Amish Country to Gettysburg

We were surprised to see snow outside when we woke up our first night away from Robb's place. It was cold enough for snowflakes but not cold enough to stick and be a problem. We were headed for Lancaster County, PA for a few more days of Amish enjoyment. On the way we went through Kittatinny National Recreation Area, which was probably much prettier a few weeks ago when there were more leaves on the trees. We hiked the short distance to Dingman Falls, one of many waterfalls cascading over the large rocky cliff on the west side of the area. The visitors center was closed so I never did learn the geology of the area, but it was the first thing to look like a rugged mountain that we have seen in a while.

Dingman Falls - note the Rhodies!

We found our boondocking hosts right in the middle of the Amish and Mennonite communities. Don and Hettie were our hosts and they were really nice and very helpful in charting our course for the next couple of days. Don has lived there for 60 years and Hettie was raised in the Mennonite community. She left the church when she and Don decided to get married. We learned a great deal about the Amish and Mennonites from them.

 

Some newly learned facts about the Amish:

Fall is the wedding season, ceremonies are held on Tuesdays and Thursdays through the month of November, though the season seems to come earlier and last longer according to our experts. A wedding is an all day affair, the bride's family serves up 3 meals during the day, to up to 500 people! They build on temporary structures made of wood and plastic to enlarge the home for the event. When its over they deconstruct it and move it to the next home for the next wedding.

Amish farm near Lancaster

 

The Amish don't have a centralized church and they take turns hosting church services in their homes. When a church gets too big or there are divisions within a church a few families may splinter off and create a new group. About 3 years ago, a group of 30 families picked up and moved to Tennessee where they had purchased 3500 acres of land to begin their own community. The Mennonites have centralized churches around the community.

 

The Amish are buying up any land that becomes available in Lancaster County for top dollar. Their population is growing quite steadily and they require more land for the up and coming families.

Spreading manure

 

They are very industrious, not only working their farms with horses and simple machinery, but many farms have their own store where they sell preserves, quilts, fresh fruit and vegetables, and oodles of craft items. If they don't have their own store they make items to sell at the stores in town. The town of Intercourse has a large shopping area filled with Amish and Mennonite made goods. Many of the men run construction companies that build all over the NE. Because they are not union and are extremely skilled, wealthy people like to hire them to build barns and houses on their estates. The Amish do not drive cars or trucks so the owners of the construction companies hire a non-Amish ("English") to drive their trucks and transport them to and from the job sites. We did see them using cell phones, credit card scanners and electrical devices in their businesses but it varied from place to place. 

Happy mule

 

We saw many horse and buggy rigs driving about the countryside and also learned that some antique and collectable buggies sell for up to $90,000! Its not cheap being simple!

 

The Amish have their own schools for their children, though they aren't easily identifiable. We saw very few bicycles, most young people rode large wheel scooters, so they would have to push themselves along going uphill. Most kids walking along the roads wore bright orange safety vests.

Plowing the fields

We enjoyed our time with Don and Hettie, and on our second night we went out to dinner with them at Yoder's Buffet. Lots of good home cookin' and really easy to eat too much! Yoder's is one of the smaller buffet style restaurants in the area although they are very popular and people come from miles away to have a good meal. A larger buffet restaurant up the road from Yoder's serves busloads of tourists – up to 6000 folks a day!

 

The best part of Amish Country is driving around seeing the beautiful and productive farms and fields. Large houses are occupied by generations of a family, so you won't see elder care facilities in Amish Country, ...they take care of their own. Horses, mules, cows, and goats munch their way through fields carpeted with green grass. Horse and mule drawn teams were busy turning the soil and spreading manure. Lancaster County is very densely populated with these lovely farms and the contrast when you drive out of the county is quite amazing.

One of many covered bridges

 

Our next stop was Mechanicsburg, PA and the home of an old college friend of mine, Mike Guion. We sailed together at the UW over 30 years ago and spent a lot of time sailing, going to regattas, playing ping pong, running the UWYC, and having a lot of fun. He hasn't changed much over the years except that he has become quite the cook and fixed us a fine meal the night we arrived. Mike and Vicki gave us lots of advice about what to see as we headed into Virginia and Washington DC. We were really lucky to catch Mike in town, as his job now has him globe trotting all over the place, Asia, Russia, South America... I hope also to see another old friend in North Carolina from the same era, Andrew, but am not sure it will work into the current route we have planned. Its so hard to do it all!

Vicki and Mike Guion

 

From Mike's we drove the short distance to Gettysburg, a lovely, old historic town and, of course, the site of a huge Civil War battlefield that changed the course of that war. About 51,000 soldiers were killed, injured or missing during those 3 days in July, 1863. We toured the main battlefield, listened to a ranger describe the battle and I felt like I had a much better grasp of what had happened. We also visited the cemetery where the Union soldiers were buried, many, many of them in numbered graves. The cemetery was not laid out and used until several months after the battle so the remains were difficult to identify after the hasty burials immediately after the battle. We toured the site just as they were setting up to remember the 150th anniversary of the Gettysburg Address by Abraham Lincoln. We didn't find out exactly what was planned for the rememberence but I imagine it was a stirring event. What a marvelous speech, so concise and inspiring!  

 

Pennsylvanian Memorial

It was a gruesome battle and the memorials spread across the landscape and programs presented by the park service give you just an inkling of how horrifying and terrible it had to have been. There is a brand new, very large and fancy visitors center which we did not tour because it was a beautiful day and we wanted to be outside. They also charge quite a lot for admission. As always, we learned a great deal. My  knowledge of US history is growing by leaps and bounds on this trip!

 

Gettysburg Cemetery

Abe Lincoln