Dutch PA, Done a Different Way

I've been putting off this post about Pennsylvania, but not because I didn't enjoy my time there.  It's just that we went from one busy place to now another.  We're only here for one week, so I want to make sure we see and do everything we want to.  So that doesn't leave much energy for blogging, but I don't want to get behind on posts and forget things.  

(We moved again since I wrote those first three sentences and now I'm even more behind.  I think I'm slipping with this blogging thing!)  

This was our fun stay in Lancaster County:

The area we stayed in is almost all farmland, with corn fields around every corner.  It's a nice cluster of towns, big and small, so there is a lot to do but it doesn't feel hectic or too busy in most places.  We really enjoyed driving the roads and all the textures of the fields.  There are many kinds of crops, flowers, and farm animals, but the most beautiful thing to me were all the old barns and silo's.  You do feel a bit like you're stepping back in time.

The roads are pretty fun in this part of the country!  They don't work in a grid like most cities.  Instead, it's like the farms were already established when road making began, and the roads had to work around everything.  There is a lot of back-and-forth when you're driving in the more rural areas here.

So you need to travel 5 miles, and there isn't much traffic.  How long would you expect that to take?  Ten minutes, maybe?  Nope.  Twenty to twenty-five, because you've got to drive around several farms to get there!  But we didn't mind the extra driving.  Jeff just laughed when the GPS had us bobbing around this place and weaving around another.  

Most people know that Lancaster County is home to a large Amish and Mennonite community.  It's also commonly known that the Amish don't like their photograph taken.  Knowing that made me feel odd about having my camera out when we were visiting certain places.  If we were somewhere with a lot of Amish men and women, I didn't even take my camera out of the bag.  I didn't want them to feel disrespected or like I was going to sneak a picture when they weren't looking (as some people do).  I just didn't want anyone to feel uncomfortable.  

I stopped in at the Visitors Center one day and spent some time talking with one of the men who works there.  I was surprised by some of the things he told me about tourists to this area.  One example:  He said it's common (common!) for people to come in and ask him where "Amish Town" is.  People think that the Amish are play-actors who live in some kind of theater town, similar to Williamsburg.

As he told me about the area, tourism, and places to see, I began to feel uncomfortable.  It was as if we were in Africa and he was directing me to the best places to spot a lion.  "Well if you want to see them out in their fields, then..."  It put a bad taste in my mouth.  That was not the purpose or spirit of our trip to Lancaster County.  I decided right then and there that we were going to be very careful about respecting boundaries and not treating the Amish as if they were, themselves, attractions.  

Throughout our time in Pennsylvania, we saw Amish and Mennonite people pretty much every time we left the RV.  They sell their goods both at roadside stands and farmer's markets.  We also saw them riding bikes all over and shared the road with many horse-drawn buggies.

We saw quite a few signs like this one, posted in front yards and fields.  Some read, "Are your eyes full of adultery?," "Be as innocent as doves," and "Perhaps today." 

Aside from the Amish community, the big draw for this area is Hershey, PA.  This company town was built from the ground up by Milton Hershey, who wanted the workers in his chocolate factory to enjoy many amenities in their new town.  He built stadiums, golf courses, libraries, schools, organized sports teams, and a lot more.  While a lot of that has changed over the years, there are still many places to learn about the world's most famous chocolatier, and to enjoy the fruits of his labor.

We did two Hershey attractions:  Hershey Story and Hershey's Chocolate World.

Hershey's Chocolate World is basically a giant Hershey store with candy and merchandise in every form you could imagine.  They also offer tours or you can make your own chocolate bar.  All of those things have a hefty price tag, so we skipped them.  Instead, we did the Hershey ride for free and walked around the store.

This indoor ride takes you through the process of making and packaging Hershey's chocolate.  It was fun, largely because we were all feeling silly.  It's always a good time when we're all in that mode together!

Jeff got the girls super pumped about this experience!  Such a fun dad.

Right around this corner was a giant wall display that had a Windows error screen projecting on it.  Jeff thought that was hilarious.  Of course Windows had an error screen that was ruining that part of the ride.  Because it's Windows.  (Jeff's disdain for Windows is a whole thing.  Don't get him started.)

