Liberty Harbor, New Jersey to Lancaster, Pennsylvania

Greggy's horse at the coin laundry
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Thursday, December 11, 2008

Bye Bye New York :(

Ever seen an amish at a coin laundry?

It's the first time I've been sad to say goodbye to a city, usually, I'm wanting to move on and get to the next bit, but NY is somewhere I could spend a lot more time in!

Albert (left) and Alice
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It rained all night and continued to rain all day on our drive to Lancaster, Pennsylvania.  It rained and rained and rained and just wouldn't let up!

Puddles everywhere - may need the snow boots just for the puddles.  They say it will clear overnight, well I damn well hope so as tomorrow we're checking ou t the amish farms.

We've seen a few of the amish folk around town already this afternoon - One particular horse was hitched up just near a service station when we fueled up and Greg went to see it.  He saw it galloping down the main street with its head held so proud and was in love and and had to go and see it.  He asked the young Amish boy if he could take a photo of the horse (he could... refer pics)

Cute amish toy
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Funnily enough, even though we saw this young man in his buggy , oddly enough he was hitched up outside a coin laundry.  Obviously Mama Amish decided with the rain to cheat a little today!

Caught up with my blog tonight to NY, a week overdue.  The more behind I get the less enthused I am about keeping it up.... so I've been writing it out in my notebook as we go so it's not such a huge effort.

Friday, December 12, 2008

Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

Al and Rueben (and Alice and Albert)
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Thank goodness the rain has cleared !  Spent the day in Lancaster and a little town called 'Intercourse' (yes, it's a real place and no, I'm not kidding), finding out about the amish and to a lesser degree, the mennonites or as my Hands Across America calls them, the 'hermaphrodites' (yes, this is what they're now called, and yes, he does know what a hermaphrodite is but just as he never gets his song lyrics right, he gets a bit befuddled )!

We had some lunch at Intercourse.  Lunch was absolutely revolting. Greg and I ordered the same thing, took a bite and nearly hurled and then threw it away!  We made up for it later at Immergut (german for 'always good') for a sensational soft savoury buttery pretzel and then topped it off with a great coffee and a hot cinnamon and brown sugar pretzel! Oh yum!!  One of the best things we've eaten!  The amish sure know how to make a good pretzel... maybe it's the lack of electricity that makes it takes so damn good !

Amish Farm
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After lunch, (but before our pretzel) we went on an hour horse and buggy ride through the amish farms in Intercourse, (near Lancaster)

Our horses were named Alice and Albert.  If you know Greg, you'll know his horse connection and he thought they were precious!  (Me? I thought they served their purpose, and I was glad I didn't have to pay for their feed or stand at the water trough and water them)!  Alice just wanted to go go go - you'd think being a work horse that she'd be happy having a break but as our driver and tour guide said, it's a sign of a healthy horse if they want to get going!  Alice kept on nipping poor ole Albert who was enjoying his break.. she was a real go-getter!

Charlie having a go at the reins
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Rueben Stolzfus (yes, german name) was our driver.  He was awesome. He was raised amish, his mother is still in Intercourse so to him, breaking awy from the religion means his children have the best of both worlds!  They can play with their amish cousins at Grandmas and then come home to play their PS2!

I've always thought that the amish children at 17 or so were able to leave the religion for a short period to decide for themselves whether they want to leave the religion - this is a complete falsehood.  Our Rueben was a rebel and purchased a vehicle when he was 18 and his parents almost disowned him! He said if you want to leave, you rebel and you leave and stick firm, the family does NOT support anyone that does not want to remain.

Amish Farm - Notice the use of propant? They also have diesel generators
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The horse and buggy ride was great as Rueben knew who owned what farm and what was an amish farm and before long we could also identify very easily which ones were amish.

Amish homes have green shutters, washing on the line is all in a solid colour.  Some of them have telephone boxes outside their homes, not pay phones, but normal phones that sit in a wooden (what looks like an) outhouse.  They share these between three or four farms and inside them is a book and a pen so that you can write down the date and the number that was called so that when the phone bill comes in they can divvy it up!  Their favourite neighbours are non-amish people as if they ever need a hand with anything that requires heavy machinery or a vehicle, their neighbour will assist.  The amish employ non-amish so they can drive vehicles and use the electrical items, as long as they're not personally using them, it's ok.  It's terribly hypocritical if you ask me!

Apologies for the quality of the pics.. the buggy had a plastic window and it was freezing on the day so we kept it down.. this is a pic of a telephone in the front yard of an amish home
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Rueben said that the amish are so successful in industry as they're so aggressive when it comes to work.  Amish are not educated past the 8th grade as it is seen as a waste to be in school when they could be doing something to earn an income which is why they're such an affluent mob, they start early!

In general, 90% of amish children remain amish and with the average family having 8 - 10  children with a 90% stay rate, they're multiplying fairly well!

They're also bi-lingual - most of them fluent in german and english but the best thing in my opinion about the amish is they can make a damn fine pretzel!

Twas cold in Intercourse that day!
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So, horse ride was awesome, Rueben has a real soft spot in my heart for his personal story and the incredible way explained the amish culture to us.

We left Intercourse and headed back to Lancaster to our RV Park but did a quick stop at Walmart on the way for a fridge stock.  Can you believe there are hitching posts for the amish at the Walmart in Lancaster !  It's a beautiful thing!

Had dinner at a restaurant called Lapps - average food.. may have to cook something tomorrow, getting a bit sick of eating out all the time!

Charlie, Rueben and Al after our ride
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Tomorrow, we're off to Gettysburg !