Autumn is my favorite season for a road trip. The tapestry of red and gold trees creates a blazing backdrop for our fall favorites: Hot apple cider, crisp night air, corn mazes by flashlight, harvest barn dances, bonfires, hayrides, pumpkin carving, and apple picking.
The fact that the season is so fleeting makes it even more special, because we only get about three weeks to savor nature’s full resplendence.
Our annual road trip tradition has taken us to unusual spots around New Jersey, Vermont and upstate New York, but last year’s journey to eastern Pennsylvania remains fresh in my mind.
The first, most far-flung destination on our Pennsylvania getaway was the Pioneer Tunnel Coal Mine and Steam Train (www.pioneertunnel.com) in Ashland, which featured a unique and informative tour .
A large playground and picnic tables are across the street from the mine, so it’s smart to pack lunch and dine here to save money and time. Also bring a light jacket, as the mine temperature hovers at 52 degrees.
The main attraction of the site is the dark, ominous tunnel. We rode a mine car 1,800 feet deep into this horizontal anthracite coal mine, and once inside the mountain, we were able to walk around and view the chutes, coal seams and narrow manways.
The tour guide, a former miner, explained that in the late 19th century, just before the arrival of electricity, miners wore carbide headlamps with an open flame in order to see in the dark. It was a hazardous situation, because miners weren’t able to see imminent dangers or smell pockets of odorless, flammable methane gas, which fatally ignite on contact.
At one point, the guide turned off all the lights in the tunnel, and we got a true sense of how intimidating the darkness must have been for the miners more than a century ago.
Afterwards, we took a ride along the side of Mahanoy Mountain on the Henry Clay, an old-fashioned, narrow-gauge steam locomotive, the likes of which were used to haul millions of tons of coal during mountainside strip mining. The full experience lasts over an hour and is open through October.
We then headed to our home for the next two nights: Verdant View (www.verdantview.com), a 115-acre working dairy farm in Paradise, just five minutes from the center of Amish Country. Another overnight option around the corner from the farm is the Red Caboose Motel (www.redcaboosemotel.com), where guests overnight in a colorful train sleeper car or caboose.
After check-in, we drove one mile down the road to Cherry Crest Adventure Farm (www.cherrycrestfarm.com). We arrived at sunset, but get there earlier so the kids can see the livestock, climb on a giant spiderweb contraption, and enjoy 50 other daytime rides and activities. We bought our own glowsticks and flashlights to help navigate the five-acre corn maze in the dark. When we finally found our way out, we lounged around a campfire sipping hot apple cider. The next morning, we participated in the sunrise farm chores at Verdant View, which included milking the cows and goats, bottle-feeding the calves and collecting eggs from hens. My boys played with the kittens and bunnies, ran around with the farm dog in the cornfield, swayed on a tire swing, held chickens, crawled through hay tunnels in the barn, made fresh popcorn from the cob and learned to make cheese.
After a fantastic morning, we drove 15 minutes south to the Pennsylvania Renaissance Faire (www.parenfaire.com) in Manheim, which runs on weekends through Oct. 28.
Held on the immaculate grounds and paved trails of Mount Hope Winery, the fair is essentially a recreation of a 16th-century hamlet.
Part of the fun of the Renaissance Faire is unexpectedly stumbling upon an openair Shakespearean play, joust match or human chess game.
For lunch, the medieval food stalls served up such period food as tiger pies, bratwurst, fish ’n’ chips, steak-on-a-stake and scotch eggs. Our boys were enthralled by the giant turkey legs and pickle carts, while my husband and I were fans of the Swashbuckler ales.
After a long afternoon of walking, we stuffed ourselves at a smorgasbord dinner at Hershey Farm (www.hersheyfarm.com), a few miles from Verdant View, where we then returned for our second and final night.
As Joe packed up the van in the morning, I sat on the porch and watched hot air balloons descend into a misty field across the road from the farm. It was hard to believe we were only a five-minute drive from central Lancaster.
On the way home, we stopped in Kutztown to explore Crystal Cave (www.crystalcavepa.com), a natural underground phenomenon that was created by dripping water.
The 45-minute tour brought us 125 feet underground (a constant 54 degrees) to view pillar and drop-stone formations, as well as various stalactites and stalagmites.
After the tour, we bought bags of dirt at the gift shop, and the boys sifted through it with a wooden sluice. The running water washed away dirt particles to reveal gems and fossils that my kids played with in the backseat on the final stretch home. The cave is open daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. through Nov. 30. To contact Lizz Dinnigan,“friend” her on Facebook under Dinnigan’s Diversions.