A Bus To Cool Places
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Day 5: June 23, 2026 A Bus To Cool Places Comment via blog |
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The good news is that multiple bus tours were offered. The bad news is you
had to choose. I chose the Lancaster tour with PA LHA Director and
conference chair Tom Davidson as guide. Other buses went to Gettysburg and
Chambersburg.
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Our first stop was at the Haines Shoe House. It is now operating as a B & B. In
fact, LHA President Kay Shelton Kozak spent a couple of nights there on
the way to the conference. I've been here a few time in the past, but I
believe this was the first time I was allowed to take photos inside.
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After always crossing the Susquehanna River on the Veteran Memorial Bridge
before yesterday. I crossed in again on the newer bridge. This time it was
because our tour bus exceeded the weight currently allowed on the 1930
bridge, which is scheduled for major repair work over the next year or so.
The bus provided a noticeably higher perspective than I had yesterday.
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Local historian Ben Webber boarded the bus in Columbia as our guide for
the area.
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I had seleted the National Watch and Clock Museum from the multiple tour
options in Columbia. That this was the right choice was quickly confirmed.
My adopted home town was represented in the
lobby. One of the first items displayed had ties to
the hometown of my youth. That town was originally named Dallas but
became Ansonia to avoid conflict with another Dallas in Ohio. The new name
came from a clock in the post office made in Ansonia, Connecticut. I had
always believed it was a Seth Thomas clock, but the internet now tells me
it was a clock from the Ansonia Clock Company, which I didn't even know
existed before today. Recovery from the shock may take some time.
Our guide said that the Ansonia clock was the museum's newest display. The small German clock, from around 1570, is the oldest in the collection. The museum has plenty of both large and small time pieces, but none is more impressive that the one in the last photo. Stephen Engle completed the clock in 1878 after twenty years of work. Read about its many features here. I caught some of its figures in motion here and here, its backside here, and the mechanism that tracks the position of earth, moon, and sun here. |
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Lunch was at the
Columbia Crossing River Trails Center, which provided
yet another view of the near century old bridge over the Susquehanna.
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There were again three choices for our next activity, and I again think I
made the right choice. I chose the brand new
Thaddeus
Stevens and Lydia Hamilton Smith Center for History and Democracy. The
partially reconstructed and expanded Stevens house contains some of his
personal items including his cane in the first photo and his
bed, valise, and wig in the second. The museum
tells of the impact Stevens and Smith had on abolition and equal right,
and I managed to find a bit of an Ohio connection. The last picture shows
some of the items found in the home's cisterns with the cisterns
themselves visible on the right.
Dinner was at Miller's Smorgasbord, where no one left even slightly hungry. The bus pulled up to the hotel just about twelve hours after its 8:00 AM departure. It was another long but enjoyable day. |
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