We’ve taken lots of opportunities to hit the road to visit family and have some fun in the last six months. In essence, we are warming up for the big trip. So when six year old Ben repeatedly says “I want to go to a cemetery”, you find a cemetery that requires a road trip!

Yes many of you are probably saying “that’s not what I would say to that” or “he wants to go where?”. He’s six. Even since five Ben has had a fascination with all things skeletons and bones, cemeteries, and even natural disasters. And as far as he’s concerned, the more you resist something the more he wants it.

So how did we build the requirements for this trip?

It had to be a relatively short drive.

Obviously had to have a cemetery.

Had to have a little history to it.

Make it a taste of the Route 66 trip.

We came up with Bedford County Pennsylvania. What does it offer?Surprisingly, it offered a lot.

We spent Saturday afternoon exploring the Johnstown Flood Museum. If you’re not familiar with the Great Johnstown Flood of 1889, it was the result of the failure of the South Fork Dam after irresponsible reconstruction and days of heavy rain. The flood killed more than 2,200 men, women and children.

Pictured above is an “Oklahoma Home”. After the flood these houses, which were prefabricated in Chicago for the homesteading in Oklahoma, were provided to victims free of charge in an effort to help Johnstown recover and rebuild.

The museum pictures, artifacts and film offered a great lesson to Ben in the sadness a disaster can bring. We wanted to make sure he understood that before visiting the cemetery that holds most of the victims.

The memorial and gravesites for those lost to the flood was our next stop and were beautiful.

And Ben made us walk all over the cemetery. Not just the section dedicated to the flood victims. We had to check out every mausoleum we saw.

After the cemetery we headed over to the “World’s Steepest Vehicular Inclined Plane”. It was built in 1891 after the flood as a way for people to get to higher ground and according to the plaque on the wall it saved thousands of lives during the flood of 1936.

You can take a round trip ride or one way ride with your car in tow! We opted for a round trip ride sans car. Follow that up with an ice cream cone and you’ll have yourself a spectacular visit.

If that weren’t enough of a day, Bedford County also offers the Flight 93 Memorial. Very appropriate as a stop for Memorial Day when 40 passengers and crew gave their lives fighting terrorism.

The viewing deck faces the memorial wall which directs your view to the impact site as marked by the boulder in the far distance. Your back is to the path that the flight took.

The visitor center exhibit is fantastic and there is a 1.2 mile circular walk on the grounds taking you to the impact site and memorial wall.

If you’ve already been, there is also the new tower of voices wind chimes still in progress but promises to be a serene addition to the memorial.

The Flight 93 Memorial prompted A LOT of questions from Ben. The most poignant being “why did they want to do that?”. The one question that always seems to be asked in the worst of times and almost never gets answered.

After a little dinner, we finished up Day One in Bedford County.

Day Two started a little more slowly. We headed out to the historic Omni Resort and Spa for breakfast. If you want to enjoy the resort life and can find a sale, this would be the place to stay. We walked around and explored quite a bit of the indoor and outdoor offerings.

After an hour or two it was time to head home. We chose the less traveled route of the Old Lincoln Highway. The Visit Bedford County website offers a neat rundown of all the historic finds along their segment of the Lincoln Highway.

We could only choose but a few.

The giant Coffee Pot. A great head start on all things gigantic along Route 66.

Ye Old Gulf station. Still in operation but closed on Sundays. Plenty of these along the next route too.

Five Dollar Bill wrapped gas pump?

Original Mile Marker.

Ice cream at The Igloo. An ice cream place fashioned after a giant ice cream sundae. The Red Raspberry and Vanilla Twist cone was delicious.

Giant quarter. Had enough yet?

Okay, we’re done with roadside kitsch. We did learn a thing or two about what to expect on our Route 66 trip.

When Ben has had enough for the day, he’s had enough. When he’s “hangry”, it’s too late. We’re going to have to be flexible on dinner at the end of the day and be willing to bring it back to the hotel.

The most important thing we learned? Scavenger hunt road trips are fun! We’re going to be fine.

traveling with kids