Wednesday means Hershey Park

Welcome to Hersheypark! 

In England we have Bourneville, in the US they have Hershey. Everything in the town of Hershey is chocolate related - even the streets are unimaginatively named - Cocoa Drive leads onto Chocolate Avenue. This love of chocolate is even refelected in the lamposts which are topped with a Hershey Kiss design. At the heart of all this is the the Hershey factory and Hersheypark. Hersheypark was set up in 1909 by the philanthropist and chocolatier Milton Hershey as a place for relaxation for his employees. Clearly after his death, his trustees thought this was a rotten idea and set about creating a theme park rivaled by few in the US.


Hershey high street 

They succeeded. Hersheypark is an extraordinary roller coaster experience. Despite an ever-present chocolate theme (for example, as guests enter the park, they are serenaded by Sammy Davis Jr's 'Candyman'), the rides are magnificent. Following a substantial and magnificent (and lunch nullifiying) breakfast at the Hershey Pantry, we ventured into the park and were amazed. 'Storm Runner' contains not only an acceleration from 0-70 in under 2 seconds but also the only truly vertical drop that we have come across. The 'Great Bear' has spirals that turn the brain into Dairylea while the two wooden and thus old-fashioned rides - 'Wildcat' and 'Lightening Racer' - again confirm that being hurled around upside-down is not the only way to enjoy roller coasters. Of the first three parks that we have visited this week, Hersheypark is in a class of its own.


The awesome Great Bear 

We ought to add that Hersheypark is not a perfect example of altruism. The constant encouragement to purchase mountains of chocolate cannot be helping the general struggle against obesity - many of our fellow guests at Hersheypark had clearly spent a significant part of their lives consuming Hershey products. Truly this was tragic as so many of them were schoolchildren.

This afternoon we drove four hours along route 70 and are yet to leave the state of Pennsylvania. Instead, we are a mere 11 miles from Kennywood, tomorrow's destination, and having eaten half a cow between us for dinner, it is time to retire, replete, and also satisfied by the best day's coasting yet.


The haircut of the Gods