Global Travel Planning

Exploring Pennsylvania: A Journey Through History, Chocolate, and Amish Country

• Tracy Collins • Episode 34

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In episode 34 of the Global Travel Planning Podcast, host Tracy Collins welcomes guest Rob Bruns, who shares his recent Pennsylvania road trip adventure. Known for his popular episodes on the UK Travel Planning Podcast, Rob takes us on a journey through the Keystone State, offering insights and stories from his travels.

Starting in Harrisburg, Rob discusses using the state capital as a strategic hub for exploring nearby attractions. He dives into the sweet allure of Hershey, Pennsylvania, detailing the chocolate-themed delights and amusement park fun that await visitors. Next, Rob takes us to Gettysburg, where history comes alive at the famous battlefield and museum, offering a sombre yet enlightening experience.

The journey continues to Lancaster County, home to a vibrant Amish community. Rob shares his experiences of exploring Amish culture, from farm visits to buggy rides, providing a glimpse into this unique way of life. The road trip wraps up in Pittsburgh, Rob's hometown, where he nostalgically recounts the city's charm, history, and must-visit spots like Kennywood amusement park.

If you're considering a road trip through Pennsylvania or are simply curious about this diverse state, this episode is packed with tips, stories, and recommendations to inspire your next adventure.

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Tracy Collins [00:00:05]:
Hi, and welcome to the Global Travel Planning Podcast. I'm your host, Tracy Collins, who with my expert guests will take you on a weekly journey to destinations around the globe, providing travel inspiration, itinerary ideas, practical tips, and more to help you plan your next travel adventure. 

Hi, everybody, and welcome to episode 34 of the Global Travel Planning Podcast. Now this week, I am so excited to have a guest on who, if you're a listener of our UK Travel Planning Podcast, you will know who this is as soon as he introduces himself because he has been on at least 2 episodes of the UK Travel Planner podcast. In fact, one of our most popular episodes on that podcast is with Rob that is given away. Your your episode about London, Rob, is one of our most downloaded episodes, so I will say that. But, anyway, today, we're gonna talk about a Pennsylvania road trip that Rob took a few months ago because I'm, again, fascinated to learn more about America. And I know we have listeners from all over the world, whether you're from the States and haven't visited Pennsylvania or from America or the UK or anywhere in the world.

Tracy Collins [00:01:17]:
I think it's great to find out about different destinations around the world. So, anyway, without further ado, I will stop rabbiting on, Rob, and would you like to build

Rob [00:01:27]:
up. I mean, I'm stressed now.

Tracy Collins [00:01:29]:
Don't be stressed. You're the pro. So, Rob, would you like to introduce yourself and tell us whereabouts in the world you live?

Rob [00:01:36]:
Sure. Well, like Tracy said, I'm I'm the Rob, I guess. And I have a lovely wife, Heather, and we are both middle school teachers. And we have a lovely son who I can't believe is 14 years old, Beckett. And we currently live in Columbia, Missouri, which is pretty much smack dab in the middle of our country, conveniently located between Kansas City and St. Louis.

Tracy Collins [00:02:07]:
And we have still got to visit, Rob. I know we we have all the people come over there. It will happen at some point. You know, Doug is absolutely determined to get over, and we'd like to spend a bit of time exploring the states for sure. And I'm sure this trip is gonna also give us a bit of inspiration. Can you give us a brief overview of your trip? Who did you go on the road trip with? Where did you go? And how long were you on the road for?

Rob [00:02:29]:
Well, you know, we are a road trip family, always have been, towards the end of this past summer. And, our life revolves around our son's basketball right now. And so most of our road trips are related to where he has to go and play basketball. We had I don't think I told you. We had a potential road trip planned out west, because he was gonna play in Las Vegas, which I know is another destination, Doug, and you wanna hit.

Tracy Collins [00:02:58]:
Sweetie. Sweetie.

Rob [00:02:59]:
So we actually had a road trip planned through Oklahoma and Texas and New Mexico and Arizona, and, a couple boys on his team got hurt. And so that got canceled, and we were like, oh gosh. We only have 2 weeks left before school starts. We gotta go someplace. And so I I was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. I still have aunt and uncle there and cousins, and we said, we haven't seen them for a while. Let's let's go to Pennsylvania. There even though I was born there and raised there until I was 9, still it's it's a long state, lots of things to do, but we decided to head out there.

Rob [00:03:37]:
It's a relatively quick drive. We can actually make it in a day, although we we took our time a little bit this time. But we were on the road for about a week and went through we used Harrisburg as our hub, which I think using a hub is always a good technique when you're road tripping. I hadn't been there since I was a little kid, so I don't remember anything. And then went to Hershey's, Pennsylvania, which we'll talk about more.

Tracy Collins [00:04:06]:
Yep.

Rob [00:04:07]:
And then just looking on the map, again, centrally located Harrisburg is in Pennsylvania. We decided to hit Lancaster County, which is home to a very large Amish population here on in our country, and then Gettysburg, which we'll talk about as well. Obviously, home to kind of the turning point in our civil war and Lincoln Gettysburg Address, for those people that are familiar with that. And my my wife is a social studies teacher and a and a Lincoln lover. So, all places that I my parents never took me even though I'm from Pennsylvania. So we headed east.

