Cody’s blog

Caledonia State Park
101 Pine Grove Road
Fayetteville, PA 17222-8224

717-352-2161

May 9 – 12, 2025

My first camping trip of the year! I visited two state parks in Pennsylvania, meeting up with my brother and sister-in-law on their last stops on their way home from a winter of snowbirding. My first stop was Caledonia State Park in Fayetteville, Pennsylvania.

The drive down was… not fun. Maps told me it would be about a four-hour drive, more than I usually like to spend on the road, but doable, and I thought I could handle it without a stopover. I headed out around 10:30 AM, hoping to arrive around 3:00 PM, with a rest stop along the way. But somehow I fat-fingered my route in the map app while I was putting my phone in its slot, or something, because it started out taking me waaaaaay out of my way (had me en route to go north on 81 instead of south), then offered me a faster route by way of 81-S, which was certainly better than going north, so I switched to that. I’d originally planned to take a different route which would have been slightly faster, but I didn’t want to stop and recalculate so I just went with it. It still should have gotten me there around 2:30, with no stops along the way, but between the heavy rain, road construction, and getting stuck in Friday afternoon rush hour stop-and-go traffic in Harrisburg, it was nearly 4 PM by the time I got to the campground.

Caledonia State Park has two separate campgrounds, about a mile apart. The larger campground, Chinpaquin, was where my brother and SIL were staying, didn’t allow pets, so I chose a site in the Hosack Run campground. I’d seen reviews saying that the sites were very cramped and close together, so I carefully chose what appeared to be a site with some space around it near the far end of the loop. Turned out I’d made a pretty good choice as far as space was concerned — my site was on the outside of three small, bunched together sites, but the site itself had plenty of room for my little van, and my sliding door was facing out to the small wooded area between me and the next site up. There was a couple tent camping in the middle site, and a truck with a small teardrop trailer on the other side. I definitely got the best site as far as space and view is concerned, but it was sloped pretty badly, both front to back and side to side. I tried to level it with my new curved leveling blocks, but the ground was soft from all the rain, and the blocks just sunk into the ground when I drove on them. After moving the van around at least three or four times and being unable to make any headway, I gave up and just parked the van without levelers and decided to live with it.

Since our sites were too far apart to visit each other walking, my brother and I decided to meet up in the morning, and just take the evening to settle in. I was exhausted after the long day of traveling and setting up, so I was happy to call it good and spend the rest of the evening with my kitty in the van.

Saturday, my brother and SIL picked me up and we drove to Gettysburg, about 15 miles from the campground. There, we took the auto tour of the Gettysburg National Military Park, a drive through the historical locations of the Battle of Gettysburg, with 16 marked stops describing different areas of the battle.

There were many memorials to various armies who fought at Gettysburg.

I was pleased to find that the exercise I’d been doing in the months prior to our trip really paid off! I was able to climb this tower without too much huffing and puffing, and was rewarded with a beautiful 360 degree view of the fields of battle surrounding the area.

This view shows the Conewego Valley to the right. The South Mountain Range in the distance shielded the Confederate Army from Northern Virginia as they traveled into Pennsylvania.

Little Round Top was a crucial defense position in the battle of Gettysburg, having a commanding view of the surrounding battlefield. Fierce fighting took place there on the second day of the battle, and both sides suffered considerable losses, with the Union finally holding the ground, despite being outnumbered.

We climbed up to the top viewing area of the Pennsylvania Memorial to look out at the surrounding fields, where the Union army held the line on the second day of the battle.

After the tour, we had lunch at Gettysburg Eddie’s. Edward Stewart Plank was a pitcher for the Philadelphia Athletics baseball team in the early 1900s. The restaurant was decorated with photos of Eddie and his team. I had delicious fish tacos with spicy coleslaw!

On the way back after lunch, we stopped at Mister Ed’s Elephant Museum and Candy Emporium, which was just as it said: many displays of elephant toys and figurines and statues, both outside and in a corridor leading to a room inside, completely lined with display cases full of elephant items. The rest of the inside was as stuffed with candy as the elephant museum was stuffed with elephantiana (a word I just made up). Modern, fancy, old-fashioned, homemade, bulk and individually wrapped candy bars, pieces and bags. I bought three: a box of 8 small truffles, some milk chocolate honeycomb, and an “everything” bar of chocolate covered with nuts and seeds. (All were delicious.)

Then finally back to the campground, where I found Davey under the futon right where I left him. I was tired after our long day of sightseeing, so I took a nap until about 6:30, when I got up to make dinner for me and for Davey, and that was our day.

Sunday we got started around 1:15 with a stop at the Round Barn Farm & Market to do a little grocery shopping. I picked up a loaf of bread and a jar of honey. There were lots of crafty things as well, and souvenir things like t-shirts and shopping bags. I dithered but eventually only bought the foods. The barn itself was very neat and pretty old, built in 1914 and still family owned.

Right next to the Round Barn was the Thirsty Farmer Brew Works, so we stopped in for drinks. My brother and sister-in-law had a flight of beer and hard cider, while I had a bottle of Doctor G’s 161st Gettysburg sarsaparilla.

The rest of the day was not as successful. Our next stop was Adams County Winery, but they peeked in the door and saw that the bar was 10+ people deep, so we bailed on that. Next, we made our way to Halbrendt Vineyard and Winery, but it was closed. We made one more stop at a tavern, hoping for a meal, but the dining room was empty and SIL didn’t like the looks of the bar, so we just gave up and went back to the campground. Got back around 4 PM. Davey was once again sleeping right where I’d left him, on the driver’s seat. Took it easy in the van for the rest of the day, resting up to head out for the next site in the morning.

Geezers on the Go – Caledonia State Park