http://blogs.mcall.com/groller/
FROM KEITH GROLLER
n the midst of a busy stretch that included a lot of football previews and Blue Mountain League baseball playoff games, I've managed to get away from the Lehigh Valley twice in the past week.
I've already written about my day at the Little League World Series in Williamsport and two days later I took my wife, two daughters (one 28, the other 11) and granddaughter (age 4) to Knoebel's Grove, which is in the same general vicinity as Williamsport. In fact, I saw a couple of kids wearing Little League World Series shirts at Knoebel's which is actually closer to Danville in a sleepy little hamlet known as Elysburg.
There seems to be no easy way to get to Knoebel's, but that may be a good thing because it is not over-run with large buses streaming in from other states and major cities like Dorney Park.
You don't see commericals on TV for Knoebel's like you do for Dorney, which wants to be a major player as an East Coast amusement attraction.
Knoebel's prefers to keep it smaller and simpler on all levels. They want campers for their campground, not big city buses. They had lots of picnic groves, too, and my guess is that this place is the scene of many family reunions over the course of a summer because Knoebel's doesn't mind if you come and bring your own food for your own picnic.
This place seems to have carved its niche as a low-key, minimal-frills type of place. It really, truly reminds me of the Dorney Park I knew as a little kid, which is nothing like the Dorney of today.
You used to be able to drive right through Dorney. And at Knoebel's, we drove under the sky ride just to get to the parking lot.
The sky ride was one of my favorite rides of the day because it went up a steep mountain and resembled a ski lift. See photo at right featuring (from right to left) my older daughter, granddaughter, younger daughter in the carriage ahead of me and my wife.
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