Tracy Collins [00:04:46]:
That's brilliant. Well, I think sometimes, you know, you don't actually explore the places that are on your doorstep when you grow up. Yeah. I'm exploring more of Northumberland now than I think I did when I was a kid, to be honest.

Rob [00:05:00]:
I isn't that funny? I mean, I asked my parents. I'm like, how

Tracy Collins [00:05:03]:
come you never took me

Rob [00:05:05]:
to these places? Well, you know, we'll talk a little bit later. I mean, Pittsburgh and the area around Pittsburgh, there's a ton there as well. So you know

Tracy Collins [00:05:14]:
Well, I actually have a relative who lives in Pittsburgh. Actually, I have my dad's cousin. I think it's his cousin. Yeah. Or his nephew. I never I always get mixed up because my grandmother had my father before her mom had her last son. So I think it might actually be my dad's uncle, which is very bizarre, who's a bit was a bit younger than him, still is a bit younger than him. But, yeah, that that's very so he lives in Pittsburgh.

Tracy Collins [00:05:39]:
I believe it might be something to do with the coal because obviously Northumberland, coal miners. Pittsburgh, coal mining. So I figured that's that relation. Anyway, let's start let's go back to the trip. So you started off in Harrisburg, which is the state capital. Am I am I right?

Rob [00:05:53]:
That is correct.

Tracy Collins [00:05:55]:
So what are the some of the highlights of your state, and would you recommend it as a starting point for this flight?

Rob [00:06:01]:
I I will be honest. I mean, I'm gonna say a lot of wonderful things about my home state here. But I think I I think all my fellow Pennsylvanians would agree that Harrisburg is not a destination. But, you know, I mean, in Missouri, our capital is Jefferson City, and those of you that are maybe familiar with Missouri and Jefferson City would say the same thing. Sometimes state capitals are in very odd places. You know, most of them are put there, because of geographical reasons, whether it's, you know, access to rivers or back in the days, railroads, and they didn't necessarily grow up into, you know, wonderful tourist destinations. See, that's

Tracy Collins [00:06:46]:
good to know. I did not know that. So there see?

Rob [00:06:50]:
So we we chose Harrisburg mainly because, it's centrally located. We kinda you know, like, spokes on a wheel. It was close enough to everything, like, half an hour to Hershey's, an hour to Amish country. I think it was 45 minutes to Gettysburg. And, of course, the closer you get to tourist destinations, the more expensive hotels and everything else are. And so I you know, we kinda went back and forth, back and forth, and, you know, we could get a much better deal in Harrisburg for lodging and accommodations, and that's why we picked it. Harrisburg, the the capital's lovely. The built you know, if you're into history, we went downtown.

Rob [00:07:34]:
We went to the capital. There are lovely things to do down there, but definitely not a tourist destination.

Tracy Collins [00:07:42]:
Okay. Perfect. But it sounds like a good place to stay if you get better deals on accommodations. That Absolutely.

Rob [00:07:48]:
From me room. It worked lovely. Absolutely.

Tracy Collins [00:07:51]:
Okay. So let's let's talk about Hershey then. So Oh my gosh. Chocolate. Chocolate.

Rob [00:07:58]:
If you love chocolate and

Tracy Collins [00:07:59]:
you have the chance to

Rob [00:08:01]:
go, how can you not go? I mean Exactly. I can't remember being a kid and hearing about Hershey's. I mean, when I told my students, at the beginning of this year, you know, yeah, I went to Hershey's, and they were like, there was a town called Hershey, you know, like, there's a place? I'm like, yes. And I, you know, I told them a little bit about the quick history that literally I think his first name was Milton Hershey's was a chocolatier who he traveled the world. He did research. He learned how to make chocolate and, of course, brought back his knowledge from traveling all these different places in the world and started a chocolate company and built the town around it. And the kids are like, god. That sounds like Willy Wonka.

Rob [00:08:46]:
I said, I know. So, yes, if you're if you're a chocolate lover, it's definitely a place that was wonderful to visit. They have a theme park there. So if you're a theme park lover and and we are, so I can speak that it is it is worth a visit. Great roller coasters if you're into roller coasters. They have a lovely chocolate world. I mean, it's I'm not gonna lie. It's very commercial.

Rob [00:09:13]:
You know, it's a tourist destination. The biggest gift shop of chocolate at Hyattie that you've ever seen.

Tracy Collins [00:09:22]:
Oh, I don't know. I've I've been in the Lindt chocolate shop

Rob [00:09:26]:
Oh, we missed that.

Tracy Collins [00:09:27]:
Switzerland. Oh, no. The Cadbury World in Birmingham is pretty good as well. It sounds like I visit a lot of these chocolate places. I'm not saying anything. I might be nodding my head at the moment. But, so I think I need to add Hershey's into into it.

