A midnight kiss in Hershey, Pennsylvania, on New Year’s Eve

For someone who loves cheezy roadside attractions, chocolate, and for whom New Year’s is her favorite holiday, it was a near perfect night.

Forget about the crystal ball. On New Year’s Eve towns all across Pennsylvania drop (or raise) a plethora of odd items: a strawberry in Harrisburg; a giant Peep in Bethlehem, where Peeps are made; ping-pong balls in Strasburg; a pickle in Dillsburg; a mushroom in Kennett Square; a wrench in Mechanicsburg (I love the sense of humor!); a 100-pound stick of Bologna in Lebanon; and shoes, cigars, race cars, and dozens of other oddball items.

My favorite holiday, chocolate, a goofy roadside attraction, and a big kiss at midnight. ( Beanies are not my best fashion attire, but it was cold! I’d have made a terrible neighborhood gangster – no one would’ve taken me seriously.)

In Hershey, they raise a giant Hershey Kiss at midnight on New Year’s Eve. It’s seven feet tall, and 300 pounds of shiny steel shaped like the delectable dessert. The “flag” (kisses label) adds an additional five feet to the colossal confection.

The New Year’s Eve event was what I imagine Times Square’s to be like, but with far fewer people, and a lot more chocolate. And with a really cool cheezy roadside attraction. (I have a pretty decent video of the raising and fireworks, but I’m having trouble finding a video editor program for Windows 10… apparently my mp4 is unacceptable…???)

The Hershey’s Kiss mobile.

This guy photobombed my selfie….

Some guy trying to cop a feel… he looks happy.

The town all about Hershey’s chocolate… even the street lamps are shaped like Kisses. I’m not sure which came first – the town name, or the chocolate plant.

Street lamps shaped like Hershey’s Kisses!

Hershey Park is a small (by west coast standards) amusement park dedicated to all things chocolate. Inside Choclate World, the food court and gift shop, is every chocolate dessert you can imagine, and then some. Except, I did not see the best chocolate thing of all – chocolate covered bacon. Hershey, you need to get on this right away.

The World of Chocolate – at Hershey in Hershey, PA, of course.

I’m still in Oklahoma, and saw snow blowing sideways for the first time in my life. Everyone here laughed when I told them “how much snow that was”, and then told me that was nothing.

Oh. Crap.

I’m supposed to be on my way to Tennessee, by way of Alabama…. but I’ve got some RV maintenance issues to deal with. If it snows too much before I can get on the road, I won’t be able to get there. I’ve never been to Alabama or Tennessee so I’m excited about seeing new states and adding them to the list of those I’ve been to! I hear they are both beautiful. I’m sure they are, even if they don’t have a beach/coastline.

How is this beach gal going to survive a winter in snowy places?! I guess I’ll have to find a good bedwarmer.