Jordan Reece with her favorite Hershey candy, Reese's.

We also got to go to Hershey Story, which is another of those expensive Hershey attractions.  We were able to visit free because I discovered a Smithsonian museum event that they were doing one day.

It seems like Milton Hershey was an incredible man.  He gave all his money away to those less fortunate, took good care of his employees, and was a loving husband who went to the ends of the earth to help his wife.  I like this quote.

Jackson has been doing this new thing when I try to take his photo.  He quickly strikes a model pose and tries to look as natural as possible, like, "Oh, I guess you caught me casually gazing at this display of whatever."  He thinks he is sooo funny!  You should see some of the poses he pulls, and the faces he makes!  The kid makes me laugh.  This is like when Meg made crazy faces any time I took her pic.  That stopped because I posted her pictures anyway!  Guess she decided that she'd better smile nicely.  Haha.  Mom for the win!

There was a lot to see here.  Lots of historical items, advertisements, and pictures of old Hershey, PA.  One whole side had machinery, packaging, and really neat items from his factories.

When Hershey's chocolate was first marketed, it was sold as a health food!  Ha ha.

Would you believe that we spent two days at two different Hershey attractions and this is the only thing we came home with?   We don't especially like Hershey's products, so I guess that helps.  We really only eat dark chocolate anymore, and this stuff tastes too sweet.

The kids and I spent another day at the National Watch & Clock Museum, in Columbia.  This was an ASTC free museum for us, and it was a great stop!

Inside the building.

The museum started with displays and information about the earliest methods of telling time.  From there, it moved through history to present day.  I took too many photos.  Everything was so beautiful!!!  I can't believe the detail and styles of time pieces!  I'll only post a few here, but it makes me feel bad for the ones I'm leaving out.

One of the museum's horologists* gave us a treat and played this clock's musical numbers for us.  Glass bells to chimed out the melodies.

The Eighth Wonder of the World

The Engle Monumental Clock was built by Stephen Engle (a remarkable person aside from this clock).  He was hoping to have it finished for the 1876 centennial celebrations, but missed the mark by a year.  The clock toured the country for years, with large groups of people coming out to see it tick and chime.  Life before Netflix...

We were given a demonstration by the horologist* (there's that word again!) and the clock was put through its paces.

Our impression was that it's impressive and beautiful, not to mention massive, but the concept is a little confusing.  I'm not sure what anything has to do with anything!  So there's Father Time, Death, and a woman in her prime in the middle.

Then up above you see Jesus, the apostles (with Peter denying Jesus), and the devil.  On either side it has a few mythical gods that come out and play a trumpet and American troops marching and trumpeting patriotic tunes.  So if you understand any of that, enlighten me.  Seems to me that the guy was trying to cram as much stuff into one clock as he could!

Pictures don't do it justice.

Gaston clock!

This was displayed in the gift shop.  The kids said, "Of course the guy's name is Sid!"
(If you don't know what they meant, watch "Toy Story")

We stayed at Thousand Trails Hershey, which was gorgeous.  Definitely the nicest TT we have been to.  Terrible Verizon data service, though, and the booster didn't help.  Jeff was still able to work until the last day, when for some reason it was worse.  We brought him along on our outings and he worked from the truck while we went and saw things.  Not ideal, but we made it work.

Here are a few photos taken around the campground.  A few were taken by Jordan.

Found this gem during one of my morning walks.  The kids thought it was pretty neat and I made sure to watch my step more carefully!

Every place has its downsides and this was no exception.  Lancaster County largely smells like a farm, if you know what I mean.  The smell ranged from mild to coughing-and-gagging.

Also, the sheer number of bugs in this part of PA is astonishing!  Stink bugs covered our RV each day, trying to get in.  Every time the door was opened, one or two got in.  I didn't think to take a picture when it was really bad, but you can see them in the above photo.  At one point, the kids counted sixteen on the windows outside our living room.  There were many other species of insect and spider, and they made the loudest orchestra of noise at night!  That part I didn't mind, though.  It was kind of cool to listen to.