Rob [00:09:40]:
I I mean, it it was it was great. I mean, they've got a food hall, and they've got a little dark ride that teaches you about the process of Hershey's. And then there's paid attractions inside that you can do. We did the make your own chocolate bar activity, which was pretty cool. They've got a restaurant. We went to the restaurant, and it actually was very good. The chocolatier, they're in Hershey's. And, of course, in I would say at least 80%, if not more of their food involves chocolate somehow.

Rob [00:10:17]:
You know, chocolate dusted or cocoa nibs or chocolate sauce. Becca got some ribs with chocolate barbecue sauce. I mean so it's fun. You know, it's fun. It was good food, crazy milkshakes.

Tracy Collins [00:10:31]:
Does it have hot chocolate for dough?

Rob [00:10:33]:
Oh, of course they do. Of course they do. And I'm I mean, if you saw the milkshake Beckett got, I mean, I'm sure the hot chocolate had probably, you know, 5 inches of whipped cream and chocolate on top of that. So oh, yeah. I think that might give some competition to some of the hot chocolate we had in the UK when we were there because that was pretty good stuff.

Tracy Collins [00:10:55]:
Oh, yeah. Yeah. It's pretty good. It is pretty good, but Doug likes his hot chocolate. I'm a I'm a milkshake person, so that sounds pretty good to me.

Rob [00:11:03]:
Oh, that was they they were pretty impressive. And then the town itself is just, you know, it's a very picturesque town. They've got, and, of course, it's all related to Hershey because he basically built the town, but they have beautiful botanical gardens. They have a couple historical, hotels that you can stay in. We took a trolley ride, that took off from the chocolate world, for about an hour that does, like, a historical tour of the town in Hershey, and it's now this huge school that he and the company now support. And so there, you know, the town is very, very much built upon Hershey's and lots of history to learn. So, again, if you're into history, you've got that beautiful botanical gardens. You got that Thrill rides, you got that.

Rob [00:11:55]:
Chocolate, obviously, got that. So there's a lot to be offered, you know, for for kids and adults.

Tracy Collins [00:12:01]:
So would you say it it one day or 2 days to visit Hershey?

Rob [00:12:04]:
I would say at least 2 days. And, again, like, the amusement park also had a water park within it. So if you have kids, you could easily spend a day or 2 just at the amusement park and the water park and then at least a day at the chocolate world. And then if you were wanting to do botanical gardens and maybe a tour, and there's another museum downtown. I mean, you could easily make it into into 3 days if you wanted. Okay. But at least 2. Definitely 2.

Tracy Collins [00:12:36]:
That sounds brilliant. Right. So let's talk about Gettysburg because I'm gonna be really ignorant here about the I know it's of historical significance. So so tell me a little bit about Gettysburg. Obviously, famous historic site but you're gonna explain a little bit more of that to me, and I'll listen

Rob [00:12:52]:
if you

Tracy Collins [00:12:53]:
don't know.

Rob [00:12:54]:
Well yeah. So American Civil War. So we're we're talking oh, gosh. I'm gonna I need I need Heather here for my dates. 18, what, 50, sixties. Yeah. So Pennsylvania as a whole I mean, because we're on the the East Coast of our country. So lots of historical places on the East Coast of our country, obviously, lots of battlefields throughout Pennsylvania and neighboring states.

Rob [00:13:20]:
So Gettysburg is widely seen as the turning point of our civil war. And shortly afterward that when the civil war ended, that's where Abraham Lincoln came back, and he gave his famous Getty Gettysburg address at the conclusion there. So, I never went as a kid and, obviously, Heather being a social studies teacher, very interested. And then our son. So we we adopted our son and he's African American. So whenever we do travel within our country, we do search out places of historical significance, obviously, not just for ourselves, but for him as well. And so it was a great visit. It was a sombering visit.

Rob [00:14:04]:
I'm sure a lot of people who have been to places of historical significance were, I mean, tragic events. I mean, our civil war, any civil war, any country, anywhere is a tragic event. This was one of our largest battles with one of the largest casualties on both sides. So wonderful visitor center. Museum, if you're into history or battles or, yeah, the civil war and what led to that horrific event, the museum was amazing. Our son, for the most part, was very tuned in to going through it and and reading things and asking questions, and and it it was, at times, kinda hard. You know? You're trying to explain civil war and especially our civil war and the the basis for our civil war, to your child who also happens to be African American. At times, it was really you know, it's kinda hard.

Rob [00:15:10]:
Like and then you realize it's not something that's far removed. I mean, we're still within 200 years, so, you know, that's not that long ago. There is a beautiful one thing that was I had never heard of before. It's called a cyclorama. It is a painting, kind of a mural. It was done by a French painter. And then I don't know if he painted it in France and then brought it to America, but it's a a mural of the Gettysburg battle. And it's been restored, and it's placed in the museum in the round.

Rob [00:15:47]:
So you kinda enter, and you are surrounded by this. It's, like, 42 feet high Wow. And, like, almost 400 feet in circumference. And then they have a little audio thing that goes along describing the battle. And that was just I mean, the just the painting was beautiful. But then, of course, the the topic, it was great. And, of course, there's a film that goes along with it, but I have not been to New York in the 911 Memorial, but I've been to places like Oklahoma City. For those people that know, there was a a bombing there many years ago, federal building.

