More about Amish country

We are still here in Amish country, very interesting people. The longer we are here the more we learn about them. They are responsible to each bishop of their particular church, so, whatever he says goes. Some have phones (but not in the house), Some have gasoline engines on the farming equipment, although the are pulled by mules. Some actually own cars and drive, while most drive the horse & buggy as seen in a lot of books and magazines about the Amish.

As I stated in the last blog, we met these lovely people who are in a bluegrass gospel group. They had a concert on Sunday evening in New Holland (another small town not far from where we are camped). Brenda & I went to see them and they were pretty darned good. I don't particularly like bluegrass music, but they were really good. The groups name is Family and Friends. (picture below)

Yesterday we went down to Gettysburg Military Park. They have built a new visitor center, that is not on the battleground itself. The old one was actually built on the battleground, so they are going to tear it down and restore the land to 1863 condition. The people who are in charge of the park have done a lot to restore the whole battlefield to the way it was in 1863. Apple orchards and peach orchards have been planted. The flank of the Union position is now cleared of trees as it was during the battle.

We took a bus tour of the grounds with a certified tour guide on the bus. He was very knowledgeable of the battle and was very enthusiastic. We really enjoyed it.

The Museum is huge. It covers the entire war, from the cause to the Gettysburg battle to the end of the war. Very interesting, but too much information and artifacts for this feeble mind. It would & will take multiple visits to take in all that is offered.

Today we went to a gristmill. It was operational until 1977, when the owners, who were up in years (no children) started a trust and opened it up to the public. There is a house on the property where the owners (brother & sister) lived until they went to a nursing home. According to the tour guides it is exactly as they left it. The house and mill were built in the mid 19th century by their grandfather. Very interesting afternoon and also free.

Tomorrow we plan to go on a buggy ride through Amish country. We haven't decided which company we will use, as they are all different. We will try more Amish food again for lunch. We went to an Amish style buffet restaurant, last week, but were not impressed. The food had no flavor, and salt and pepper didn't help. There were several Amish couples there eating. They seemed to enjoy themselves, as they made several trips to the buffet table.

We will be here until Friday. Plan to kick back and stay around the coach Thursday.

So, will post after Fredericksburg and our visit with David and family.

Ta ta until then.

Still here in intercourse, PA

We are still here in beautiful Intercourse, PA. The weather has been spectacular. Cool and very low humidity.
I didn't think that life would be good without TV. But, the local stations don't come in very well (we are near Lancaster), so don't get very good reception.
We are under trees on all sides so satellite is out. Brenda & I have enjoyed no TV, and enjoyed visiting with our neighbors.
Speaking of neighbors, the couple next to us belong to a bluegrass gospel group.
They are all here for a session in a church this am, and will have a concert in New Holland this evening.
We sat in on their rehearsal last night. The music brought out some other couples, and we had a good chat and good music.
We did get to the Yeungling Brewery in Pottsville, on Friday. A great tour, not behind glass or any barrier from the brewery. The guide was very enthusiastic and was very informative. The tour was free with free beer samples.
The drive was very nice. I'm not sure I would take the coach, as there are 10% grades on the road up to Pottsville.
This is Amish Country. They are everywhere. They don't drive cars, so they have horse and buggies. They were here first so they take their buggies wherever they wish with little regard for traffic. I hear that there is an Amish museum close, and I really want to go to it so that I can learn more about these people.
They dress the same, very plainly. I hear that they are very wealthy, but they are not ostentatious about it.
We are planning a trip to Gettysburg tomorrow. The kids will be back in school, so should not be too crowded.
We went to Hershey for the tour. It was nice, but the crowds were horrendous.
We thought that the chocolate might be a little less expensive at the factory, but alas that was not the case. You can buy it cheaper at Sam's or Costco. We spent about an hour and a half there. If we had had Lindsay with us,
we would have done the amusement park. It is not aimed at adults our ages, but for children. (and there were a ton of them there).
We are leaving for Fredericksburg, VA. on Friday and we hope to see David and his family while we are there. There is a limited number of CGs close in around DC, so we decided to to go to Fredericksburg.
We have to be back in Houston by the 1st of October. Gwen Craig (Rayford Crossing) has offered us a job in her other CG (Timber Ridge Village) as camp hosts for the winter. We are looking forward to the experience.
Will post more as we continue our travels.
Ta ta for now.

Lack of wi-fi

We have been in areas of PA. for the last several days where internet was very slow or nonexistent. We tried to post last Sunday without success. So I will post now.

Last week we went to a B&B with 2 restaurants and a tour called Tara near Hermitage, PA. It was very nice and the tour was informative.

A couple bought an old mansion built in 1854, which was built for the original owners wife. There were no children so after their deaths the home was in the possession of different people and organizations. When the present owners bought the place at auction in 1985 the house was in severe disrepair. They opened the house as TARA in 1987. There are many references to 'Gone with the Wind' throughout the house. There is a colored pencil drawing of Vivian Leigh as Scarlet in the main hall. It is spectacular.

We then went to Indiana, PA for the last two days. The campground was beautiful with lots to do, but, it was down in a valley. No cell phone or internet. Brenda was very agitated, as she couldn't communicate without climbing out of the small valley. The campground owners were very nice and had a lot of time to talk as they were very slow.

We went to the Jimmy Stewart Museum in Indiana, PA. Mr. Stewart was born and raised there. The museum was very nice.

