Country Acres Campground

Today is sunny and 70 with a chilly breeze but it's beautiful compared to the rain yesterday. Our drive to Country Acres Campground was only 2 hours through winding roads in Amish country. Some of the farms have large bunkhouse type buildings and most people had wash on the clothes line blowing in the breeze. We passed one house with children gathered on the porch listening to a woman. I wondered if she's homeschooling. We arrived and got set up just before our cousins, Jim & Mary Solly, arrived.

Our neighbors, Kathy & Keith are from the Jersey shore north of Atlantic City with a lab and a pug. The dogs enjoyed a time of play! Kathy's brother & wife are here also with a mini schnauzer that looks much like Albert. Jim and Mary prepared dinner for us of yummy turkey burgers, with sides. Afterwards we visited around the fire pit until late. What a great day!

10/13

Early walk before breakfast prepared by Kevin on the Blackstone. Hashbrowns, bacon, eggs, and toast! The crew did activities while I attended the fall Bible study via Zoom before we headed out to drive around the beautiful Amish farms. We first stopped at the Strasburg Locomotive Museum just before it took people for a ride. It was very impressive and loud. I held Albert as it approached with the bell clanging and whistle blowing. He started howling at it😳 I took him back into the gift shop before it took off. We then went to a bakery to get bread, sticky buns, apple pie and coffee. There were many pumpkins, some were gigantic, and mums for sale. Horse drawn buggies are plentiful here. The horses are beautiful but Albert is bewildered by them. From there we went to a market with jams & pickles, a Christmas shop, meat & cheese shop, wind chimes, and even a small concrete statue of a Schnoodle. The rolling hills are full of large farms of various crops and animals. The farm complex includes large living quarters, barns, silos, tobacco drying barns, and work buildings. Tomorrow we go on a tour of a farm!

Back home for fish dinner and fire pit gathering. Earlier to bed this evening for an early start tomorrow!

10/14

Off to the Amish Farmland Tour with Jim & Mary. The tour van picked the group up at the Bird in Hand Family Inn and our tour guide was Verna. Her family was Amish when she was a child but changed to be Mennonite when she was 10. She gave us a good perspective of both groups that follow Jesus as Christians. We stopped at the Countryside Road Stand for warm pretzels much to Kevin's delight! As we traveled the Amish country she explained that the first two Amish settlers came here in the 1700s to escape religious persecution in Europe. The first Mennonites arrived in the 1500s. The Amish also grow grapes to make wine, juice and jelly. On to Riehl's Quilts & Crafts where we bought a Quillo, a small quilt that folds up into a pillow. They also had Havanese and King Charles Cavalier puppies for sale that were so precious. Our final stop was the Lantz Homestead. All of the yards, gardens, buildings, and crops are very groomed and clean in this Lancaster County, PA area. We saw one farmer harvesting corn with a machine being pulled by a team of 8 horses!

Back home for lunch and say goodbye to Jim & Mary.