Friday, July 5

By noon we had been in 4 different states: Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York & Pennsylvania. Aside from getting gas, our first major stop was in Williamsport, PA—home of the Little League World series. We took some time to tour the museum, which offered a fielding simulation game, a 3D simulation from the catching position and a timed run from home plate to first base, along with a lot of history and memorabilia. Outside of the museum was the actual ball park and living quarters for the world series. We all found it interesting that Little League pays for all of the player and coaches travel expenses for the world series, and houses them in their own dorms right next to the field. The living areas are closed to all fans and parents. It was a cool little stop along the way. After too many miles of HORRIBLE roads in Pennsylvania, we made it to the campus of Penn State. We parked outside the football stadium and took a foot tour around it. They do offer tours, but not on the day we were stopping. The capacity of the stadium is quite impressive, but it's overall appearance was nothing special. The creamery on campus was noteworthy however! Since this is where Ben & Jerry's got their ice cream making degree, we found it appropriate that we should stop in for a taste test! Jason ordered death by chocolate and the rest of us enjoyed a vanilla ice cream with chocolate and peanut butter rib boned throughout...they were creamy, tasty treats. As we were eating our ice cream we worked on finding a campground for the night...just when it was looking like it would be a Wal-mart parking lot, we found a spot at Gaslight campground in Emlenton, PA. It was a bit further along than we had planned to drive, but we were happy to find a place to plug in for the evening. We did have a little hiccup along the way, during our drive I noticed that our refrigerator kept clicking off, then as I tried to start the stove to make dinner I could not get it to light. I thought maybe we had run out of propane. We ate sandwiches as we made our way to our campground. Once there, Jason did a little investigating and found that the brass fitting for our gas line had broken—I guess that is our souvenir for the atrocious roads we drove on in Pennsylvania! Fortunately, we are winding down our trip so we will be able to survive a couple meals without an oven or stove. The night concluded with some showers and some more family games around the table—although we were tempted by the karaoke being offered in the pavilion of the campground :)