2022 VOA Illinois Fall Cruise to Pennsylvania

In October members of the lL VOA took a trip out East! We snaked our way thru IL, Indiana, and Ohio
over to our first stop of the cruise, Mercer, PA. We had a delicious dinner at the cozy Timber Creek
which had a brewery under the glass floor!
The next day we traveled to Scranton, PA to see the steam trains at the Steamtown National Historic
Site. On a self-guided tour, we explored the train yard, and learned about the steam-era railroads. We
got an up-close look at the restored “Big Boy” train. These trains, built for the Union Pacific Railroad, are
an engineering marvel that was the highpoint of steam locomotion technology in WWII. We all posed for
a picture next to the historic train. The evening with fun dinner watching the undefeated Philadelphia
Eagles football game with Philly fans. Boy, they are a boisterous crowd!
Next, we spent a couple of days in the town of Bethlehem, PA. Previous hometown to our cruise leaders,
Nancy and Larry Friend.
All Aboard! What would an Illinois Viper Cruise be without a train ride? We enjoyed a nice ride through
the Pocono Mountains via the Lehigh Gorge Scenic Railway with Denny and Jeff from the PA Viper club.
There was also a narrated trolley ride to visit points of interest and learn about the history and legends
of the town. The Historic Jim Thorpe PA town square, shops, and trolley ride put us all in the fall spirit!
As we made our way via curvy back roads, we got a great group pic with our friends and cars at Penn’s
Peak. We then continued on to the Blue Mountain resort restaurant, Slopeside, for a very nice scenic
lunch. The chocolate cake was pretty awesome!
The next day we headed out to tour the Martin Guitar factory in Nazareth, PA. It was very interesting
tour. It takes 3 months to make these guitars which cost anywhere from $3,000 -12,000$. The factory
makes about 140,000 guitars per year. It felt like we were getting the VIP tour, as the tour guide has
worked in the factory for 36 years. Her grandfather was also a Craftsman of the Martin Guitar. We all
enjoyed lunch at My Place Pizza. The pizza and Stromboli were hysterically huge and delicious!
Our next stop was to the Mike Moyer viper collection. Several large garages housed an impressive
collection of over 50 Vipers with many great stories about the cars. We got a great group Pic with our
friends and the Vipers! Our President of the National VOA, Mike Kuchavik, joined our group for great
discussion about these beautiful cars we all love. Later, a couple of us had dinner in a Bethlehem
restaurant that was a converted old bank from the prohibition era. We even snapped some cute pics in
the vault. The rest of the group had some appetizers at Fegley’s brewery in Downton Bethlehem.
For our second day in Bethlehem, we started out on a walking tour of historical downtown Bethlehem.
Our guide was dressed in garb of the time and showed us the collection of 18 th Century German style
Architecture, historical sites, and shared stories of the Moravian people. The Moravian settlers focused
on communal living and lived disciplined, spiritual, and artful lives.
Downton Bethlehem is a National Historic Landmark District. We toured the 100-year-old Bethlehem
hotel. We all thought it would be great place to visit at Christmastime!

We then traveled to the Bethlehem steel plant and museum tour to learn about Industrial history. We
even found some machines made in my hometown, Rockford, IL. This was a favorite stop of the guys!
This 100-year-old former Steel facility houses many artifacts from America’s rich Industrial heritage.
Next up was Philly! A group of us took a Hop on hop off bus tour enjoying the sights and sounds of
Philadelphia. There is a program in Philadelphia called 1% art program - Art without Walls, established
1957. This requires all new construction to give back one percent to the arts community. Great way to
improve the city visually and give artists a chance to display their work. Very cool!
We made visits to independence Hall, the Liberty Bell, the Rocky Statue and famous eateries like Sonny’s
Cheese Steak rounded out the day. Our tour guide taught us about the Curse of William Penn, an urban
legend used to explain losses of major professional sports teams based in Philadelphia. No Philly team
won a championship since 1987 when One Liberty Place skyscraper exceeded the height of William
Penn's statue atop Philadelphia City Hall. No sports team won until 2007 when they put a 6-inch William
Penn statue on the tallest building to break the curse.
We were able to cruise by the Academy of Music, the oldest opera house and oldest hospital, built in
1750 – it is still a Hospital today! Houses in this historic used a “Franklin mirror” to look out and see who
was on the street below, like a Colonial Ring doorbell!
Many of us were surprised how small and accessible the Liberty bell is! We were able to take pictures up
close and learn how and when they used the ring the bell to alert the troops and citizens and make
announcements to the townspeople. After a driving adventure, including lots of rain, backroads to avoid
traffic, and even a 1 hour and 20 min standstill on the highway, we were all ready for a relaxing dinner.
Of course, since it was Thursday, we ended the evening with some Football! Go Bears. 
Our visit to Hershey, PA may have been the most fun on the trip, other than driving, of course! We were
able to visit the Hershey Museum, learned facts about Milton Hershey, and visited Chocolate World. In
addition to being a fan of chocolate and businessman, he was also quite the philanthropist. The Milton
Hershey family did a lot to support education. He created Hershey Industrial School, a facility for
orphaned boys; it has since welcomed girls as well and is now the Milton Hershey School. Hershey
Foundation, established in 1935, funds educational and cultural activities for Hershey residents. Lunch
was another famous eatery (from the food channel) The Primanti Bros or Lisa’s cafe in the Hershey
museum.
We made our way over to Chocolate World for some shopping and a great tour with the authentic
chocolate factory experience! We made our own candy bars and designed the packing. This was a blast!
We ended the day with bellies full of chocolate and an amazing drive with 4 long tunnels going through
the Blue Mountains on Highway 76. The Vipers sounded awesome in the tunnels! It was a great evening
of driving as we made our way to the next destination of Donegal, PA. We all had nice dinner at the
Foggy Bottom Mountain lodge.
Last, but not least, we paid a visit to the Frank Lloyd Wright’s “Falling Water” House in Western
Pennsylvania. The house, built in 1936 – 38 and the guesthouse completed in 1939, features light ochre
concrete and Wright’s signature Cherokee red for the steel. It is such Beautiful architecture and scenery.
The fall colors perfectly complimented the home! Fallingwater is dedicated to outdoor living; all of the
architecture points you to looking outdoors with an unobstructed view of nature. The unique

cantilevered construction gave Wright this freedom of structural expression. The home was built for the
Kaufmann family, the owners of Pittsburgh largest department store. They used this as a weekend home
to escape the hustle of the city. What a beautiful place to spend weekends!
We very much enjoyed the laughs, spirited curvy driving, and company of our Viper Friends. Thank you
to Larry and Nancy Friend and Bonnie Buckman for their planning and organizing of the trip to help
ensure its success. Also thanks to Denny and Jeff from the PA club for showing us around. We were so
fortunate to enjoy this adventurous and informative trip with near perfect weather and beautiful fall
colors across our great United States. Locals told us it was the best week to visit the area. With over
2000 miles in 9 days on the road, we had 15 people and 8 cars, so it was quite the traveling experience!
It was many days with little trunk space, which as you know, is all part of the Viper cruising fun!

Respectfully submitted,
Carly Schutte

Photos by Larry Friend, John Gastman and Carly Schutte