Rob [00:16:25]:
And so you go to these places to learn your history, to experience your history, but when you're, like, there, you're literally there.

Tracy Collins [00:16:35]:
Yep.

Rob [00:16:36]:
It it's it's it's tough. We we kind of broke the the tension and the heavy of the, subject area and went to lunch, though, and found we always are looking for cool places to eat and, found a tavern there in Gettysburg that dates back to 1776.

Tracy Collins [00:16:57]:
Wow.

Rob [00:16:57]:
And the tavern's in the bottom, the basement of this, called Dobbins House, the spring Spring House Tavern because there's literally a spring that runs through the basement where this tavern is. So we had a great meal in this dark little tavern, Also, kind of a surprise that we had not read, this tavern was a spot on the Underground Railroad, which, again, if you're not familiar with American history, the Civil War was largely based on the differences between the North and the South and whether enslaving people was okay or not. And so the Underground Railroad was a kind of a system to get enslaved people from the from the south of our country to the north. And so we got to see, kind of, some of the secret places within this house and tavern where they would hide people to get them to the north where they would be safe. So that was a kind of a nice little surprise we hadn't planned. And then we headed out to the battlefield. The battlefield is huge. I mean, it's it almost is like the town.

Rob [00:18:08]:
I mean, the town was the battlefield. And so, you know, there are still, I think, a couple homes from that era that have bullet holes in the side of the houses, because it literally the town was the battle. Wow. And you can have ranger tours. There's so many options for people. And so if you're a big history buff and big into the battles, I mean, you could spend probably a couple days because I know some people are very I mean, it's complex. It was a big, big battle. We took an audio tour in our car.

Tracy Collins [00:18:46]:
Oh, really? Yeah.

Rob [00:18:48]:
Which was something new. Yes. It was something new. It was one of the options we saw that you could download this app. I can't remember how much it was, but it was very cheap. And you set up your phone and GPS, and it tells you where to drive. And as you come to certain markers, it just, like, automatically started telling you about it. Yeah.

Rob [00:19:11]:
It's

Tracy Collins [00:19:11]:
really cool.

Rob [00:19:12]:
It was very cool. Yeah. I've

Tracy Collins [00:19:14]:
heard of that before. I was kinda like, how is

Rob [00:19:17]:
this gonna work? But, really cool option, you know, especially if you had smaller children. You know, they're probably not gonna wanna be walking all over the place. And sometimes with the rangers, you know, they're talking kind of at a higher level. Whereas if you're in the car, you can kinda go at your own pace and then talk to your kids about, like, what's actually happening. But we drove around the battlefield probably for a good hour and a half, and you could get out when you wanted. You know, they have, of course, markers all over the place where different brigades from different states were positioned and, you know, it was it it was a lot. It's a

Tracy Collins [00:20:02]:
That sounds good.

Rob [00:20:03]:
A sombering place and a sad place, but also a place where you're, like, in my view, we were victorious and things did go the way we needed them to go. But a lot of, you know, obviously, a lot of blood was spilled there, so it's also very solemn Yep. Place to visit.

Tracy Collins [00:20:25]:
Yeah. Okay. Let's let's turn the topic around because that that will be definitely somewhere that we'll wanna go and visit for sure. Yeah. I think it's important too. But I also have a interest in, going to Lancaster and Amish country. Now who doesn't who doesn't have an interest in this? Because it's so unique. Well, you know, I don't know a huge amount about it except, again, probably what I've seen in films and occasional documentaries and a little bit about the Amish lifestyle.

Tracy Collins [00:20:57]:
So talk us through that.

Rob [00:20:59]:
Yeah. Well and, you know, if you live in America, you just like you, that's where you get your information about the Amish. It's through movies and TV shows, you know, and we have some we've had some crazy TV shows here in America about Amish, and there's all sorts of opinions and sometimes even controversy and, you know, all there's there's all kinds of things flying around. And so, you know, one of the great things about traveling and being able to to have that luxury to travel is to go see things for yourself and get a different point of view instead of just reading about it or having people tell you about it. And so so we went with no real preconceived notions about what we were gonna see. And it was interesting. You know, it just adds to our personal, you know, collection of knowledge about the Amish. I will tell you the Amish, it gets kinda complicated because there are many subgroups of Amish.

Rob [00:22:04]:
If you if you start reading about it, you'll be like, oh my goodness. There's this type and that type. And then there's a group called the Mennonites, which is also related to the Amish. And, you know, it all started I think they started in Switzerland, and then they came over to the colonies like many people did at the time, early 1700, because of religious persecution and all of that. They've settled in many different states in our country. I think also even up in Canada. And just one of the larger populations is there in Pennsylvania. So, you know, we went and it's a lot of farmland.

Rob [00:22:43]:
You know, farming is one of their major industries, although clearly tourism has also become one of their major industries as well, which is an interesting juxtaposition when you're there.

Tracy Collins [00:22:59]:
Yeah. It does sound but just thinking about it, it doesn't it it sounds strange.

