Saturday Sept 16 2023 was a gorgeous early fall day. We decided to check our list of places to see that we keep and decided a Top Down Day doing the Covered Bridge tour of Bedford County Pennsylvania was the thing to do.
The covered bridge tour is a driving tour that is done on your own and is created by the tourism council of Bedford county. You can find info of the tour in the Bedford county visitor guide or online at www.visitbedfordcounty.com
The tour consists of 9 covered bridges that were built in the late 1800’s and a place called Gravity hill that I will talk about later. All the bridges have been restored. Some are still drivable and some you can only walk over.
All the covered bridges were in great shape and you could just imagine the days when horse and buggy crossed instead of cars. The tour of the bridges took about 2 hours and we used the turn by turn written guide in the Bedford visitors guide to navigate. It is well written and easy to follow. The drive on Pennsylvania’s back country roads seeing farmland and a little slower life style was worth the trip even without the bridges.
One stop on the tour is a road called Gravity Hill. It is a place that they say defies gravity by moving your car up hill. There are 2 painted marks in the road that tells you where to start and stop but we started at the stopping point and it still worked. I have to say that the road looks to be sloped down hill and if you put you car in neutral it actually goes up the slope. If we ever intend to go back I am taking a level to see what the slope truly is on the road. To the human eye it definitely looks to be going down hill with a elevation change of maybe 8 to10 ft over about 150 ft span. Our Miata did drift up hill and increased in speed the farther we went. It is a baffling experience.
We highly recommend doing this Covered Bridge tour and Gravity Hill on a nice Top Down weather day. A few things to know.
1 There is limited parking to stop and get out to walk on the bridge to admire the construction. There was always at least 1 spot and most the time 2 spots for cars.
2 The Bedford visitor center was closed on Saturday so we ended up going to the Old Bedford Village to get information. That is also a great place to visit if time permits.
After the tour we decided to eat at the Golden Eagle Inn. It was ok. The main restaurant was closed so we ate in the brew pub. It was a small room and they did not have enough staff to serve everyone in a timely manner. However they had good food so it is a place we would go back to but there are several potentially good restaurants in Bedford and we will try them on future trips.
We took a Friday trip to Gettysburg Pa in early June 2022. Gettysburg was the sight of one of the biggest battles of the Civil War. It is about 90 minutes from Hagerstown Md taking back roads. Setting our GPS using no highways took us on a route we had not been before which was a nice change of scenery from our normal routes up to that area. Gettysburg is a great place to visit. If coming from a distance it is probably more than a days activities to get the full experience. In the past we have taken the Park service bus tour which is highly recommended. Also recommend a visit to President Eisenhower’s farm which is coordinated at the park visitor center.
On this day our goal was just to drive around. We started with Lunch at the Dobbins house. It is a period resteraunt in the tourist section of town. Food and atmosphere was great. Highly recommend it.
We stopped at the National Park Visitor center which is a must see if you are on your first trip to Gettysburg. We got the information to plan our day. From there we then went to a walking ranger tour at Culps hill which was very informative and a nice walk. Learned about a part of the battle that not many people know about since the more famous Pickets charge and the fight on Little Round top took most the headlines after the battle.
We stopped at the National cemetery where Abraham Lincoln gave his Gettysburg address in 1863 to commemorate the battle and the fallen soldiers. Walked through the grounds on our own. We did see a guided tour going on. For a future trip a guided tour at the Cemetery would be very interesting.
After that we started home taking different route that we had traveled before. The weather was perfect which made a great top down day for both of us.
One thing that we discovered which is new at the visitors center. They now have a guided driving tour on line at National Park Service ap for the Gettysburg battlefield. That is definitely going to be a future trip.
Our next Top Down adventure in the Miata was a few days at and around Raystown Lake in Pennsylvania. Raystown is the largest lake in PA and about a 2 hour drive from Hagerstown Md. We have found that if you go to places at times other than Friday and Saturday the crowds are less and it is easier to get around. We did our trip over 3 days, Sunday thru Tuesday in July 2021.
