This is a tour that we think everyone
will really enjoy. The date is Saturday April 21, 2012. Our
destination will be Pottsville (Schuylkill County), PA.
We will
meet for breakfast at 7:30 a.m. at the Midway Diner near Bethel, PA (I-78
at Exit 16). This is a nice family owned diner that has been there since
1950. It is mid-way between Harrisburg and Allentown. It has a good
diverse menu; you can get more information including GPS directions at the
website,
www.midwayholdings.com.
After we leave the diner, it will take
about 35 minutes to drive to our next destination, the oldest operating
brewery in the United States. Of course, this is the Yuengling Brewery,
501 Mahantongo St., Pottsville, PA 17901. We have scheduled a guided tour
of the Brewery beginning at 10 a.m. sharp. There is a municipal
parking garage right down the street, and it is not crowded on weekends,
so there will be no problem with parking.
Yuengling
Brewery was established in 1829, and is still operated by the Yuengling
family. The tour is extremely interesting. It lasts about one-and-a-half
hours, and it is a real factory tour, so closed shoes are required. The
tour involves a good bit of walking, and going up and down stairs. After
the tour, we will have time to sample the merchandise and explore the gift
shop. For more information, visit the website at
www.yuengling.com. After
this visit, you will know why many locals consider "Vitamin Y" to be part
of their daily nutrition requirement.
When we leave the Brewery, there is no
need to get in our cars -- we will walk three or four blocks through
historic Pottsville to Jerry's Classic Cars and Collectibles Museum, at
394 South Centre Street. Jerry Enders has assembled a really interesting
combination of vintage cars and over 20,000 other collectibles of interest
that will stir fond memories. There are many other interesting items on
display besides cars. This museum has a lot of things that will remind us
how our homes looked "back in the day", as well as local and regional
advertisements and other memorabilia. (You will see advertisements of the
cars for sale at Earl Stoyer Cadillac-Oldsmobile, back in the '50s.
Unfortunately, they are not still there -- I already checked!)
Jerry's
Museum does not open for the season until May, but they are opening
especially for us on April 21. For more information, visit the Museum's
website at
www.jerrysmuseum.com.
We expect to leave the Museum around 2
p.m. or so. By then, we will have worked up an appetite. We will walk a
few blocks to Roma's Pizza, at 116 W. Market Street, which came highly
recommended by locals who know where to get good food. Despite the name,
it is not just a pizzeria, it is a full service restaurant specializing in
Italian food. You can get a sandwich, a pizza, or a regular full meal.
We can eat, relax, and talk about the things we have seen, before leaving
Pottsville to return home.
The cost (not much):
Breakfast
at the Midway Diner, and lunch/dinner at Roma's will be our usual deal
where each person pays his own check -- no need to pay in advance. The
Yuengling Brewery tour costs $1.00 per person. Admission to Jerry's
Museum is $8.00 per person.
We will need a head count for this event,
because both the brewery and the museum need to know how many people to
expect in our group. The brewery tour must be paid for well in advance,
but instead of asking you to send checks for $1.00, the Club will outlay
the money if you say you are coming.
Please
notify Art Archambeault at 717-557-6974 or
artarchambeault49@gmail.com,
no later than April 1 if you plan to attend.
Tips for this tour:
Because we are having breakfast at 7:30 and will not have lunch until
about 2:15-2:30, bring snacks if you think you will need something to eat
in between. Comfortable walking shoes are a "must", and closed shoes are
required for the brewery tour, because it is a real working factory.
There will also be some walking up and down stairs.
We have
invited the Mason-Dixon Chapter of the Buick Club of America to join us
for this tour. The director of that club is Dick Beckley, who kindly
invited our Club to visit his private collection of antique cars on Sunday
morning following our AACA Museum show last July. We hope a number of our
Buick Club friends will attend this tour and increase the turnout.