On the Road Again

We decided to hit the road and packed up our stuff. I woke up at 7:30am. The front tire looked a little low the night before, but I decided not to gas up and fill the tire to see if there was anything wrong. Sure enough, the front driver's side tire was flat in the morning.

We packed up everything and called AAA at 8:30am. After being disconnected several times, I was told I'd receive assistance by 9:39am. At 9:50am, the assistance arrived and he put the crappy tire on. Remember the old days when your spare would allow you to drive on? After getting the doughnut/crappy tire on, we finished packing up and went to the front desk to check out. I really tested their knowledge of the area when I asked where I could get a tire. They seemed clueless at the concierge desk (where I was referred when I asked about this during check out).

As it turns out, there is a Firestone Center across the street from Red Lobster, CiCi's Pizza, and near Long John Silvers. There were all the places, 10 miles down the street, where we had visited during the week. How the folks could not know where it was is beyond me. It's where everything is, because NOTHING is located closer than 10 miles to the resort.

Victoria was pouting. I had suggested we stop in Hershey, PA on our way home. Our more than two hour delay in dealing with the tire was making the idea obsolete. Everything in Hershey closes at 5pm during this season. We hit the road running at 11:15am. We drove up 81 for about a half an hour before getting off at the exit to gas up and grab something to eat. We passed on McDonald's because the line was out the door. We grabbed something at Burger King, gassed up, and hit the road within ten minutes.

Cows and farms, farms and cows all the way up 81. We arrived in Hershey at 3:40pm, just as the GPS told us we would. I used cruise control a lot this trip. I think it really saved a bit of gas too. We pulled in to the Hershey area, seeing the Hershey Amusement Park in a similar setup to Sesame Place - in a parking lot. We found the little zoo area and paid 9 dollars a person. This is a little high priced for such a small area. We spent about an hour walking around and headed over to the Hershey area where we did a little shopping and took the chocolate tour ride. Very cute. We stopped at the outlet center, grabbed some yogurts and fruit and iced coffee products at Starbucks and we were on our way. It was a nice stop, spending about 2.5 hours there. We made it home by 10pm.