Rob [00:23:04]:
Yes. That that is a very good word. So, you know, we started the day going to a farm. So there are there's obviously farms everywhere. You can choose probably from 40 different farms that you could go visit, with all sorts of options to do all sorts of things. We went to it was called Old Windmill Old Windmill Farms in Lancaster County, and we just did a a a short farm visit. We love animals, so we always you know, even when we were in the UK, one of our things was, oh, we gotta go stay on a farm. And so we stayed there for about 40 minutes.

Rob [00:23:43]:
It it was interesting to see, we were led around by the children. You know, we didn't the the adults weren't doing the tour. It was the older children that were leading us on the tour, you know, because they work. One of the kind of parts of their culture is that the kids, you know, they pitch in and work, hopefully, like all kids should, but it it's it's different. The expectations are definitely different. And so, of course, you know, we had fun with the farm animals and held all sorts of things like baby goats and baby piglets and the baby cows and but at the same time, you know, I'm thinking, you know, what what's life like for this family and these children day to day? I mean, the she was a clearly a teenager who was doing most of the tour with us and very, you know, very well spoken in command. I'm glad going, wow. She's, like, leading this whole thing with this group of people.

Rob [00:24:45]:
And so, you know, as a parent and as a teacher, I appreciated her abilities to do what she was doing. But then you're also wondering, okay, so what is life like on a daily basis and and for your future? Like, what because after that farm tour, we took a buggy ride. So if people are ever familiar with kind of the black buggies that you might see in the movies and TV, because some groups of Amish and Mennonites do use motor vehicles and some don't. So it kinda depends on what group you are. So there's different rules for different subgroups and sects. And I'm not a an expert at all, but I think like most people, especially in the States, when you talk about Amish, there's confusion about, okay. Well, I thought you aren't allowed to use electricity. Well, clearly, we bought our tickets on the Internet to go to these things.

Tracy Collins [00:25:49]:
So they have a website?

Rob [00:25:50]:
Yeah. They have a website, but yet, you know, they're I don't so it was very, you know, like, I don't know if it really helped us clear up in our minds, kind of, the overall, like so, like you said, it was it was an odd not a contradiction, but it it was interesting.

Tracy Collins [00:26:10]:
Position, isn't it, between the the modern and the and and

Rob [00:26:14]:
In the old.

Tracy Collins [00:26:14]:
The old. But the old. Yeah. I mean Yeah. And I think, you know, when I think of Amish again, I I think of no electricity, no no motor car, no no TV, no Internet, no phones, you know.

Rob [00:26:30]:
It's it's collective. Yeah. And and I wish I wish I had more time to to talk to somebody. We we took the buggy ride. Our driver, Elam was his name. He's probably, like, in his late sixties, early seventies, appeared to me being very traditional. Our son our so, you know, our son, well, currently now is, 6667. He's a big guy.

Rob [00:26:59]:
So on this buggy ride, initially, all 3 of us were supposed to be in the back, and, Elan was so sweet. He kinda looks sad back then and he's like, and he looks at me. He's like, you can ride up front with me. He clearly was like, you all are gonna fit in the back. So I got to sit up, like, shoulder to shoulder, like, in physical contact.

Tracy Collins [00:27:20]:
Oh, that's cool.

Rob [00:27:21]:
And I kinda thought Yeah. I'm thinking to myself, like, is this is this okay? Like, you know, I I again, I have some preconceived notions, but I I don't know. But that, I think, was a really good opportunity because he at the beginning, I kind of was sitting there kind of stiff, you know, trying not to rub against him too much. But as the the drive went on, I just I'm like, I started to ask him questions. I mean, he kinda had a a script that he was following, telling us about the farms and what they were growing and kinda how their way of life goes. And I just started asking him questions, and he we actually started a conversation. And then, you know, he slowly started to actually make some jokes with us. He was, I can't remember the joke he said, but it was something about, like, you know, Beckett and, you know, his his big feet or, you know, how much food it must take to, you know, maintain him.

Rob [00:28:24]:
And we started to talk about children and and, you know, in that moment you know, that's another thing about traveling. If you get to go out of your way to talk to people and you start realizing, okay. We're all Americans, and we all live in the same country, but your way of life is completely different than mine. But when you start talking about teenagers and raising teenagers, well, you know what? Teenagers are the same no matter where you are in the world.

Tracy Collins [00:28:51]:
Absolutely. Absolutely.

Rob [00:28:53]:
There's those those common themes no matter where you are in the world, no matter what's going on in the place where you live. You know, teenagers are teenagers. You know? And so I felt like a little little wall, a little barrier had broken down there, and I really felt like, oh, he had another buggy ride to give, but I'm like, I feel like we could go out to lunch, and I could actually have an opportunity to maybe learn some more

Tracy Collins [00:29:18]:
Yeah.

Rob [00:29:19]:
About their culture and the way they he he was asking us about Missouri. He's like, what does Missouri look like? I mean, he started to ask me, like, questions off the script. And I asked he had never he has never left Lancaster County in in his 60, 70 plus years. Like, that's been his life.

Tracy Collins [00:29:42]:
Wow. Wow.

