From your Cruise Director Linda Thomas

This year’s Fall Cruise will be October 14th & 15th. We will be taking a leisurely drive up through the Pennsylvania countryside, heading out Route 30 to York then onto the Lancaster area. Route 30 is dotted with lots of antique shops and roadside flea markets; which should make for an interesting day of shopping & browsing.

Saturday night will be a “Fright Night” at the Halloween inspired Field of Screams. Sunday we will be taking a steam engine train ride through the Amish countryside in Lancaster County. We will begin our trip by meeting at the Mt. Airy Burger King at 8am and then head west on Route 70 picking up members along the way. We will then turn north onto Route 15 into Pennsylvania and then on to Route 30 towards York stopping at whatever we find interesting. We plan to find a lunch stop along the way. We will be staying overnight at the Comfort Inn Amish Country just east of Lancaster in New Holland. We have a block of 12 rooms reserved in the name of the Heart of Maryland at the special rate of $106.00 plus tax for the night including breakfast. All rooms are doublequeen beds…a few are smoking rooms (for our friends who prefer that). The rooms will be held ‘til September 15th. To reserve your room you must call the hotel at 717-355-9900 and tell them you are with the Heart of Maryland to secure a room in your name.

We are planning dinner at a restaurant near the hotel then we are off for a little Halloween Fun at the Field Of Screams. There we will brave the Haunted Hayride and fearlessly tour the Den of Darkness and finally endure the surprises of the 3D Frightmare Assylum. Group rates required a party of 20 plus to gain a $5.00 discount off the $22.00 cost to do all the events. We will decide as a group prior to the weekend if we want to do all three & pay the extra $5.00 if we do not qualify for the group rates. After filling up on breakfast the next morning, and filling up the cars, we will be heading for the Straudsburg Railroad Station to take an old-fashioned steam engine ride through the countryside. This is about an hour tour through the Amish Country. After the tour there is a gift shop and a toy museum to browse. We will plan to head home about mid-afternoon.

The activity fees for the Field of Screams is $22.00 per person and the cost for the train ride is $10.00 per person. So the total activity fee for the weekend is $32.00 per person. LindaThomas will be collecting the payments in advance. All fees must be paid by September 30th. Sign-up sheets for this event will be available at all club events and meetings throughout the summer, or you can contact Linda Thomas irectly at 301-865-3660 or by email at lndatmas@netscape.net. This weekend should be a lot of fun…don’t miss out.