Sight and Sound Theater.

We are in Lancaster county near Lancaster. Most folk recognize the name as a destination point to see the Amish and Mennonite country first hand.  It is by no means the only place, but this area draws huge crowds.

For the Bible minded there is a full scale model of the Old Testament Tabernacle. The Mennonite Church host’s it.  The Mennonite Center gives a history of the Mennonite and Amish religions. Very interesting. Lots of Amish cooking advertised. I like the style of cooking but it is pricey and doesn’t taste any better than good home cooking. (BUT YOU DON’T HAVE TO COOK).  Many of the restaurants serve the food family style, and you usually eat with total strangers, not always bad.

The Amish farms are all so neat, and I love the horse and buggy transportation. You can actually hire an Amish/Mennonite person to travel with you in your car/van and describe the sites and highlights. Of course there are the number of Tourist traps that accompany a destination.

Sherry and I are normally not your average tourists. The most of the time we enjoy the natural sites. Such as driving the back roads ooo’in and aaaaahing at the farms, animals and crops. ONCE in a while stopping at an Amish stand and buying a ‘Shoo Fly Pie’ or the like.

One of the big entertaining spots here is the ‘Sight and Sound Theater’.  We were here years ago to see a play and I became fascinated. I had never seen a big production ‘anything’. Our experience was the great outdoor dramas: ‘Horn in the West’, ‘Unto these Hills’, ‘Trail of Tears’, ‘Okalahoma’, Hatfields and McCoys and the Lost Colony just after Andy Griffith left the production.

So seeing an indoor play big enough to have live horses, elephants and the like, was SOMETHING to me. I am interested to see how they deal with Jonah and the Whale. As I mentioned we usually take advantage of God’s Shows in Nature. We seldom pay to go to a ‘Show’. I told Sandie I was not a cheap skate, but corrected that, maybe I am. The price per ticket now is $50.  The Millennium Theater seats 2000 people. they do 10 shows a week. They were sold out until the 2nd of August. SO, Yes, we will go, along with thousands of other folks. But that will be out entertainment until I see those Lobsters brought to my table, 4 for $30, up in Kennebunk LOL.

We will do a report on Jonah after the show.

Thanks for coming this way.

Nite Shipslog

PS:

If corn oil is made from corn, and vegetable oil is made from vegetables, what is baby oil made from? (don’t answer)

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I call this Sheila’s car. She sent me this from the triad area of NC. I haven’t been able to nail it down. It is circa 1936. Maybe a Lincoln?  I don’t know what it is but I like it.

This is a Hudson Terreplane it is close.

What’s in a name, to borrow from The Lady Pauline!

Paula got me to thinking of the town names in this part of Pennsylvania.  We have Lancaster, York, Harrisburg (Sherry was a Harris so she likes that), Oregon, Millersville and Elizabethtown.
They also have some odd (to me) town names such as: Ronks, Brunnerville, Vintage, Kinzers and Knauertown.

These towns were named by the Amish and Dutch folk.  We (not Amish or Mennonites) are referred to as ‘English’. So to us some of the names are exotic, strange and we smile when we see or hear them, so much so that the tourists buy more stuff featuring these ‘Exotic’ names than other souvenirs of our stay in Amish Country.

There is Lititz, as apposed to big, I guess. Jimmy would not go there. It is interesting to see the high spirited horses of the Amish folk as they prance and trot along the highways and bi-ways, in and out of the town of ‘Bird-in-Hand’(folks from the UK would smile more than folks here..The Amish have long ago accepted the fact that folks pay to come and see them and their way of life.

You leave Churchtown, thru Goodville and you come to Blue Ball. That is close to Bareville. Head south to “Intercourse” if you continue you reach “Paradise”. Once you reach Paradise you can go East to Downingtown or West to Soudersburg. You will cross Cherry lane which is near Paradise lane.

As I said these names are common and do not even raise a question to the locals, when we, as the visiting English do a lot of smiling, some women do a lot of out and out laughing..

Lady Pauline just got me to thinking of her post, “What is in a name”.

Thanks for coming by the log.

Nite Shipslog

PS:

Show me a man with both feet firmly on the ground,
and I'll show you a man who can't get his pants off.
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Yes, there was a vehicle called ‘The Thing’ and this is it. Volkswagen put it out, It was not pretty.

But it was different.

Boy, have I enjoyed these Back roads of Pennsylvania.

The Motor cycle riders must love the PA back country. Do you know what a Whoop-de-do is? In Moto-cross terms, it is the ups and downs that take your stomach, like a roller coaster ride. Well there are hundreds of miles of them here, I love them. The motor home makes it nice because you are high and see over the hill sooner than if you were in a car.

