One Year on the Road

Two women, their golden retriever, and an orphaned kitten hit the road in an RV for one year of "pretirement"

Amish Country Photos

Jennifer Meyer September 30, 2015 Photos No Comments

We spent a day around Intercourse, Pennsylvania, in the heart of Pennsylvania Dutch Amish country.

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Intercourse: odd name for a prim town.

Watch out for buggies...

Because there are a lot of them.

Enclosed carriages...

Pickup trucks...

This one was an open seat in back.

Coming along at a clip.

A fast trot...

Or a slow walk...

We were eager to see buggies...

And we saw them all over.

Who wouldn't want to ride in one? We sure did.

And we found the perfect man for the job.

Jacob pointed out the horse wash and buggy repair.

And the one-room schoolhouse: boys have lunch in front, girls were in back.

He drove us beyond power poles into Amish farm country.

Dairy farms are the main business.

Jacob answered all our questions frankly.

He explained how threshers and balers are pulled by horse teams.

Here one team pulls a thresher, which cuts the corn and moves it up a belt to fall into a wagon pulled by another team.

As two teams round a corner, you can see corn stalks still in the thresher.

Moving into position to cut another row.

Father and daughter plowing team.

Kids help out in every way.

Kids are schooled till they're 14, then work full time on the farm.

This barn had wall panels that open.

It's for drying tobacco, which Jacob says many just do to subsidize their dairies.

Tobacco hanging in the barn.

We loved the buggy ride, but loved this jolly couple even more.

The rest of the afternoon we just drove around the countryside.

Kate drove and I took photos.

It was a warm afternoon and the countryside was beautiful.

I snapped photos of people when I could.

But always from the back or side, as Jacob had suggested.

Or from a distance. This woman is riding a scooter: a popular mode of transport.

We saw no bikes, just these scooters.

School letting out.

Teachers help kids ease safely into traffic.

Since they must ride or walk on the road, they wear safety vests.

Some kids go to the town high school. Here they play softball.

The town high school includes large truck buggies for hauling equipment.

Wednesday is washing day.

So clothes lines were filled.

Lots of black and white clothes and colored dresses.

Laundry line to the barn.

Many shades of purple.

A reminder of the religious conservatism in the area.

So many lush fields ready for harvest.

This boy drives a mowing team. Deisel motors are allowed in farmwork.

Another threshing team.

Wagons laden with hay.

A girl gallops in a field.

Such a beautiful area.

And still so warm.

We stopped at this Amish farm for some homemade root beer and ketchup.

They were selling doll clothes, too.

We stopped at a farm stand for fresh eggs.

And another one for the best soft pretzles we've ever had.

A curious horse.

Fancy barn windows.

Hearts in a barn wall.

Intriguing brick work on this English church.

And beautiful stone work on this farm house.

A barn in disrepair.

Buggy and barn.

Little graveyard next to a corn field.

We stopped at a few simple cemetaries.

In this one, most of the headstones were from the early 1800s.

And most were in Pennsylvania Dutch.

Some were too worn to read.

These seemed to be leaning on each other in familiar affection.

When we came across this old stone mill, we were just in time for the last tour.

It was built in 1760.

It uses granite wheels to crush corn and wheat to flour.

The Ressler family bought it in the early 1900s, and Franklin kept it going till the 70s.

The house and mill were donated to the county to become a museum.

But the mill still operates.

The mill also served as the town's post office.

Old flour barrels.

Original posters still on the wall.s

The guide ground some corn for us and explained how it works.

We were too late for a tour of the house next door.

It looked very sweet.

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