Yes, but Where Are the Oompa-Loompas?

My, but it does rain a lot in the eastern United States. This comes as no surprise to Andy, who swears he could have set his watch by the daily afternoon rains in Virginia, but is completely foreign to Kala, who is accustomed to a nice, dry, desert heat — something akin to fire. But we're getting ahead of ourselves!

The day started nicely enough, as we said goodbye to our friends in Allentown and drove with eager anticipation to Lititz, home of Sturgis Pretzels, America's first pretzel bakery. Our tour guide described the origins of the pretzel and how it became popular in the United States. We'll spare you the details, but let's just say that you can thank a bunch of monks and a hobo the next time you sit down with a beer and the perfect salty snack to go with it. We had a great time and even got to make our own pretzels!

Now, we know we might appear to be a bit obsessed with giant animals, but we don't always have to seek them out — sometimes they find us. There we were, driving along Route 30 from Lititz to York, minding our own business, when an enormous fiberglass statue of the bovine persuasion entered the highway just in front of us! What were we supposed to do, ignore it? Certainly not! Who would believe us without photographic evidence?

The traveling cow having disappeared in our rearview mirror, we reached our next destination. As everyone knows, after something salty, you need something sweet, so our next stop was at the Wolfgang chocolate factory in York. Even better than the tours at Hershey, Pennsylvania, and at Cadbury in England (which cost a small fortune, we might add), this free tour took us right up to the coating and packing lines, where we interacted with factory employees and got a close-up look at the making of their scrumptious peanut butter cups. Kala was in heaven! After the tour, we were given bags of free samples including dark and milk chocolates, nut clusters, caramel chews, and coconut cremes. Having reached our capacity for chocolate consumption, we thought it best to head south to Shenandoah, where we would be spending the night.

We had only gotten a few miles from the chocolate factory when the deluge hit. Kala, in what can only be described as some sort of sugar-induced coma, slept right through the storm, leaving Andy alone to make his way through the downpour with nearly zero visibility ahead of him and an all-too-clear view of the cars behind, which he was sure would become embedded in our rear bumper at any moment.

Fortunately, the rain cleared without incident, and we arrived safely in New Market, Virginia, just beyond the Shenandoah Caverns we will be touring in the morning. Having visited the creepy (says Kala) local monument to Johnny Appleseed, we're turning in early tonight, as tomorrow will take us to many exciting places for which we will need to save our energy.