From Poughkeepsie, NY, we traveled to Lancaster, PA. I’ve been around Amish all my life, near Erie, PA, Ohio, New York and even Florida, but I’ve never visited Lancaster. There are more Amish here than in any of those other places. You don’t have to search for them because they were everywhere – working in their fields, driving their buggies down the roads and working and visiting the markets.
The activity for the day was to take a bus to Hershey and tour the chocolate factory, but my brother and his wife crossed paths with me on his way down to the Outer Banks, so we spent the day together. First we visited a knife store just down the road. It was eye-opening to see so many different kinds of knives. This is the display that greeted you when you stepped into the door.
After that, we visited the Farmers Market in Bird-In-Hand, PA. This place had everything from baked goods, jams and jellies, meats, cheese, produce, quilts, fudge, coffee. toys, purses, and gifts.
That night we joined the crowds at the Shady Maple Smorgasbord for some “authentic PA Dutch cooking”. I can’t even begin to describe how big this place was and how many food choices were available. They bill themselves as the largest buffet in the United States. After eating, we went downstairs to check out their gift shop. Even though it was 40,000 square feet, it was crammed to the gills with barely any room in the aisles.
Today, I had more activities with the RV group. We went to The Amish Experience first, toured a schoolhouse and farmhouse, then had a family style Amish-like meal. I wouldn’t recommend any of it.
After lunch, a few of us when to the Lancaster Central Market. It was much like the Bird-In-Hand Farmers Market I visited yesterday, only 3 times bigger.
Lancaster was much bigger than I expected. What I thought different about the city was that all the houses and businesses were butt up against each other and right up to the sidewalk with no front lawn, like they were running out of space.
One last photo… This is my campsite today. My rig is the one on the right. If you follow the tree beside my rig up to the top, you see it lost half of the tree, and just recently because it was pushed behind the rig beside mine. I wonder if an RV was damaged in that wind storm.
I enjoyed the Philly and Lancaster photos. I’ve never been to either so now I have a bit of knowledge about each.
You and your brother look very much alike! No doubt that you are siblings!