Road Trip Surprises

My wife and I recently took a road trip with our son and grand children.  We traveled from Brad’s home in Maryland up to our childhood homes near Buffalo, New York and, of course we visited the big tourist attraction there, Niagara Falls.  Also on the agenda was a visit to a creek bed that contains fossilized remains of sea creatures that lived in the area approximately 380 million years ago.  Then, on the way back to Maryland we stayed in central Pennsylvania and visited a reptile zoo and a back-country amusement park.

Of the four attractions, which do you suppose the kids enjoyed most?  The falls?  The amusement park?  No, they were most enticed by the digging up of the fossils at the Penn Dixie Site.  We spent several hours in the blazing sun with hammers and picks and buckets.  We found some very nice specimens, too.

But then, each of the four sites had its own charm and delights.  One of the surprises for the adults was that the prices were reasonable at all of them.  Anytime you can take three adults and two children to a full day’s attraction for less than $100, that is a great day. 

Two of our stops were truly notable.  The first, Clyde Peeling’s Reptiland in Allenwood, Pennsylvania, appears at first to be one of those “tourist traps” that spring up along the highways from time to time.  However, nothing could be farther from the truth.  It had many good live specimens including a Komodo dragon, and a neat section of automated dinosaurs that looked and sounded lifelike.  We also got to watch the feeding of some of the live reptiles, a fascinating learning experience.

The second surprise was the best of all – an amusement park, Knoebels, that has no admission charge!  We didn’t even have to pay for parking.  All of the rides were reasonably priced from $1 to $3, and there was a large variety of them for kids of all ages – three coasters, two flumes complete with splash pool and bridge for spraying onlookers, and even a neat 14-minute-mile-long skylift, (like a chair lift for skiers, but with no upper station).  We stayed for six hours and spent less than $75 on rides and only around $30 for food and treats.  The variety of food choice was international and prices were very reasonable.

Our best activity at Niagara was the Cave of the Winds on the American side.  It really isn’t a “cave” at all, but rather a series of wooden stairs and platforms that has to be rebuilt every year.  Access is by elevator and tunnel on Goat Island between the falls, and egress is under the small middle falls called Bridal Veil Falls. Special sandals and ponchos are provided and you must expect to get soaked, especially if you climb to the Hurricane Deck right at the base of the waterfall.

I didn’t write a trip journal for this one, but if you care to see some of the pictures, let me know by email and I’ll send some for you to view.