I'm glad you had fun! There are several hotels closer to the park, but I would have recommended the Hampton Inn in Bensalem. It's just of I-95 and would have made your commute to the park a little longer, but easier and less trafficked, especially considering all the construction currently tying up Route 13.
That "funky smell" in the air is probably GROWS Landfill. It's the "mountain" you would have seen if you looked to the northwest.
The intersection you mentioned (one stop sign) is not something I would have recommended for the uninitiated. That is a very dangerous spot, and at the wrong time of day it can take 20 minutes to get through the stop sign. PennDOT was supposed to rebuild that entire intersection, but the funding seems to have disappeared.
