hours. As we arrived we saw the vastness of the parking lot. We arrived ten minutes after it was open so it was not too busy. Parked up and went straight in to go on the free factory tour. Being early there was barely a queue. If you've ever been to Madame Tussauds imagine the taxi cab bit at the end. We sat in a moving car and it took us around an animated show of how the chocolate is made.

Entrance

Cheeky fellas

Animated mixing

Reese's!!!

I'd say it was average, but it was free unlike everything else and we got a bit of chocolate at the end. At the end, there is the obligatory end of ride photo op. I pretended to be asleep. As you exit, it kicks you out into the shop. There was a lot of chocolate and chocolate related things. We bought stuff including a magnet and were back in the car just a touch over an hour. Excellent work. As we left, hundreds and hundreds of people were arriving and the car parks were filling up.

Headed on eastwards. Stopped for a Starbucks after a couple of hours in Wilkes-Barre. Woman heard my name wrong. Man then called this out.

Richar

Carried on for another hour and a half crossing into New York State before we pulled into to our second stop, the small village of Bethel which became famous exactly 56 years ago when it hosted Woodstock.  Parked under a tree in the carpark and made lunch using food we still had. Once we had finished we made our way into to the museum which now sits close by to the site. 

It took us through how life in America changed during the sixties and the events leading up to the festival. As we had been driving, I said to Ann I hope it explains why it was called Woodstock even though it was miles away from Woodstock. It did. It was originally going to be held in Woodstock but the locals kicked up such a fuss they moved it at the last minute, fifty miles away to Yasgur's Farm in Bethel. They were expecting about 70,000 people. 450,000 turned up causing chaos. The fences hadn't been completed and people just walked in. There wasn't enough food etc. It rained heavily. We watched a video in a theatre that showed some of the main performances.

Bus

Bug

Immersive

Went to the shop and spent money. More capitalism built on the opposition to capitalism from those festival goers.

Back to the car and drove just down the road to the actual site.

Marker

Stage was to the left

Onward east for just over another hour to the Holiday Inn Express at Fishkill. Walked into reception to find an argument going on between a bloke and the guy on the desk. We had to join a queue going nowhere whilst the guy on the desk was dealing with him. It seems that the bloke's employer had paid for his room but then his credit card had been used at the desk, so he was saying it had been paid for twice. He wanted his money back. The guy was on the phone to IT trying to sort and told the bloke, you'll have it back by the time you leave and was trying to give him his key. Bloke wasn't having it. 

Another man came in, I think he knew the guy on the desk and was waiting to talk to him. He then looked at Ann who was holding a Hershey bag and said is there chocolate in that? We said a bit. He said you won't make it upstairs. That provided a brief comic relief to the main event.

Eventually the guy on reception said to the bloke 'I don't know what you want me to do? I can give you the key! I have all these people waiting!' The bloke said I just want my money back. Guy on reception then just ignored him and started serving others including us. Bloke seemed upset by this. Look forward to reading his online review.

Lugged our stuff up to the room and then headed out to the Red Line Diner which was a short walk away. 

Busy Diner

It was big and packed. Had some nice food. I had a grilled cheese and fries. Ann had something. We then got desserts to go and headed back to the hotel.

Started writing this and then stopped to eat some of the cheesecake. When we got the desserts out they were massive.

Hand for scale

Gave up after about a quarter. Especially difficult trying to eat it with a coffee stirring stick.

States visited - 11