Gifford Pinchot State Park - Dover, PA (9/26-10/1/2023)

Who is Gifford Pinchot and why is a state park named after him you may ask? He an important figure in the American conservation movement.  As the first chief of the US Forest Service, Pinchot tripled the nation's forest reserves, protecting their long term health for both conservation and recreational use.  There is your little history snippet for today.  You are welcome. 

We had already stopped in Pennsylvania on our way towards New York back in June when we visited Gettysburg.  This stop was about an hour and a half from Gettysburg but closer to York and Lancaster. It was a nice park and we had a nice spot. 

We did not have anything specific planned for this stop but we found a couple of interesting things to do nearby.  If there is a market of any kind in a city, we most usually go check them out.  On our way to the market, there was an elderly man in a old van that had broken down in the street.  We pulled over to help him.  Unfortunately his transmission was locked up so pushing the vehicle out of the way.  We let him use our cell phone to call AAA and helped waive traffic by until a Sheriff came to help with traffic control.  We stayed until the tow truck came, which was relatively quick. We then continued on our way to York.

York has a market that had been continuously operating since 1888.  While it did not rival European markets in size or content, you could definitely see the European influence.  There was a good mix of  unique prepared food vendors and many other types of vendors.  We had a mixed lunch from a Korean food stall and a monstrous hoagie sandwich which were both very good. 

Lancaster, PA actually has the oldest continuously operating market in the United States.  It was established in 1703.  It was housed in a similar brick building and was about 30% larger than the York market.  We arrived in the late morning and planned to lunch in Lancaster.  After cruising the market, which had similar vendors to the York market, plus a few more Amish vendors, we walked a few city blocks to check out the town.  As it was drizzly and cool that day, we ended up back at the market for a killer grilled cheese for lunch.

We caught this glimpse of our proximity to the Amish communities in the area while I was sitting in the car waiting for Mike to come out of the Lowes. I heard the clippity-clop of the hooves while my window was down.