Rob [00:29:43]:
And I guess, you know, that's when you go, you know, we're privileged to be able to travel in the first place, and a lot of people do. They they stay in their spot in the world their entire lives. And so, there are opportunities in Lancaster County where you can go spend a whole day with a family, have dinner with them in their house. There was one farm where they had the the one room schoolhouse. You could spend the so there's there's many, many opportunities in the area to immerse yourself further and learn more. We just we're on a time limit there, but No. That sounds that was a lot of fun.

Tracy Collins [00:30:24]:
No. It sounds really interesting, and that's definitely, definitely add that to to my itinerary as well because, just as you say, it's, you know, I'm I'm not American. I'm British, Australian. But even visiting America, I can go to Los Angeles. I can go to New York. I can go to Chicago, meet people who all have different lives. And and that's the amazing thing when you travel is the ability to the privilege of being able to do that wherever you go in the world. And and just I I mean, I'm very nosy.

Tracy Collins [00:30:54]:
That's why Yeah.

Rob [00:30:55]:
I mean, I think that's why we travel because we are nosy.

Tracy Collins [00:30:58]:
I wanna know about your life. I wanna know what what is it like. What, You know? And I I remember actually one of my driver guides in the UK saying, you know, he he loved going out when he takes the drives because people wanna ask things like just things like, how do you take your garbage out? How does it collect it? You know, we have dustbin what different language that we would call dustbin, Laurie, not, you know, you know, just that just things like that. Just things really mundane but really interesting. You know, like, what what's I was a teacher. What's it like at school? Like, when the kids start school, what sort of subjects do they do? All those things that are so different that if you're just in one place, you just take for granted that everybody has exactly the same, but it's it's not. We're all different. So I'm gonna turn us back to Pittsburgh because I know that's your hometown.

Tracy Collins [00:31:46]:
So and you stopped there. Now I've not been to Pittsburgh. The closest I've been is to Buffalo, New York. Oh, okay. Because my stepdad was doing just was working in in Pittsburgh. So so tell us about is Pittsburgh worth visiting?

Rob [00:32:01]:
Oh, yes. I mean, I feel like I'm gonna be the Pittsburgh tourism board here. I love Pittsburgh. I I mean, I assume most of us have a warm feeling when we when we go home, what whatever that home means or wherever it is or, you know, what have you. I mean, I was born there and I lived there until I was 9. And then my family flipped the world around and moved us to San Diego, California, which is as night and day as you can possibly get. So that that's another story we can I I can talk about San Diego almost just as warmly? But if anybody goes to Pittsburgh, I wrote this down because I didn't wanna forget. So Pittsburgh, if you don't know, is located, at the convergence of 3 major rivers, and it's very hilly.

Rob [00:32:54]:
And so there's a lot of tunnels and a lot of bridges, which I don't know why, but I love tunnels and bridges. When I was a little boy, I just loved driving through the tunnels. And and back in the seventies, people would honk their horns and cause all sort of havoc in the tunnels. Can't do that anymore. I think you could get arrested for that kind of thing. But, there are there's there's several tunnels that lead into Pittsburgh because it's kind of surrounded by rivers and mountains. You have to enter Pittsburgh through what's called the Fort Pitt Tunnel. So Fort Pitt is actually a a fort again from, you know, the early years that's located in Pittsburgh at the convergence of these rivers.

Rob [00:33:36]:
So you can go to Fort Pitt as well. But when you come through the Fort Pitt tunnel, you kinda enter it, and it's just like a tunnel and, like, kind of like a boring mountain in front of you. And you come out of the tunnel, and the beautiful city of Pittsburgh just appears with the rivers and the skyline and the bridges. Ugh. See, I just I'm like, I'm gonna I'm just like, it's one of my favorite things in the world to go through that tunnel and see the city open up. I think many people have said it's, like, the best way to enter an American city anywhere. So Fort Pitt tunnel, if you have to make a detour and go there and drive around to to the tunnel.

Tracy Collins [00:34:18]:
Make sure you go through the tunnel.

Rob [00:34:20]:
There's definitely my gosh. But, yeah, I mean, I love Pittsburgh. You know, my aunt and uncle still live there. My grand my grandparents no longer with us but lived there, and we lived you know, my maternal grandmother's from Italy. And so one set of grandparents lived very near downtown in an area called Braddock, which is very typical immigrant American place, with brick street still and, a mixture of anything and everything, as far as cultures and backgrounds. So I'm very lucky that I was I was born there and got to experience that. My aunt and uncle still live in a place called Swissvale, which is right outside I mean, it's one of the boroughs. So Pittsburgh has boroughs kinda like neighborhoods.

Tracy Collins [00:35:16]:
Mhmm.

Rob [00:35:17]:
So if you ever go there, do you do you have you ever heard the word hoagie?

Tracy Collins [00:35:22]:
I have, but I don't know what it means.

Rob [00:35:24]:
Okay. So they're they're very large sandwiches.

Tracy Collins [00:35:28]:
Right.

