Biking and Boating Around York

York, PA

Yes, we are still here in a small park just west of York completing a list of errands, visiting doctors and dentists, and visiting our daughter, Jessica.  Next week Pam has a final dental appointment (the results of a root canal) that will complete our medical visits.  We’ll stay here another couple of weeks so we can watch Jessica participate in a half marathon in Baltimore and something called an Urbanathlon  in Queens, NY.

One of the neat events we were able to attend during our visit was a girls’ soccer game at Dallastown High School, the district where Pam taught third grade for many years.  It was Teacher Appreciation Day and each each senior was asked to chose a teacher who had a strong influence on them during their academic years.  Most of the girls selected a high school teacher, as they have such a recent experience with them.  But one of the girls dipped way back into her past, all the way back to third grade,  and invited that teacher to attend the ceremony.  Having a student appreciate your efforts is the best recognition a teacher can receive, so Pam was honored to attend the ceremony.

York County has a very nice rail trail that runs from the City of York south for about fifteen miles to the Maryland line, where it continues south almost to Baltimore.  One sunny fall day we took the bicycles over to the trail for a ride.

The trail travels along rail tracks that are still in use by a tourist train.  It passes through tree lined valleys and past fields of corn and soy beans.

After a bit over eleven miles we came to our destination, the little town of Glen Rock.  The town is very small and doesn’t have much to attract one to it, but it does have a great little Italian restaurant, Mignano Brothers.  The school district where John worked and both our children attended is just outside Glen Rock, and we lived in another small town just five miles away, so we have eaten here many, many times.  Now a visit back to the area always includes at least one meal at Mignano’s!

While there isn’t much in the town, there is a beautiful mural on the wall of one of the buildings along the trail.

Five or six miles north of Glen Rock the trail goes through a small area known locally as Hanover Junction.  A railroad station was built there between 1852 and 1854 by the Hanover Branch Railroad.  On November 18-19, 1863, Abraham Lincoln traveled through Hanover Junction travelling to and from dedicatory ceremonies for the Gettysburg National Cemetery.  Photographs are believed to depict Lincoln on the station platform.

Hanover Junction Station today

The building in the 1860s. It sure looks like Lincoln standing in the middle!

A bit further north, the trail goes through Howard Tunnel.  The three hundred foot tunnel, named for Revolutionary War hero John Howard of Baltimore, was completed in 1838.

Howard Tunnel

During the Civil War Union Troops manned a canon above the tunnel to protect it from Confederate troops who had been destroying railroad bridges and telephone lines.  Today Howard Tunnel is the oldest railroad tunnel in continuous use in the United States.

Track maintenance some time after the Civil War

Later in the week we took out our inflatable kayak (labeled the “Dumbass” by one of our children) for a cruise around Lake Williams.  If you read our last blog, you may remember us hiking around the lake a few weeks earlier.

The “Dumbass” ready for departure

It was a beautiful fall day and the trees around the lake are just beginning to show some color.

Captain and crew of the “Dumbass“

The captain enjoys lunch at sea (or lake)

Trees are just beginning to show some color

We have about three weeks left in our stay here and are beginning to get a bit anxious to be on the move.  In our three years living in the motorhome, this is the longest we have stayed in one place.  If it wasn’t for the two running activities Jessica is in, we would be long gone.  But Myrtle Beach, our next stop, will just have to wait a bit!