Amish Country

Onward to the land of Amish farms and green green grass.But first, Costco. We had some time to kill before check-in at our campground so we walked around a Costco and ate some free samples.

We didn’t have any problems getting to the campground in Lancaster, Pennsylvania but it was interesting driving on roads next to horse-drawn buggies. We passed a couple before getting to our campground.

There was evidence of the Amish everywhere we turned.

There weren’t many campers around us but we weren’t complaining.

The lady at the counter told us that going up the hill counter-clockwise would be a lot easier to back in to our spot. We took her advice and went up the hill to get situated but it was a little tricky since her advice put us in a bad position. After some maneuvering, we got ourselves lined out.

We walked around to check out our surroundings and were gifted with such a beautiful scenery.

We did some maintenance on the Suburban and the trailer our first night. We also did laundry. We attempted to fix the leak by one of the trailer windows, put in a new air filter for the Suburban, and lubed the stabilizers so we they wouldn’t get stuck or squeak too much.

During this journey, our idea of planning for the next leg of our journey usually took place the night before purchasing tickets, checking local restaurants out, and determining what our budget will allow us to do.

The next morning, we started our day with a smorgasbord! What is a smorgasbord?

a buffet offering a variety of hot and cold meats, salads, hors d’oeuvres, etc.

We went to Bird-in-Hand Family Restaurant. Jared had been here years ago. The food was so-so. I read some of the reviews and people wrote about a weird sweet ham ball that you should avoid. I decided that I wanted to try it, especially since I like ham.

Not recommended. They were a lot sweeter than I was expecting.

After some dessert, we headed back to the trailer for a break. We still had some time before our tour started.

We were able to explore the beautiful countryside of Pennsylvania!

We decided to do The Amish Farm and House Tour. So we drove over to the farmhouse and got a little surprise. The farmhouse was right next to a Target!

We got into a bus that drove us around different Amish Farms. Most had little shops so that tourists could buy some Amish goods.

We got to check out the buggies up close!

We saw some fluffy donkeys!

When we got back to the farm house for the tour, we got to learn about the Amish traditions. It was interesting to know more about the Amish.

We learned about the Amish dress-code, some ideals, and what sets them apart. The Amish are trilingual! They speak English, High German, and Pennsylvania Dutch.

Pennsylvania has the richest, non-irrigated soil in the world! The Amish have run out of space in Lancaster and now are expanding to areas, even in Indiana.

They had baby goats! They were so cute!

They even had a track for scooter riding. The Amish are not allowed on bikes, only scooters. This is to make sure they don’t go too far from home.

Needless to say, we had a blast scooting around.

We had a blast checking out Lancaster, PA. We even checked out the Target next door for some supplies.

The next morning we got up late and made a nice breakfast. The check out time was 2 pm so we got to take our time.

We had to fill up our water tank and dump everything before heading to our next campground since it would only have electricity.

We also had to air up the tire because it went down to 9 PSI! We definitely needed to do something about it. We thought we could do an easy patch job on the tire so we headed to Firestone Tires. Unfortunately, they weren’t able to help us since they didn’t have the space for the trailer in their lot. They recommended Nello Tire down the way so we called to see if they had time now to help us out.

 

They took great care of us! We waited in a nice waiting room with free wifi.

We went in for a patch job but left with a brand new tire. The side of the tire was done for and they helped us with getting a new tire. They didn’t try to hassle us on the pricing or the service fees.

We got back on the road to our campsite at Pohnick Bay in Virginia.