Rob [00:35:29]:
Okay. Like the I'm trying to think of another word. See, I've always called them hoagies. I I don't even know I know other people call them something else, but very large sandwiches. And so if you ever go to Pittsburgh, you gotta go to the Triangle Bar and Grill because they are known for their hoagies, best in Pittsburgh, and you get a battleship. They're called different ships based on their length. It's, like, 27 inches, almost long. And so, of course, we showed up, and, of course, immediately, my uncle's like, okay.

Rob [00:35:59]:
You wanna go down to the bar and get get the hoagie? I'm like, oh, yeah. Total little hole in the wall. They've redone it though. When I was a little boy, we'd walk in and it was, oh, what's the word? It was a it was a place back then. It was dark. It was dark. It was a bar, but they've brightened it up since then. So we had to get our hoagie, and then where my aunt and uncle live, you can see right over the end of the street that they live on, another place you have to go in Pittsburgh is called Kennywood.

Rob [00:36:35]:
Kennywood is if, again, if you are a theme park or roller coaster enthusiast, you know Kennywood. And if you don't know Kennywood, you gotta go Google it right now and go read. It is one of the oldest amusement parks in America back to 18/98. It was originally a park that used to be trolleys that went all around, Pittsburgh. And they build parks at the end of the trolley lines to try to encourage people to use the trolleys as transportation. And so a lot of these parks disappeared, but this park continued to develop and morphed into what is now called Kennywood. They have some of the oldest wooden roller coasters in the world. Now I've actually been to Copenhagen in Tivoli, And I rode a a wooden roller coaster there.

Rob [00:37:30]:
Those people that are familiar with Tivoli probably know what I'm talking about. And that, I think, is I don't know if that's the oldest or

Tracy Collins [00:37:37]:
I think it might be.

Rob [00:37:38]:
Yeah. I think that might be the oldest one that, you know, the driver still is on the coaster with you working the hand brake at the one in Tivoli. But the one at Kennywood goes all the way back to 1920, the one that's still standing, and it's called the jackrabbit, and it's got a double dip. Yeah. And it's one of the few roller coasters that the only restraint they have still is, like, a seat belt. No. Yeah. So when I was a boy, that was the scariest thing to go on because it wasn't even a seat belt back then.

Rob [00:38:12]:
It was literally a leather strap, like, kinda like a belt with little holes that went on a hook. And you would go down the double dip because it was called the jack or it's called the jackrabbit, and you would fly out of your seat on the yeah. I we took Beckett. We so we've been back to Pittsburgh many times over the years. When Beckett was 3, I snuck him on because, again, as you know, Beckett is tall. And so when he was 3, he looked like he could probably be 6 or 7.

Tracy Collins [00:38:43]:
Yeah. And a bunch of

Rob [00:38:44]:
And again and against Heather's protest, I said, oh, he'll be fine. And I took him on. That was his 1st roller coaster ride was, like, Kennywood on that over 100 year old wooden roller coaster. And so he loves that. He loves that one.

Tracy Collins [00:38:58]:
How about 8 months?

Rob [00:39:00]:
It's a it's a beautiful amusement park. You know, it doesn't have the gardens and all the restaurants of Tivoli, but it's, like, the closest thing. It's not huge. It's not small, but it's a place where you can kinda stroll and enjoy the day and Sounds like very close to my heart.

Tracy Collins [00:39:19]:
I'd say. It sounds very it sounds a lot of fun and a lot of nostalgia there as well working here.

Rob [00:39:26]:
So, yeah, Pittsburgh's got everything. Downtown's great. You were talking about the coal. So, obviously, Pittsburgh's known for the steel mills, which I still remember from back when I was a little kid. They're all gone, obviously. And the rivers I remember as a kid, the the rivers were horribly polluted Mhmm. And weird colors. And Pittsburgh is definitely one of our our cities that has, you know, re energized itself and redeveloped areas down by the rivers where the steel mills were.

Rob [00:40:00]:
So, again, lots of history, not only from, you know, pre civil war and civil war, but just the industrial revolution and steel mills and people that are familiar with Carnegie Mellon and some of the big business tycoons of our country's history have their hands in that area. So, yeah, you could spend you could spend many days.

Tracy Collins [00:40:28]:
Well, I'll have to add that in too. So how did this road trip compare to other road trips that you have done? Because I know it's something that you like to do. Was anything unexpected on this road trip?

Rob [00:40:39]:
Or I think you know, the only unexpected thing, we did have a fire alarm at the hotel

Tracy Collins [00:40:44]:
one night, so we had a gift. Don't you hate have you ever had to do that? Well, you mentioned that. Doug and I stayed in Cardiff in September, and I think it was about 2 o'clock in the morning. The fire alarm went off, and it didn't stop. It just didn't stop. So we got dressed to get up, get dressed, went all the way down to the reception. Obviously, you can't use the lift. I don't know what floor on.

Tracy Collins [00:41:08]:
I think we didn't quite make it all the way down before they went, it was a false alarm. We're like Yeah. I'm glad it was a false alarm, obviously.

Rob [00:41:15]:
Well, yeah. I mean, let's let's write.

Tracy Collins [00:41:18]:
Yeah. But also, it was like, right. Okay. Back to bed. Yes. So did you have a similar?

