Canada August 2022: Into Amish Country

Breakfast was a jovial affair, with two young couples from New York City area joining us, one the same characterful couple as yesterday, and the others up here for a wedding. They needed to get back today as they had left their four children wth the grandparents. They barely looked old enough but it was explained that they had two sets of twins (5 and 7, three girls and a boy). An interesting but perhaps rather strange comment from the lady was that she hadn't really wanted girls as they are emotionally too high maintenance, and that the boy was rather outnumbered. Not a boring conversation anyway! Weather is much the same as yesterday with the mist hanging around the mountain. As breakfast at this B&B didn't start until 9am and everyone had a rather laid back air we didn't leave the breakfast table until gone 10 (yesterday it was gone 10:30!).

Consequently there is not a great deal to report today as it was mainly a long drive to get as far along our route towards Washington DC as we could without being too tired of driving. Google said four hours to Lancaster, Pennsylvannia. Flossie said five and a half. Mmm, who should we believe? Original plans based on Google estimate were to have a quick stop at some waterfalls, Bushskill and Raymondskill, and hopefully Ephrata Cloisters. Didn't quite work out, Flossie had more of an idea of the timing and our route plus the low speed limits meant it was about five hours with just a few comfort stops. Eric decided to have a long sleep.

Our destination, the city of Lancaster is in the heart of the Pennsylvania Dutch/German area of the US.

Our route took us through mainly rural and pretty dour countryside for the most part with some obviously more affluent towns. It was along the Delaware River for a large section but our main view of the water was from this bridge. Not only from both sides but also underneath - the driving surface was an open grill structure! To be fair the holes weren't very large.

We did have quite a scenic drive through Delaware Water Gap, with occasional glimpses of the Delaware River through the colourful trees. We took a photo at one of the comfort stops but the picture was definitely not very inspiring. That's a different state across the other side of the river, New Jersey.

If you have a weird sense of what makes an interesting picture then this one may be more to your taste.

What appeared to be enormous piles of three different coloured heaps of sawdust. No indication what for, or any sign of an actual mill. We are easily amused sometimes.

We also passed another sign for a local cemetery, and on the same sign, underneath the name, were the words 'No Hunting'. Perhaps hunting in cemeteries would be a popular pastime here if it were allowed?

The weather that had started with some mist, then just low cloud, had improved greatly after we hit town and checked into the B&B.

Rather than unload the car we made straight for a diner just outside town recommended by our host, Lark. It was called Good and Plenty, and you could eat home-cooked Amish, Mennonite or Brethen food all sitting together on a long table. The food was extremely reasonably priced. We tried some of what they called apple butter on homemade bread. One off us was very taken with this (probably because it had lots of sugar in it).

This was deep into Amish territory and we immediately saw the first signs of their lifestyle.

An open top version.