Haines Shoe House - Hallam, PA

On the way to see Ephrata Cloister (this will be a later post) we stopped to see the Haines Shoe House, just outside of York.  Unfortunately it was closed for the season so we just got a picture from the outside.   

The following is a description from Wikipedia.  

The Haines Shoe House is a shoe-shaped house in Hallam, Pennsylvania, along the Lincoln Highway. Modeled after a work boot, the house was built by shoe salesman Mahlon Haines in 1948 as a form of advertisement. Among his various companies, he owned a company that likes to claim that they raised boots "hoof-to-hoof" because the company did the boot making process starting with raising the cattle. The house, which is 25 feet (7.6 m) tall and contains five stories, was once rented out to couples, and is now open for public tours. It is located on Shoe House Road, next to a shoe-shaped doghouse.  Haines had the building built by handing a work boot to an architect saying, "Build me a house like this. He lived in the shoe house for a short while but ended up moving into a house across the street. The renters were served by a maid and butler and then received free pairs of shoes when they left. A Shoe House vacation contest was held which was won in 1950 and had all expenses paid by Mahlon Haines.    The living room is located in the toe, the kitchen is located in he heel, two bedrooms are located in the ankle, and an ice cream shop is located in the instep. When Mahlon decided to sell the house, it started going to ruin until it was bought by his granddaughter Annie Haines Keller in 1987. The current owners are Jeff and Melanie Schmuck who bought the house in 2015. The house received a small renovation and new paint in 2007. There is also a stained glass panel that shows Mahlon holding a pair of shoes with a message below it that reads, "Haines the Shoe Wizard". During the 2004 opening after the Farabaughs bought the property, boy scouts ran Easter egg hunts there. Mahlon's family told stories about their relative and an author sold copies of his book The Life and Times of Mahlon Haines.

The Shoe House was visited in the eighth season of the reality television series The Amazing Race and was featured on HGTV's What's With That House?. The Farabaughs were happy about the publicity though not permitted to talk about the house's appearance on The Amazing Race until two years later.

Mason-Dixon Trail, Lock #12, Lime Kilns, Holt Dam, Susquehanna & Tidewater Canal

We hiked part of the Mason-Dixon trail the other day.  The trail is 195 miles long and runs from Pennsylvania to Delaware.  This stretch of the trail parallels the Susquehanna and Tidewater Canal that was built along the Susquehanna River in the late 1830's.  The canal ran from Wrightsville, Pennsylvania to Havre de Grace, Maryland.  The first pictures are of a very large double lime kiln that was built next to the canal around 1830.   This was quite a varied and interesting hike of about 4  or 5 miles that included a trek up and over a very steep mountain.

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Double Lime Kiln

Top Of Kiln

 Front Of Kiln

Remains Of Lock #12 - one of the many locks on the Susquehanna And Tidewater Canal - this one is all original and well preserved.

 Lock #12

The kilns and the lock are near the Holt Dam on the Susquehanna River - this is a view below the dam looking North.

 Below the dam looking South

Remains of the Canal Masters House

Spillway beside the dam that is used to provide water for a whitewater kayaking course.

Kayakers

 Kayaker

It looks like quite a challenging course - lots of serious warnings to the kayakers

 Holt Dam

Part Of Mill Creek Falls - not much water flowing right now

Sunset At The Campground/Howard Tunnel

Snapshot of the church across the field from the campground silhouetted against the sunset.

We hiked a little over 6 miles the other day on part of the Heritage Rail Trail which was a link between Harisburg, PA and Washington, DC and played an important role in the Civil War.  Nice trail but nothing to noteworthy except for Howard Tunnel which was built in 1838 and is the oldest continually used railroad tunnel in the US.   Because the tunnel was a target of the Confederates in the Civil War just before the Battle Of Gettysburg, the Union mounted a canon on the hill above the tunnel to protect it.

Howard Tunnel - named after Revolutionary war her John Eager Howard

Not sure where this passage inside the tunnel goes

Typical scene on the rail trail.

Rocky Ridge County Park Hiking -Three Mile Island

We did a five mile hike at the Rocky Ridge County Park in York the other day - nice hike over varied terrain with some views of the valleys below.  

They apparently have a Christmas display every year - it was a little creepy to see the deteriorated  remains of last years display still standing in the woods.

View Of York Valley

 View of Susquehanna Valley with Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in the distance

Photo taken from about 7 miles away on a hazy day so it is not real clear. The Three Mile Island nuclear power plant was the site of the worst nuclear disaster in America when the #2 reactor had a meltdown in 1979.  The #2 reactor (see the two cooling towers on the left) has been shut down since then.  The #1 reactor (see the two cooling towers on the right with steam emanating from them) continues in operation and is licensed to run for about 18 more years.

Darby after he had just treed a squirrel.

Ben Franklin Campground

We arrived at the Ben Franklin RV Park in York, PA on Monday afternoon.  The park doesn't have a lot of amenities but is otherwise quite nice.  It is owned by a young couple (the husband is Ben Franklin - at least that is his first and middle name) who are doing a lot of renovations and improvements and I am sure they will be successful with it.      

The Entrance

Our Site

The new club house under construction

Huge fountain and waterfall - quite impressive with the waterfall running - unfortunately it wasn't running when I took the pics.

One big Pennsylvania lizard

The waterfall comes out over the Panda on this side and out of the urn on the other side. 

One of Punxsutawney Phil's cousins

Life size sow bench 

Last Morning At Loon Haven, Boondocking At Walmart & Mohican Sun

This is the first post in a while because we had some internet connectivity issues - they have been mostly resolved now. 

The first picture is of Trickey Pond at about 7 AM Saturday morning,  the day we left Loons Haven Campground.  The leaves were starting to change and there was a little fog rising as the warm water met the cool morning air.

We had an uneventful trip to Hadley, Massachusetts where we boondocked at a Walmart.  Most Walmarts allow RVers to park overnight while traveling.   We spoke with the manager and got her blessing - no issues with the overnight stay.  We did buy a few things in the store so we didn't feel guilty about staying for free.    We ran the furnace overnight as it was quite cold - this was a good test for our solar panels and batteries.  The panels did their job and recharged the batteries as we were traveling the next day. 

The truck & camper at Walmart

We left Walmart Sunday AM and traveled to Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania where we stayed at the Mohican Sun Casino.  We had quite an adventure finding a place to fuel up when we left Hadley, MA.  Most of the filling stations weren't large enough to allow access for the truck and trailer - we eventually found one though and were on our way about an hour behind schedule.   Most Casinos also allow free overnight stays and sometimes extended stays for Rvers.  At Walmart it is frowned upon to open your slides but this was not a problem at the Casino so it was much more comfortable.  This was another cold night and we had to run the furnace quite a bit but it only drained the batteries about 25% so the solar panels didn't have any problem charging them up as we traveled to PA the next day. We are not gamblers but we did go in and have something to eat and put a few bucks into the slot machines - just enough so we didn't feel guilty about staying for free.

  The truck & camper at Mohican Sun on Monday morning.

 Mohican Sun hotel on the left - casino entrance on the right

Casino Entrance

 Casino entrance at night with lighted torch

Monday AM we left Wilkes Barre. We found an easy in easy out Sheetz right near the casino where we were able to get fuel with no problems and had an uneventful trip to York, Pennsylvania where we will be staying at Ben Franklin Campground for a while.