Another of our field trips was to the Julius Sturgis Pretzel Bakery and Museum, America's first pretzel bakery.

For a small fee, there is a guided tour and pretzel twisting demonstration.  Then they give out a free little bag of pretzels at the end.

The wheat, yeast, and rising dough were stored here.

After that, we visited the Lancaster farmer's market.  This is America's oldest farmer's market, and has been running since 1892!

We got some fruits and veggies, but passed on the treats for this stop.

Another day, we stopped by the Green Dragon Market, which we were told was a "can't miss."  There were Amish families with fruit, veggie, honey, and lemonade stands set up.  Mixed in, there were many odd stalls with mass-produced chachkies and random things.  We weren't sure what to make of it all, but hey, we saw it!

We also wanted to try Philly cheesesteaks, since we were here.  Research led us to this place:  Philadelphia Steaks & Hoagies.  By the time we got through the line and turned around, the line had grown all the way through the restaurant, to the door!  Jeff and Jordan were the only ones who wanted to try cheesesteaks and they both said they were good but not great.  It's a mess of meat, cheese, and bread.  I'm not a huge meat fan, but I did take a bite.  I thought it tasted awful, but looking around the restaurant I could see that I am in the minority with that opinion!

The countryside is full of beautiful barns, silos, and other neat farm structures.  I didn't get as many photos as I would have liked because I did most of the driving and there weren't places to pull over when we passed beautiful places.

We stopped at Kitchen Kettle Village, where we checked out a few of their shops.

The stores that sell food items have samples of most of their products.  We ended up buying a shoofly pie, a jar of orange marmalade, and a few birch beers for Jeff and the kids to try.  All were very good!

We also drove into downtown Lancaster, to locate my dad's grandma's house.  She lived in a row house across from a Catholic church and worked as an artist, painting the faces on time pieces at a clock factory.  The man at the Visitors Center said it sounded like the houses across from St. Mary's Church, and was sure that the company she had worked for was the Hamilton Watch Company.  We found her house but weren't able to stop.  Traffic in that area was busy and there was no parking anywhere close by.  We're still glad that we found it.

We skipped most of the touristy places for this area, which I'm not sad about.  We weren't feeling the buggy rides or the $350 Bible theater.  But we did see, smell, and taste the unique things that this area is known for, and enjoyed the time we spent here.

After two weeks in PA, we drove south to Virginia.  We spent a week in the Richmond area, then moved east, to where we are now.  When I was doing research, the weather info said that the average would be low-70's during this stay, but it has been in the high-80's and the humidity makes it feel like you're taking a bath all the time!  I said it before, but humidity changes everything.  And it is not for me.

I visited with a couple yesterday, who talked about how horrible it is, both here and in their home state of Mississippi.  The heat, the humidity, the bugs, the hurricanes.  They talked about it like there was nothing to be done.  I told the kids, "If I was from this area, I would be doing anything and everything I could do to get out of here!"  I don't care how many cool historic places it has, or how pretty the natural areas are.  You can't go outside to enjoy any of them when it's hot and miserable, anyway.

Jeff laughs when I remark on the temperatures because it's a well-known fact that I have a tiny comfort window where weather is concerned.  I've been trying very hard to expand that window.  To be more tolerant and not get upset when I'm uncomfortable.  But folks, this humidity is for the birds!  I'll take 110 degrees in Arizona over 80 degrees in Virginia.  At least you can breathe in Arizona!

Okay, that's all.  I'm sorry you had to see that.  But really!  How do people live like this?

As for the family, everyone is well.  The kids are great, doing their school work and enjoying their hobbies.  Same old, same old, as far as home life.  Jeff has been having trouble with his back, maybe needing a new setup for work.  With limited space, we have to get creative when making changes.  But we'll figure it out!

We love and miss you all so much, and pray for you at all times.  💜

*You probably already figured it out, but if not, horology is the art of making timepieces, so a horologist is someone who is skilled in the art of making timepieces.  See, now that's a thing that you know!