We planned on doing several things while there along with looking at the lake area for future family trips and getaways. We stayed at the Lake Raystown Resort. They have several different options including small to medium cabins and Yurts. There is a minimum nights to stay in these so we stayed at the Lodge which is a group of 3 buildings with Hotel style rooms. You can rent pontoon boats and jet skis for the day from the resort but this trip we did not do that. If you have a boat they rented slips both short term and long term. The resort and accommodations were very good. We drove up on a Sunday morning stopping at Bedford Village on the way. This is a planned 18th century historic replica of a town. They have relocated old cabins, stores and other buildings to this site. There are interrupters on site that will give demonstrations, talks, tours and answer questions. The crowd was light so we easily made our way around the village. It was a step back in time for about 2 hours. We would recommend that if you are in the area and have never been there, it is worth the stop.
The rest of the day we made our way to Lake Raystown Resort. The weather was a little hot but not to bad with the AC on and the top down. Of course we set the GPS to avoid highways and had a great ride through the country and mountains. When we arrived we mainly drove around the resort to explore seeing the different types of cabins and alot of RV camping. Most of the cabins and RV spots were full however there was little traffic and we could explore easily.
The next day we traveled about 90 minutes to Penn caverns. The route we took went through a valley of farm land. We went by mile after mile of corn, soybean and other things we did not know what they were. The size and qty of farms was fascinating. We speculate that they are there to support the Dairy farmers that supply milk to Hershey, there are also several canning companies in this area of Pennsylvania that may get produce from here.
We did not know exactly what to expect at Penn caverns but it turned out to be the highlight of the weekend. The Cavern tour was by boat. The Boat captain and tour guide gave a great 60 minute tour of the caverns.
They also had an animal safari that is done by Bus. The 90 minute tour took you past about a dozen different types of animals including Bison, Deer, Black Bear, Elk, Coyote, Fox and others. We did get to see a new born bison that was born within 2 hours of our tour. The bus made several stops so the tour guide could get off the bus and get the animals to come out so we could see them. We also got off the bus at one point to see a couple different animals.
We were lucky that an antique car tour was passing through and stopped at Penn Caverns. We took a few moments to look at the 30+ cars that were parked in the lot. We highly recommend Penn Caverns if you are in the area. Cost was a little high but the facility and all the tours were very nice. We ended up spending about 4 hours here in total.
On the way back toward the Lodge we stopped at Brookmere Winery for a tasting and to purchase some wine. They had a lot of good options so if passing by with the top down stop by. Tasting was also free. Definite plus.
Our next stop was Trough Creek State park. We took a short hike on the Balanced Rock trail. It really went to a large rock that seemed to be balanced on the top of the hill. It looked like it could fall at any time, however the sign says it has been this way for a few thousand years. After the balanced rock and trail we found a gravel road that went through the state park and forest. For about 45 minutes on this road we looked for wildlife, mainly hoping to see a bear, but we did not. We saw a deer and a squirrel but that is about it. In the 45 minutes only saw 2 other cars.
On Tuesday we checked out of the hotel and headed to Fort Roberdeau. It is a county run park with a remake of the Revolutionary fort that sat in the same spot around 1776. the fort was approved by George Washington to mine lead for the war effort. It was not that successful of an effort due to the lack of miners available at the fort and other issues. We were there when the fort opened and had a great walk through the fort and time with the Fort interpreter afterward with a lot of questions. We thought this was worth the trip and would recommend it.
We did have a secondary agenda going to this lake. we are looking for places with cabins or houses to rent for a family weekend gathering that we try to do each year. Unfortunately the cabins at the resort seemed to small to be really comfortable. The website says they sleep up to 8 but based on the size outside it would be a tight fit for that many.
One complaint we had was the lack of a variety of restaurants around. We did find Woody’s Bar-B-Q which was very good. After the fort, the interpreter at the fort recommended Spruce Creek Tavern which was also good. It just seemed that the options were limited. Most of the land on the lake at Raystown is owned by the Army Corp of Engineers, so there are virtually no private homes on the lake. The only real options to have lodging on the lake is the resort. There are other options close to the lake.
We both really enjoyed the couple days around Raystown Lake. There are more things to do at and around the lake so I can foresee another trip in the future to do the things we missed.
