June 29 – Intercourse

Today we were in full tourist mode. We went to the Amish area of the state, in Lancaster County and specifically to the town of Intercourse. Once again it was a long drive, at over an hour.

We started at the Kitchen Kettle Village, a small pedestrian only area with about 30 shops.

This cow was out of milk.

Checking out the empty supply bucket.

Our first real stop was this place.

Lots of things to sample.

Even though is it really bad for you, I just had to buy one and try it.

We ate a lot of samples but I think they came out ahead as Jennie bought a lot of stuff that was too good to resist.

While Jennie went into some of the shops, I listened to this guy. He was very good.

Jennie always likes to check out the sayings on the signs and shirts.

The mascot came along to scare some of the kids.

This was an interesting shop for me.

As I was waiting for Jennie in another store I saw this great scene in the field behind the village. A person riding some horse drawn farm equipment was just visible on the horizon.

 

I had read that we should head down the street a bit to get a great soft pretzel.

They weren’t very busy so the guy showed us around and explained how they make them. I didn’t know that the dough has to be dipped in a weak lye solution to get the dark brown colour.

Some pretzels, dipping sauce and lemonade.

Taking a buggy ride seems to be a popular things to do but it didn’t really interest us. There we a lot of companies doing it.

Jennie wanted to go to dinner at one of the many Smorgasbords in the area. It was still early so we hit a fruit market and then drove through the country side to the place Jennie had picked out.

It was interesting to see the farms so close together. I guess since the some of the Amish don’t use power equipment they cannot farm as much land.

We were blown away by how massive the Shady Maple Smorgasbord was.

Here is the Google Maps view. Notice the size of the parking lot.

You pay for the meal before you go in. This the just the front lobby where you line up to pay.

We got there at about 4 pm and even then it was pretty busy. When we left it was much worse. The place is so big they actually have two duplicate buffet lines to more easily handle all the people.

We didn’t think there was anything particularly Amish about it but the food was all really good. It was steak night so I had a nice New York Strip.

After all the other food we had had today, I was actually in pain upon leaving. I sat around to recover while Jennie went to the equally massive gift shop downstairs. The entire lower level, at 45,000 square feet, is devoted to the “shop”.

Trinkets, off to infinity.

Jennie was down there almost an hour and said she barely got part of the way around.

There were some interesting 3D creations in the main lobby.

It was a long drive home.

We are moving on to the next campground tomorrow.

June 28 – Lebanon Valley Rail Trail

Yesterday was truly nasty. Heavy rain and high winds almost all day and night. The campground was also about 2/3 full. I am not sure how the people in tents didn’t just pack up and go home. Most of the people here are young families so having to keep the kids cooped up all day would not have been fun.

The wind was so strong that it broke off the top of a dead tree and it came crashing down on the tent pad at the back of our site. If someone had been using it, they would have had a very bad day. I told the park ranger about it as we left in the morning and when we got back the branches were all cleaned up. The ranger then came by and said they wanted to bring a crew in to take the tree down tomorrow but we would have to move to a new site. Since it is such a pain to move, especially the dish tripod, I asked if they could wait until Tuesday when we will be gone. He said that that was not a problem.  

Today the forecast called for it to be cloudy but no rain and it came true. We drove for about an hour from the campground, just past Hershey to the Lebanon Valley Rail Trail. I really should have picked a campground closer to Hershey because everything we are doing is around there.

The trail is a 14 mile one way, converted railroad bed. This is the map from the brochure.

We parked at the Cornwall trailhead. From there we did the gentle climb up to Mount Gretna and then back down, past the car, to mile marker 13 before heading back to go home. We only ended up doing about 16 miles, adding in our wandering around Mt Gretna.

I know that rail trails are usually pretty boring but we used this to ease us back on to the bike. I didn’t feel too bad at the end but both our rear ends are having a hard time being back in the saddle.

The trailhead parking lot in Cornwall had an interesting food stand. From the map it is the Root Beer Barrel.

The trail was covered in packed stone dust which made it easy for us, on our skinny tire bike.

There were a few bursts of sun but there was not much to look at other than the tunnel of trees. It was was an easy ride, though.

We took a short side trail into Mount Gretna and toured around the “suburbs”. It’s a small place but there were some very nice country homes. No pictures because they are tough to take while riding.

Next we went downtown where the main attraction is a playhouse. The parking lot was full and the play was in progress while we were there.

In the same area was a gift shop that attracted Jennie.

A hummingbird mobile got her attention.

Sold.

We had lunch on a nearby bench.

We walked around and looked at some of the houses and buildings in the area.

And then right by an ice cream parlour. Even though we really hadn’t earned it yet, we can’t resist.

We thought about going farther but the trail got much narrower so we decided to head back to the car, see how we felt and probably continue past it towards the town of Lebanon. Which is what we did.

The downhill to the car made it too easy.

Heading out the other way was more of the same.

An over the shoulder shot, while we were riding.

As there was nothing in Lebanon to make us want to get there, we turned around when our butts said to.

On the way home there was a hill just covered in day lilies.

A pleasant way to spend an iffy weather day.