Day 15 Lancaster County in Pennsylvania

Day 15 Lancaster County in Pennsylvania

An earlier start today, as we had a long drive. Christa’s friend, Linda, arrived at 8:15 and we set off at about 8:40. Soon we were out of the suburbs and into the countryside once again driving along these huge freeways again, until we went into the smaller local roads. Crossing over into
Pennsylvania into familiar fields of corn as far as the eye could see, except when interrupted by acres of tobacco, the occasional dairy and sometimes vegetable crops. Tobacco cut and stacked in tent like structures drying and waiting to be picked up. While you may see some horses, you often saw donkeys/ mules in the fields. There were so many very pretty rural scenes.

Once again I was busy snapping away at all the barns and homes. But this time the homes were bigger, especially those on a farm, which was a surprise. I found out later Amish and Mennonites often house generations of family. Some homes were very close to the road and many were very old, with a combination of brick and wood. There were a large number of huge semi-trailer trucks on the road trying to avoid the roll tolls, plus tour buses, making it a little more difficult to negotiate on the narrower roads. At one point we saw a truck with a lovely Dutch Pennsylvania symbol on the side- but it is actually a “hex” symbol!

After laughing ourselves silly about the names of the towns, we had gone through Paradise into Intercourse, our first major stop was the Amish home and farm. 

A fabulous resource of information. It was originally constructed back in the 1805 and ran for generations as an Amish farm, but is now a tourist destination/ shop. What is slightly more disconcerting is that right next door is a huge Target store.

The docent was great. She was able to tell us all about the variety of Amish and Mennonite families and showed us through the various rooms. We began in the lounge which was changed into a prayer room each time it was this family’s turn to host. The big grey “bench truck” would come and drop off the benches, the room would be cleared and the room set up for the service. They relied on propane gas as a source of energy or batteries. So most of the products had been changed over to one of these. The fridge was a propane fridge. The sewing machine ran by battery. But today they would use generators when raising a barn if required, but send it back when finished.  Slightly disconcerting to hear that they were educated until only the end of elementary school and exempt from Federal education rules.

I was interested in the quilts and the clothing. No buttons to be used for the older people, so some used hooks and eyes, but most used straight pins or safety pins. They had a weekly newspaper, were mostly self- sufficient, but now could be seen shopping at Target next door or sitting in our restaurant at lunch time. Although they don’t drive cars, they will happily be driven by their “English” friends. The horse drawn buggies were lovely- unless you were following one on a narrow road. Of course they are famous for their furniture making skills. And there were many road side stalls selling fruit and vegetables.

We spent a long time at the farm, doing the tour and then walking around. After the farm we went to find lunch. On the way I had a huge find. Men cutting corn with a horse dawn machine. We all had a smorgasbord at Millers restaurant, which had the most explicit allergy guide to their food that I have ever seen, making it relatively easy to make my selection.

After lunch I had a quick look around the quit shop next door, where I was slightly disappointed. Huge number of quits for sale and the quilting on most was great, but it just looked like they had been churned out for the market. The manager was able to provide us with information regarding some possible sightseeing.

We spent hours driving through lovely countryside stopping at a variety of places, avoiding boys on bikes and the buggies, sometimes for a purpose and sometimes just to look. One large collection of stores was in Intercourse. We went into the pickle and jam shop. You name it they had it on the shelf. (Black raspberry jam?) Lots of taste testing there. Each little shop had a focus and was filled with tourists, mostly Italians on bus tours. The quilt shop there had a slightly larger range of quilts, but again nothing new and made for a tourist trade. In one of the larger local supermarkets I found a lovely African violet for Oma.

Eventually we were running out of time and had to make our way back home. On the way home Linda needed a bathroom, so we made several attempts to find one, but a combination of darkness and unknown areas didn’t help. After two unsuccessful detours, we continued home, arriving close to 9 pm. Then Linda set off for her drive home and we had a light snack for dinner before I settled down to upload photos, not getting to bed before 11.

What an amazing day! Another tick on my bucket list.