I love the older architecture designs. I always called the pill-box style. I have forgotten the proper name for them. Lots of beautiful Rock and Brick houses. If you ask any hiker about PA they will call it the rock state. So many, many rocks.  The woods are lined with old rock fences from long lost farms of years past. In one area where there was once a coal mine, I wondered how they ever got the coal out. Rocks were everywhere between every two trees, garbage-can size rocks. Ones you just didn’t roll out of the way.  hahahaha.

I commented so many times to Sherry how I admired the PA farmer, he had to spend half his time throwing rocks out of the field or carrying them to the edge of the field for a rock wall.

That is one reason there are so many rock houses, the rock was plentiful for the pioneering communities.

Rocks are a problem to me, I love to find odd shaped, or ‘special to me’ rocks. There have been times I had 50 lbs of rocks in the motor home because they were special.  I have slowed down rock collecting, considerably.  hahahaha.

Lots of folks like rocks. I like to paint them. (I know Dar & Mel do. )  I Glue smaller ones into different shapes, I specially like to put clear varnish on them to make them shine.  I  ran across a rock when I was emptying the trailer. I found it in Northern Maine, and it had sea creature fossils in it, I also found one in the desert in Arizona. That to me is interesting.

Are you a rock hound?

Nite Shipslog

PS:

How come you never hear father-in-law jokes?

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I miss ‘out of this world’ (Theanne would say OOMMI) Auto designs like this 1951 Buick Lesaber. I am sure it never made production, if it did there were only a few of them, but I want it. LOL

Gettysburg Farm Camp Ground

This is the most unique park we have stayed in.  It is actually a working farm, but they also let the visitors interact with the farm and animals.

Kids, goats, are cute. Also smell a little as most folks know. But the small ones are very curious. They want to smell and get to know dogs.  We watched some one evening. There is no animal supervision, I guess the management figures we will watch out for ourselves.

This cute little fellow lay down right in front of me.

I had my doubts when I petted the Bull. Frisky young fellow, I thought he was going to take the fence down, or break his leg.

Billy Goat gruff!

The entrance is lined with antique farm equip. Most are used for planters for Veggies. I think these held pumpkins or squash.

I’m eating green apples as I type this, hoping my stomach is as good as it was a long time ago, I have always loved green apples and salt.

 

I like this old 2” cannon.

Sherry loved these flowers

Sunset on the farm, we had a great day.  Oh yes we went into West Berlin, look at this house construction:

Now this is neat, log, brick and rock const.

Below is Rock construction.Lot of that in Pennsylvania.

I forgot to mention this on another entry. Below is Dallas and Marion, our friends.  Dallas is a collector himself having at least 4 antique tractors.

This is the entrance to their home

The John Deere was built the year Dal was born 1938, in the distance is a 1940’s Cat.

Thanks for coming by the log.

Nite shipslog

PS:

Behind every successful man is his woman. Behind the fall of a successful man is usually another woman.
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This is a pretty 1941 Studebaker at the Eustis, FL car show.

Misconceptions & Marriage

Growing up in the south, there was a very big misunderstanding about the great USA. I don’t know where I got the idea, but my idea was above the Mason Dixon line was sky scrapers and cities.  Below that was mostly agriculture. To me Agriculture was cotton and Tobacco the staples of North Carolina. folks grew corn for families and animals to be able to go get that tobacco and cotton! LOL We grew tomatoes, cabbage, potatoes and collards (along with onions) for families.

The mountains of NC were covered with Apple orchards and the flat lands of South Carolina was filled with Peaches. That was my knowledge until I joined the military. In the USMC I met Dallas Fletcher. We became friends. Dal talked like a country boy, but how could that be, he was from Pennsylvania? He talked about a strange named river called the Susquehanna. We would drive out some evenings  thru the country around Camp Lejeune, and Dal would talk about the farm lands of PA. He said they probably had more farm lands than NC. (It was years later before I believed him.) haha.

(Taken just outside their trailer )

The thing that drew Dallas and I together was girls. He had a girl in PA, Marion. I had a great looking girl named Sherry. We were both determined to marry these girls. Dal would hitch hike to PA on a weekend to see Marion, and I would load up a bunch or Marines, who would pay me $5 apiece for a round trip to The Gastonia, NC area. Of course That paid for the gas and a date with my Girl Sherry.

Dal & I became close because instead of spending our time at the club, we would talk for hours about our girls. Fact is, We did marry pretty soon, and  lived close to each other in the Base trailer park. We grew closer; Marion and Dal, Sherry & I. After discharge we continued Christmas cards and Pictures of the families as they grew. The kind of friends that mean something thru life.

Marion and Dallas (Now called Robert) & Sherry and I have been married over 55 years. We were serious about these girls.

The Fletchers stopped by our motor home while they were visiting Florida in 2011.

(Marion is still taller than Sherry, Sherry never grew up! She is still my cute little thing)

The Fletchers live not far from here and we got  to see them.  Like us, they have tried many things, they settled with raising Turkeys and have done well.

We love them like brother and sister.

Thanks for coming this way.

