Cody’s blog

Shawnee State Park
132 State Park Rd
Schellsburg, PA 15559

814-733-4218

May 7 – May 12, 2024

Our very first camping trip in my Thor Tellaro campervan was to Shawnee State Park, PA, in May 2024. I met my brother and sister-in-law on their last two stops on their way home from their winter travels.

Since I’d never camped in the van before, I moved into it the night before with the cats, so we could get used to it and make sure we had everything we needed before we left. So technically, I suppose you could say our first night camping in the van was in my driveway, on May 6. All went reasonably well, and we headed out on the morning of the 7th at around 11 AM to meet my brother and SIL at the campground.

The drive was longer than expected due to a detour on I-81, a stop for lunch at a rest area, and then missing my exit on I-80 because I’d turned my headlights on for a construction zone, which dimmed the screen on my tablet so I couldn’t see the map, and while I was fiddling around with the screen trying to get it brighter I accidentally turned off the navigation. By the time I realized I was no longer getting directions, I was 10 miles past my exit, and had to do some winding through country roads to get back to my route. I arrived at the campground around 5 PM, got set up and visited briefly with J&J, fed the cats, made myself ramen for dinner and called it a day!

It was a pretty camground, with lots of trees and spacious mostly-level sites. I was in the area that allowed pets, and J&J had their trailer around the corner and about halfway down the loop.

The most difficult part of the trip was poor Mister’s health, which had been deteriorating over the previous months. I was hoping the stress of traveling wouldn’t make him worse, but my hopes were dashed as soon as we left. Every day, I spent time cleaning up his various messes and washing out towels at the bathhouse. I had his medications with me and tried to get him stabilized but nothing worked.

But we had a lot of good times, visiting sites in the area. On Wednesday, the first full day of our stay, we visited the 9/11 Flight 93 Memorial, the location where the courageous crew and passengers aboard the hijacked Flight 93 brought the flight down before it could crash into the Capitol. Everyone aboard was killed, but the crash landed in a field where no one on the ground was hurt.

First stop was the Tower of Voices, a 93-foot tall structure containing 40 wind chimes, representing the voices of the crew and passengers aboard the flight. We stood inside it and listened to the chimes ring.

Next, we went to the Visitor’s Center, which contains a timeline of the events of the day, including recordings of the cockpit voice recorder and artifacts recovered from the crash. Extending out from the Visitor’s Center is the overlook where one can view the Field of Honor where the crash occurred.

Then we followed the walkways through the field to see the Wall of Names, where the crew and passengers are listed. It was a beautiful and moving visit.

Afterwards, we had lunch at the 9 Mile Tavern. I had a vegetable stromboli that was delicious and so huge I could only eat half of it. Took the rest home and ate half the leftover for dinner and the other half for lunch the next day.

On Thursday, we took a small tour of a few of the covered bridges in the area. First was Turner’s Bridge, with a weight limit of 3 tons. We couldn’t drive through it, but stopped and parked and walked through it. On the far side, we saw that even if we had been able to drive through, we couldn’t have gone any farther. The road was closed on the other side.

Next was the Colvin Bridge, which had a high enough weight limit, but the height was too low to allow J&J’s van through, so once again we parked at the side of the road and walked through the bridge.

Last on our mini-bridge tour was the Herline Bridge. At last, one we could drive through!

Friday was a rainy day so we spent the day at the campsite, relaxing in our RVs.

Saturday was our last full day at the park. We started our day by stopping at a Scenic View inside the park, where we walked down to Shawnee Lake. Very pretty views and hiking trails.

Then we drove into the historic town of Bedford, PA, to visit the Fort Bedford Museum. The fort was built in 1758 during the French & Indian War, and the museum holds many artifacts and historical exhibits from the fort’s history.

After visiting the museum, we ate lunch at the Village News café, where I had a fish sandwich and fries.

Then it was back to the campground for our last night at the park. Although we were leaving the next day, I wasn’t sure my van’s toilet cassette would last another day, so I had my first experience unhooking the van to drive to the dump station to dump the cassette and gray-water tank, then going back to the site. It went quickly and smoothly and I was pleased with how easy it was.

Sunday, after a lovely stay at Shawnee State Park, we packed up and headed out to the next campground!