As many of you know, Brenda's nickname (Pooka) comes from the movie 'Harvey'. It was nice to be able to take a picture with 'Harvey' as photography was forbidden within the museum.

Mr. Stewart received many different awards for his "Wonderful Life", and many are on display there.

We are now in Intercourse, PA and will be here at least a week. We are in the middle of Amish country, and will use this as a base for many day trips.

We are going to Hershey tomorrow and tour the factory.

We will make a day trip or two to the little burgs around here, then spend the day at Gettysburg on Monday or Tuesday.

I am still looking for Yeungling Beer, the Brewery is only 65 miles from here and I'm thinking that if there is a tour we might drive up there.

As we continue or adventures, we will post more.

Ta ta for now.

On our way to Pennsylvania

We started packing up for Pennsylvania about 8 a.m. Rick had started cleaning out the tanks but failed to tell me he was putting water in the black tank. I was brushing my teeth and heard the toilet making gurgling noises. My first reaction was that I should flush the toilet to get rid of the noise. BIG MISTAKE.
No sooner did I step on the pedal than I had a FOUNTAIN OF POOP WATER. I was lucky that I closed it very fast. I spent the next 30 minutes wiping up water and poop, followed by Lysol wipes used all over the floor. It didn't slow us down much. We left about 9:30, headed to Mercer, Pensylvania.
We decided to stop at the visitors center and load up on all the information we could get for attractions there. I bet the stack of pamphlets weighed about 5 pounds. The lady at the information desk was very helpful.
We left the visitors center and punched in the address for our rv camp area in the gps. A gps is good but sometimes you need to question where it is sending you. We were taken down very narrow streets and had a lot of twists and turns. We even had a 10 percent grade to drive down. Kinda scary. The gps advised us to turn left into a narrow street with a short curve. We got halfway into the turn and We buried the trailer hitch halfway into the asphalt. There was a car that turned in front of us and went to the top of the hill. The manager of the rv park was in that car. He backed down and came back to help us move. Rick had to unhook the car and then put the jacks down in back so the manager could take the hitch off. SUCCESS!! We then backed up and came in a different way. We understand that many people get the wrong directions from the gps to get to the park. Thank goodness everything turned out ok.
Yesterday was washday. We spent all morning doing the laundry (where is Bev's house when you need it ?). The afternoon was spent looking for 2 candy shops and Walmart. We found Daffins candy, but no tour. The other candy shop was the same as any other candy shop. Not impressive.
Today was spent in Volant, pennsylvania. We went in and out of many shops and were amazed at the furniture and crafts of the Amish people. Of course we saved lots of money because many things that we saw can not go in a motor home.
We will write later this week and let everyone know what is happening here.


ta-ta for now

Brenda

Our time in Columbus

We have been spending allot of time with Wayne & Barbara. We went over to her mother's house twice and we met some of the next generation of Millers.

The company was great and the food delicious. I'm not much for swimming pools, as most of you know, but Brenda and Barbara and her mother went into the pool both times we were there.

Yesterday we went to the National Air Force Museum in Dayton. The museum is huge as you can imagine. They have airplanes from the Wright Brothers plane all the way up to & including the F22.

They have a B52 in one hangar along with a multitude of other modern AF planes. There are a lot of aircraft hanging from the ceiling. In another hangar there is a B2 bomber. It is huge. I have never seen one, other than on TV or in pictures, WOW. There were many other planes within this same hangar. There are 3 hangar type buildings attached to each other with walkways. All of areas are used as exhibit areas. There is even an area dedicated to Bob Hope. What a great tribute to a man who dedicated so much of his life entertaining our service people.

Later today, we are going to meet some more of the Miller family.

Tomorrow we are leaving, going East, but not sure of the destination as of yet. Brenda and I will discuss this later this morning.



Ta ta for now

arrived in Columbus area

We arrived in the Columbus area around 4:30pm est. The speed limit on I71 is 55mph for vehicles over 4 tons empty. Well, that definitely means us. We were being passed by everyone, but who is in a hurry. We didn't leave Cave City until almost 11:00am est.
We called our friends, and they are to meet us here @ noon. We haven't seen them in many years, so, we are looking forward to seeing them.
We plan to stay here for 5 days, and sometime during that time we will decide when and where we go from here. Nice to be able to do that.
Ta ta for now.

Finally on the road

We left Mike & Nancy's house at about 8:45 this am. We made good time and as Brenda says, we have landed in KY. We are in cave country and we might go into one of the caves in the morning. We are still debating.
We are in a very nice campgound. The owners have had the place for about 18 months. It is not a resort by any means, but the sites are level, the bath house is clean and neat, and the price is right ($14.00 for the night w/fhu). It is very hot here and humid.
The site is about to go down. So, will close for now.

Making the rig road ready

Yesterday we moved the rig out of Mike and Nancy's back side lot, where we have been parked for the last 5 months.
I was a little concerned that not everything would work after so long sitting (the slides etc.).We have a good coach, so no problems arose in the move.
We are now sitting on the driveway. We spent yesterday morning washing outdoor carpets with a power washer. Today we gave our home a good bath. We power washed the roof, cleaned the awnings, and washing the body. She really looks good.
I need to change the oil, but I will probably do that on Monday. It is so hot here (99F) @ 2pm. That it is just tooooo hot to do it today.
We really are looking forward to hit the road. So we will post after we make our first stop.

Ta ta till then.