Tuesday, October 23, 2007

PENNSYLVANIA



WE FOUND SOME COLOR





We’ve been watching the fires on the TV, Internet and with updates from the kids, we are keeping abreast of what’s going on at home. So far our house is safe as is the rest of our family. We hope all is well with all of you.

We are currently in Pennsylvania in Amish country around Lancaster. Beautiful farm country, with picturesque barns and farm houses. We hired a local guide for a personal tour of the area which was very informative. On Saturday we decided to venture out on our own. Although we have seen lots of Amish folks riding in their horse buggies and working on their farms, the tourist far out number them. This past weekend the main roads were clogged with tour busses and PEOPLE WHO DON’T KNOW HOW TO DRIVE. The local shops were so crowded we gave up and decided to wait out the weekend. Out in the countryside, some of the local Amish farmers sell everything from produce to quilts. It was at one such farm that we found the best soft pretzels we have ever had. We washed them down homemade root beer, some of which we purchased and took with us.

The Amish people do not like the have there picture taken, nor do they like to be asked. Photos from the distance, where they cannot be recognized seem to be ok. We managed to get a shot of a combine in the corn field. This was right next to our RV park. It was something to see their plows and combines pulled by teams of up to six horses through the fields. Although the equipment was being pulled by horses or mules, the machinery itself might be powered by a gasoline engine. Another interesting thing we learned was that they didn’t have phones in their homes, but a many people share a phone placed in a wooden phone booth placed in someone’s yard for outgoing calls only.

Near Lancaster is Gettysburg, so we spent one day there. We took a driving tour of the battlefield we was very interesting. The battle which lasted 3 days covered and enormous area. Today a National Park, the battlefield is dotted with hundreds of monuments to those who fought and died there.

Tomorrow we get on the freeway and head southwest heading through Maryland, West Virginia and Kentucky ending up in Memphis Tennessee. I hear somewhere that they have good BBQ there. Gotta get some.

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