<– Day 17 – Mon. May 20th: Gettysburg and A Little Slice of Heaven  | Trip Overview | Day 19 – Wed. May 22nd: Old Cars and Chocolate Shots –>

TWO UPDATES From the original post:

1. We will spend Wednesday in Hershey, PA. We have plans for Thursday in Lancaster and Friday morning in Kempton, PA. From there we will be driving to Long Island on Friday and meeting up with my son (unless they ship him out to Oklahoma). We’ll be staying in the Sea Cliff area through Tuesday morning and then driving up to Connecticut. I hope to have a map update in the next couple of days.
2. On Wednesday morning I finished version one of the Amber Panels of Konigsberg book (YEAH!). I still need to build one graphic and dump the text into the formatted book template, but then I’ll be sending it to the publisher for printing. I plan to do a limited run of fifty books as a “Bantam Festival Special”. LIke the last book, I’m sure there are a few errors that people will find. Once I fix the text, I’ll open the book up for general sales (sometime in mid-July?).

On Tuesday we spent the day with Tom, then Merlin, then headed to Hershey, Pennsylvania.

Merlin and Ann driving in a 1941 MB down a forgotten Maryland road.

Tuesday’s drive from Gettysburg to Hershey

After we left Gettysburg on Tuesday, we drove a few miles east to Tom’s house to check out his Truck and Wagon. Tom’s 1948 truck is his daily driver. He’s added some disc brakes and a Ford 302, so it’s got some power and stopping speed. He also rebuilt the entire rear bed and it looks great!

The wagon is a cheap beast he bought that his son now plays with. It’s got lots of rust issues, but runs good.

Tom offered to buy us lunch at Scozzaros Old Mill Inn, so he and I took off in his truck, while Ann followed. We soon found ourselves traveling along the Lincoln Highway, which turned 100 years old this year.

At the restaurant, Ann and I enjoyed both our time with Tom and the food. I had a delicious steak sandwich and Ann had great tasting polish sausage sandwich. We both rolled away from the restaurant full from the portion sizes and didn’t have to eat again until very late. Thanks for lunch and the present Tom!

* * *

From Tom’s house, we drove down to Westminster, MD, where we met up with Merlin of Hanson Mechanical. Merlin and I have been exchanging emails for several years now and it was great to finally shake his hand and see his operation.

Merlin and I discussed some of the challenges of jeep restorations. One lesson he’s learned the hard way was not to give any flat bids, because he told me you never know what problems lurk behind the differential covers, under the transmission towers, or beneath the dash. People seem happy with his work, because he’s got as much business as he can handle (good for you Merlin!).

After we talked a while, we all climbed into Merlin’s 1941 Slat Grille MB for a nice long ride through the hills of Maryland. It was Ann’s first ride in a military jeep; naturally, she had a great time. The perfect weather added to wonderful experience. Thanks Merlin!

Editor’s 2020 note: We got to spend a week with Merlin several years later during our 2017 trip to Alaska.

Following our visit with Merlin, we began our trek north to Hershey. We arrived at the famed chocolate down late, but managed to find some sushi just at Wasabi Bistro just before it closed.

Tomorrow we play tourists in Hershey.

<– Day 17 – Mon. May 20th: Gettysburg and A Little Slice of Heaven  | Trip Overview | Day 19 – Wed. May 22nd: Old Cars and Chocolate Shots –>