This trip should be called “the friendship tour.” Why? Because of the 40 passengers, I knew more than half of them from past travels! I always say it’s so good to see familiar faces. This time I was overjoyed during the early morning check-in time to greet so many wonderful frequent travelers. Among them, a 92 year old lady who has traveled with Croswell for at least 30 years. Today was her birthday and we all sang happy birthday to her.

After all passengers were gathered, Teresa and I decided that our lunch location could be in St. Clairsville, OH, at Mehlman’s Cafeteria, a favorite place to stop at every opportunity. The ones familiar with Mehlman’s expressed their approval with claps and hoots! On the return trip, the timing worked out so that we could stop once more at Mehlman’s! Well, after all, this is a “foodies” tour. Be on the lookout for mention of all the food and snacks that were enjoyed!

On the second day, our first adventure was a visit to the Turkey Hill Experience located in Columbia, PA. This amazing museum had lots to offer, such as interactive exhibits which taught us about the history and making of ice cream. We were taken to a Taste Lab where we were given a pint of vanilla ice cream, and were told to experiment and choose from several different flavors to create our unique, favorite flavor. All along the entire length of the wall were stations where we could pick and choose any or several toppings to make our delicious concoction. All the while, a very entertaining lady supplied information and fun tidbits of knowledge for us. While inside the museum, we were given as many free samples of ice cream as we wanted, and these were generous portions! We were taken to another area called Tea Discovery. Each person had a place setting of six samples of various teas produced and sold by Turkey Hill. Our entertaining lady did the narration about teas as well. At the end of our visit, we enjoyed boxed lunches before leaving for our next location. Lunch? Following all those ice cream samples? No one seemed to mind having dessert first!

Next, we drove to the Julius Sturgis Pretzel Facility in Lititz, PA. This bakery was founded in 1861 and was the first commercial pretzel bakery in America. We were given a piece of dough and were taught how to roll and shape the dough into twisted pretzels. We were each given an “Official Pretzel Twister” certificate. At the end of our tour, everyone received a warm, freshly baked pretzel which we munched on as we drove to the next event.

Today, April 8th, was the 2024 Total Solar Eclipse day. Thankfully, we had a break at the hotel before dinner, and during this break was the perfect time to witness the eclipse, which would reach 90% for us. Several of our group gathered outside the hotel to enjoy what we could see through the clouds. Most of us had glasses which we shared with those who didn’t. We could feel the temperature drop and it seemed like dusk. I learned that two couples who were with us for this tour were also with me on a Croswell tour in 2017, and we watched an eclipse in Seattle, WA!

Our evening consisted of wine tasting and a delicious Farm-to-Table dinner at Mount Hope in Manheim, PA. This is a beautiful venue. The Farm-to-Table meal was all made with local ingredients from within a 50-mile range. The meal was creative, interesting, and tasty. The desert of Tart Lemon & Marshmallow Peep Pot de Crème was especially delicious. Who would think to add Peeps!

The next morning, we toured the Kreider Dairy Farm in Manheim, PA. This is an 85-year-old family farm operation. A step-on guide joined us and talked about the history of this huge farm. We were able to see up close and personal the milking process. We watched the cows gather at the entrance of the 54-stall milking “merry-go-round.” They would willingly walk into a stall where they would be hooked up to the milking apparatus. 1700 cows are milked three times every day. It was interesting to learn that they knew to take turns and once they felt that their udders were empty, they knew when to back out of the stall onto a platform and return to the barn. Teresa actually drove that big motorcoach THROUGH the Moo-ternity barn. The timing was not right for us to witness a calf-birth, but several cows were in stalls in various stages of waiting. Those of our group who wanted to climb the Silo Observation Tower with its 172 steps were allowed to do so after signing a waiver. Mike and I, along with several others, climbed to the top and the view of the surrounding farmland was beautiful. The area that we were not allowed to visit was the chicken farm. There’s still a concern about the spreading of bird flu. Their website says they have four million laying hens in four different locations in Pennsylvania. Our snack treat from here was a small bottle of chocolate milk.

In the afternoon we arrived at the Herr’s Snack Factory in Nottingham, PA. We watched a short video and began our factory tour. We could see a huge conveyor belt holding eight rows of extruded pretzel dough on its way to be baked. We toured the packaging area. We toured the potato chip-making area (various flavored chips, tortilla chips, popcorn, cheese puffs). At the end of this tour, we sampled freshly baked warm potato chips! As an added thrill, in the gift shop several shelves were coded as the “Oops” section, where seconds of all sorts of chips were for sale at a discounted price.

Our evening was spent at the Dutch Apple Dinner Theatre in Lancaster, PA. We had a delicious buffet dinner, followed by the stage play “Ragtime.”

As our tour came to a close, we were not yet finished with snacks! Each person was given a wine glass from Mount Hope and two snack bags (pretzels & potato chips) from Herr’s. At least all those bags that were carried off the coach were lightweight! Join us next year on this entertaining, fascinating, fast-paced, and delicious Foodies, Factories & Fun tour!

By the way, where does ice cream go to school? - - - - - Sundae School!
Did you hear about the ice cream truck that crashed? - - - - - The driver blamed it on the Rocky Road!

All bands, marchers, flag bearers, singers, dancers, solo artists, Armed Forces Medley, Taps, Amazing Grace (portions of which were sung in several different languages), etc. were exceptional performances. Everything was simply awe-inspiring and totally amazing!

The next day, we toured a Military Aviation Museum. Our group was divided into two and each had a guide who told wonderful stories of the collection of World War II aircraft as we toured the hangers. On the grounds was an authentic, totally disassembled, brought to the US from England, and reassembled air traffic controller building. Our included boxed lunch from Mission BBQ was served in the Navy Hanger, complete with themed WW1 and WWll entertainment provided by a quartet who paid tribute to the USO by singing songs from each decade since the 1940s.

Our evening dinner and entertainment was at the elegant Grand Affairs Virginia Beach, a beautiful events venue. We had a nautical themed Mermaid welcome with a beautiful lady dressed in a Mermaid costume. Everyone enjoyed having a photo taken and she obliged with beautiful smiles and poses. We said goodbye to the Mermaid as the legendary original Rondels began their performance. This was music to which everyone could relate. The dancers were slow to approach the dance floor. There was a couple doing line dances and I kept my eye on them to see if they would do a dance I knew. They did! I joined them for a couple line dances. For slow dances, at least six couples came forward to dance.

Today, we departed to visit the Norfolk Botanical Gardens in Norfolk where our group enjoyed a nice tram ride. Next, we went to Nauticus, The National Maritime Center, to tour the museum and the battleship USS Wisconsin. I walked from one end to the other, climbed down some stairs to reach another level or two, snapped photos of different areas, and spoke to a volunteer who took me deeper inside to show me the “wishing well” where one could look down past at least six more levels. There was also access to the gun turret area where the big cannons were located. I was in awe of the enormity of this vessel and its missions during war. Its one of the largest battleships ever built and was in service during the Korean Conflict and the Gulf War. Next, we visited the Douglas MacArthur Memorial in downtown Norfolk. This concluded our touring of what I consider one of the very best tours Croswell has to offer.

From the Escort Seat of,

Maxine Harris

Croswell’s Foodies, Factories & Fun Tour