Rob [00:41:24]:
We had a similar and, total clinky dink. We're sitting out there in the parking lot, of course. So, obviously, we're in an an election cycle here in the US, and a certain presidential candidate was visiting Harrisburg that night. And, the motorcade went by. So we're like, oh, well, that that's we didn't get to see anything other than, you know, all the highway patrol cars. Yeah.

Tracy Collins [00:41:52]:
I can imagine the street

Rob [00:41:53]:
So that was kinda funny. So, yeah, we had to evacuate the hotel, solve, you know, a motorcade, but, no, we we had a blast. We love to get out of town right before the school year starts and just be the 3 of us together. And that's why I like we like road trips because you you're with each other, you know, in the car and every stop and in the wherever. So it it was great. No car. You know, that's always a thing on a road trip. Right? Car performed like a champ.

Rob [00:42:25]:
Perfect. Perfect. So, no, it was a it was a great reenergizing road trip.

Tracy Collins [00:42:31]:
It sounds great. And I have to I agree with you. I just love road trips. We we didn't do a huge amount of road trips in the UK, but since we've lived in Australia, we've done far more. And, we we just love doing the outback in Queensland on a road trip, because it's it's fantastic. So I'm gonna invite you to Australia, Rob, to bring over Heather.

Rob [00:42:51]:
Come someday. We're gonna Heather's like, I can't do that flight. I said, well, yeah. You can.

Tracy Collins [00:42:57]:
Yes. She can. And just break it up bit by bit. And she can stop off in Hawaii on the way, fly to LA, fly to Hawaii.

Rob [00:43:03]:
There yet, so we'll make that part of it.

Tracy Collins [00:43:05]:
There you go. Exactly. When you when you retire from teaching, that is the time you guys come and we'll go on a outback road trip around Queensland because that'll be

Rob [00:43:14]:
Woo hoo.

Tracy Collins [00:43:15]:
For kids. Yeah. Absolutely. It'd be so good. So I'm gonna ask the last question I always ask in every podcast, but what would be the one tip that you would share with anyone planning a road trip around Pennsylvania for the first time?

Rob [00:43:27]:
Well, definitely go. Say definitely go. And I think the same thing I said when planning a trip to the UK, and maybe it's the teacher in me, but I'm like, you gotta read. You gotta put some work in ahead of time, and and that includes, you know, if you have children that you're somehow pre prepping them for the trip. You know, you whether it's a short road trip of 3 or 4 days or big long odyssey, I think, to for you and anybody else that's going along with you to get the most out of it that you you're putting that time and and money and effort into doing it is to read about the places that you are going to beforehand. Don't wait until you get to Gettysburg to start learning about it. Start learning before you get there. Even though, like I said, Harrisburg is not a destination, I read about the Capitol and I I didn't know this even being born there that the original Capitol had burnt down and then they had rebuilt it.

Rob [00:44:30]:
Excuse me. And it was this ugly rectangular prism looking building and nobody really liked it. And then they built, the 3rd, I guess, version of the Capitol building, and they built it kind of around the second one that was so ugly. So part of the building is, like, the old ugly building with kind of facade and you know? So those little things when then you actually get there, you're like, hey. I I know this, and that's okay. This is more interesting than it would have been if I hadn't known it. So I always encourage people to read and then just looking at a map and seeing relative locations of things. I think that's a tricky thing that sometimes we think either places are farther or shorter than they really are.

Rob [00:45:17]:
And so looking at a map and doing a little preplanning, you might be surprised that something you didn't think was on the table to visit is, oh, really? It's only 35 minutes away? Well, how can we pass that up? We we should try to fit that in. So read, look at a map, look at the distances, especially on a road trip, and you might save yourself a headache because something was farther than you thought or might get a nice surprise to visit something that was closer than you thought.

Tracy Collins [00:45:49]:
Perfect. That's perfect. And very, very good advice. So we say there's nothing worse than going to visit somewhere, and then a couple of days later, finding out that there was something else that you should have visited which was very close by. And I can tell you, I've done that before. So and again, oh.

Rob [00:46:03]:
Everybody has it.

Tracy Collins [00:46:04]:
Exactly. So very good advice. Thank you so much for joining me on this week's episode of the Global Travel Planning podcast, Rob. We will put hopefully get some some photos of the different places that you visited from you. Obviously, we'll put some links to, some of the places that Rob mentioned, particularly some of the places to go and eat sounded great. And you can find that in the show notes at UK, UK travel plan, atglobaltravelgladden.comforward/episo34. You can tell I've been doing lots of UK travel planning podcasts this week, Rob. But thanks so much for joining us on this week's episode.

Rob [00:46:36]:
Absolutely. Always a pleasure talking with you, Tracy.

Tracy Collins [00:46:41]:
Thank you for joining us on this episode of the Global Travel Planning podcast. For more details and links to everything we discussed today, check out the show notes at globaltravelplanet.com. Remember, if you enjoyed the show, please consider leaving us a review on your favorite podcast app because your feedback helps us reach more travel enthusiasts just like you. Anyway, that leaves me to say, as always, happy global travel planning.