Just some photos today from my (ongoing) visit to Lancaster County, PA. We had a gray day or two but the sun poked out yesterday and it was a beautiful morning.
I nearly called this post “Spring in Lancaster County”, but with no green on the trees yet it’s more that in-between season between winter and spring, which I am going to take the liberty of naming “mud” season, because there is enough of it around right now.
Speaking of which, there are no mud sales this weekend, though I drove by the aftermath of the Gordonville Sale and I can say they had some muddy fields out there.
Good Friday is today, and I’ll be with some Amish friends for the day. Amish here fast on Good Friday, so we won’t eat until this afternoon.
Many people took advantage of the sun to hang laundry.
Intercourse is the most famous town in Lancaster County (and probably anywhere Amish), and not just because of its funny name. It’s the center of the tourist area here.
Buggies parked in town.
Traffic at the main intersection. The car standing in front of me at the light was from Maine. They waved at the horses above. Strangely the horses didn’t wave back.
This is Weavertown Coach Shop, between Intercourse and Bird-in-Hand:
And White Horse Machine. The scooters parked outside tell you who’s inside:
I had a chance to drop by the Young Center at Elizabethtown College, and see some old friends. The Young Center recently underwent an expansion, and is now about twice as large:
Lancaster County is quite paved as far as roads go, and especially compared to Midwestern Amish areas. But you’ll occasionally run across an unimproved road like this.
I find Amish often live on these roads. If I were Amish, I would be just fine with them leaving it unimproved:
I also visited a couple of businesses, Gordonville Book Store and BB’s Grocery Outlet. I’ll have more on these in a post next week so stay tuned.
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Good Friday
Learned something new today. I didn’t know that the Amish had a Good Friday tradition.
We read from John, had German prayer and sang songs this morning. Now we are about to break the fast with an afternoon breakfast…whatever is on the stove smells great right now. And I think it’s time for my first coffee of the day:)
Amish are the only Americans take takes Good Friday as a Holiday.
Therefore: the Amish makes it clear on the Modern Website,
when they’re Close to the General Public. Especially Sundays.
Amish General Stores
P.S.
Eric;
Please explain to the Public Here that the Amish doesn’t have General Stores in: Typical crowed Shopping Malls. So like the Jewish Community Centers that are open to the Public & those people mention, own their buildings: therefore: it gives them the Right to be close on their Hilidays..
PPS
I met Holidays:
Jewish Community Center close on Friday’s from 6 pm-
Saturday @ Noon or 1 pm. They’re close on their Holidays.
& those dates Very’s. & it’s mention in their website.
The Amish are more Traditional, they are close every Sunday.
And all Holidays mention & info on their mondern world website.
The point is: they’re still people that takes Closing one day weekly seriesly. Thank goodness for the Amish. No & Radios Televisions. I’m
Love Pictures
Enjoy seeing these pictures and hearing about your day. I make many trips there and seeing pictures of these places tugs on my heart and makes me long for it again. Perhaps time to plan another trip 🙂
Thanks Loretta! Just got back to something like regular internet access, so apologies for the delay in response. It was a great visit and really nice to be there during Easter. I was able to go to church at a friend’s home on Sunday. Not all districts have church on Sunday so that was nice. Spring should be very nice so I hope you get a chance to visit!
Lancaster County
Last summer we had the opportunity to spend about 4 or 5 days in Lancaster County; we were NOT disappointed. Not that 4 or 5 days was NEAR enough time to see even a fraction of everything that there is to see in that beautiful part of Pennsylvania, but it gave us a small sample of what is available. We will be back for more in the future.
Interestingly, White Horse Machine was one of our Horse Progress Days tour stops. In fact, it was the last stop of the day for our tour bus. Across the side street from the shop was a parking lot where the tour bus parked and up under shop shade trees was a bench wagon for one of the local Amish churches. That bench wagon probably got more attention than any other thing we saw that day.
Among the things we saw in Lancaster County that really stuck with us were that New Holland is a little town that has a lot going for it & it probably doesn’t get its due. Also, that quite possibly the real under-discovered gem in that county is Lititz.
We were just totally blown away at how quaint, classy and beautiful it is. We had never even heard of it until a lady on the tour mentioned it to us. Ironically, it turned out that the lady we were talking to, as well as her husband, had gone to the same university that we did in Texas and they were there at the same time we were; 40 plus years ago. Is that a scream or what?
For those not familiar: https://lancasterpa.com/lititz/
Oldkat you’re right, Lititz is a really nice place. I haven’t spent too much time there, but it has that reputation. There are a lot of little villages scattered all over the county, most have something interesting about them. It was neat to pass through Fivepointville, which is basically the meeting point of 5 roads and the village which came up around that. I also like Churchtown. And I got a chance to visit the Amish over on the York County side. We didn’t find much of the Glen Rock settlement, but there are about 5 districts over the Normanwood bridge in southern York County which would basically be attached to the Lancaster settlement. A nice, more sparsely populated area compared to some.
Hi Eric,
Have been missing your articles for some reason….I thought you had moved back to Poland…is that where you usually went ?
Enjoyed this post tho…did you get married?
I guess I’m behind in things here…..hope to get caught up tho….
Never been to PA, but we have been wanting to go to the HERSHEY PLACE in Penn some day….have you been there ?
See ya,
Kylady 717
I do spend a good bit of my time there 🙂 Sorry to hear you weren’t getting the articles, have you subscribed by email? That should keep you notified, unless the emails are going into spam, which can happen with some email accounts.
I did not get married 😀
Glad to see you back, and hope you will get caught up…do you mean Hershey Park? I was there as a boy, and then went a few years ago with some Amish friends. We did the chocolate factory tour but not the rides etc, though there is something like a ride in the tour.
2018
Do you know where we might find a list of mud sales, in 2018, plus the ones in the fall?
Still on my bucket list, and may take a trip to East coast some September!