Nite Shipslog

PS:

Women will never be equal to men until they can walk down the street with a bald head and a beer gut, and still think they are sexy.

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1932 Detroit Electric

“We have been trying electric for a long time, you would have thought we had it right, if it was going to work!”

On Northward to Pennsylvania

Yesterday we  started off pretty early. We stopped to get fuel in Winchester, Virginia, this is the lowest we will find fuel from this point on.

While at the Pilot/Flying J, a man from Quebec asked questions about the tow van.  Many folk do not know the Odyssey (pre 2005) can be towed four wheels down without damaging the vehicle. Lot of folk do not know most vehicles will be permanently damaged if towed.

I remembered West Virginia (I missed their ‘Wild and Wonderful sign’), but I had forgotten the small part of Maryland.

Then the beautiful state of Pennsylvania.  We hiked about 230 miles thru PA, some rough hills BUT great walks thru pastures and corn fields.  Of course that was an easy hike after the 550 miles in Virginia.

(I love these huge corn fields)

We passed a sign ‘Pine Grove Furnace’ State park. Brought back a lot of memories. It is the halfway mark on the AT. It is the half way mark it is traditional that each hiker eat a 1/2 gallon of ice cream, flavor your choice.   LOL (No we didn’t keep the tradition, we had a cone!)

I am a Southern American. Just the name Gettysburg causes me some painful thoughts. Brother against Brother, Family against Family.  One of the sad parts on the AT in NC, are the graves of some Southern Boys who went North to fight for the Union. They were trying to get home for Christmas to see their family when they were ambushed and killed because they were ‘traitors’.

Driving thru the battlefield I knew Thousands died here. As a matter of record :

Union

Killed ..3,155,  wounded..14,529,Total ..17,684

Confederate

Killed..3,500, Wounded..15,250, Total ..18,750

6,655 killed and a total of 10,000 missing on both sides.(In 4 days, July 1-4, 1863)

What a terrible time in American history.  Hard headed politicians (as usual) sending men to fight and die.  Some wars cannot be avoided, this one could have been.

Above and below is downtown Gettysburg.

Heading to our park, guess where we went? West Berlin.(LOL) nah, not Robert’s homeland, but BEAUTIFUL Dutch country in Pennsylvania.

We are settled near Dover at “Gettysburg Farm”. A very beautiful place. But only here for 3 days.

Thanks for coming this way.

Nite Shipslog

PS:

Why is the man who Invests folk’s money called a broker?

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1919 model A woody taxi or hack.

The only classic I saw today was one of the above. It was on a trailer going South, I did not have time for a picture. But someone has a jewel.

Shenandoah Valley

Leaving Tennessee yesterday morning I saw a giant guitar. So I tried to grab a pic.

I only got a little thru the door. But yesterday was a great day to drive. We did hit a couple spots of rain. Then came Virginia.

And lots of memories for us near here. We passed signs to Damascus. The AT goes right down thru town main street. It  is called the friendliest trail town and sponsors ‘Trail Days' every year. They open the town to hikers present and past. Many concessionaires set up and hawk backpacking supplies. Fun time we attended one.

Not a painting, this is our couch (Agfhan by Mary Ann) and our road view.

Today’s chauffeur and his view. below:

Sherry relieved me a couple times.

But the most beautiful part of the trip of course is the Shenandoah valley. Lush farm land and beautiful sights. Note the Mountains in the back ground. Everyone you see, we have climbed and hiked over, They are the Shenandoah's.

You are looking at an easy hike on that hog back mountain in the distance, once you were up you didn’t have to keep going up and down, you stayed high.

My girl thought this was an interesting BK!

I believe that says ‘ENDLESS CAVERNS’ on the side of the mountain, we hiked way, way above it.

That is part of the Shenandoah Valley. I kept saying “Shane, Shane, come back Shane!!”

We crossed the Appalachian trail where we hiked under and over the interstate when we were younger, in our 60’s. I only got Sherry lost once the entire length of the Shenandoah's.  I got off on an animal trail, when I started crawling, I got the message she said, “Honey, don’t you think we should go back?”

So today, if you are reading this during the day, we are on the road to Gettysburg. We will pass thru a little of West Virginia, then into Pennsylvania. We plan to spend a couple weeks in PA. If you have ever been to any productions of Sight and Sound, near Lancaster, I am sure you enjoyed them. We hope to catch another one if something is going on that we have not seen.

Thanks for visiting the LOG.

Nite Shipslog

PS:

Why is it that Doctors call what they do 'practice'?

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I did not see either of my favorite cars yesterday. As a matter of fact I saw no classics on the road. BUT here is today’s catch:

The BMW Isetta, a beautiful little car with one door, one seat vehicle. Powered by a BMW Motorcycle engine. The front was a door. The steering wheel and dash pivoted out when opening the door.  Shirl had one of these she sold with her collection of Studs.