June 3, 2008 - Philadelphia, PA

Today was the day for our Philadelphia tour. The owner of the KOA conducted the tour in his 14 passenger van. Needless to say, I was in the very back of the van and Larry was in the front with the driver. We left the campground at 8:00 a.m. and drove into the big city. He told us that William Penn’s family was owed money from the King and asked that it be settled. The King gave him a land grant which was Pennsylvania. Penn offered people land if they would come and grow crops. Penn then took a percentage of the profits. The beds back then were made of a wooden frame with ropes stretched across each direction. Then a mattress that was stuffed with straw was put on top of the ropes. Thus the saying, Sleep tight (tighten the ropes) and don’t let the bugs bite (shake out the mattress to get the bugs out of the straw).

Once we arrived downtown, he dropped us off in front of the Independence Living History Center. He gave us our 12:45 p.m. tickets for Independence Hall and asked us to meet him at 1:15 p.m. We went inside the Living History Center and saw tables covered with broken pieces of pottery. The staff’s job was to put these various pieces together some how to form a pot. It reminded us of working a jigsaw puzzle.

We walked from there to Franklin Court. This is the location where Benjamin Franklin built his home. In his later years, Franklin also built three houses on Market street, a Print Shop for his printer-publisher grandson, Benjamin Franklin Bache.

Franklin first saw the site at 17, while lodging with the family of his future wife, Deborah Read, in a small house at the front of this lot. Once together, Benjamin and Deborah inherited and acquired the neighboring properties. By the early 1760’s, Franklin met with a master carpenter, Robert Smith, to build a large house to stand in a quiet garden deep in the middle of the block.

Franklin left for England while the house was under construction during 1763-65. Tragically, before Benjamin’s return to his new home, Deborah had died. Fortunately, his daughter, Sarah and husband, Richard Bache, had moved into the house, filling it with grandchildren. Returning in 1775, Franklin decided the house was too small; at the age of 81, he added and extension.
One of the outer buildings was a post office that still exists today. It was the first Post Office and didn’t fly the U.S. Flag because at that time we were not a country yet. Every piece of mail is hand stamped. The other buildings were used to print Franklin’s newspaper, the Aurura. The sign out front has his signature: B.FreeFranklin on it.

We went to the Carpenter’s Hall next. It was a small building erected in 1770 and 1774 by the Carpenter’s Company of Philadelphia, a guild dedicated to the improvement of its members’ skills. The First Continental Congress met here in 1774.

After we walked about a block we came to the Supreme Court Chamber in Old City Hall that met from 1791 to 1800.. Then we moved on to the Liberty Bell Center. The Liberty Bell is an international symbol of freedom. Hung in the State House in 1753. The Bell cracked sometime between 1817 and 1846; exactly when remains a mystery.

We walked over to the Bourst Building to have lunch at food court. After lunch we walked a couple of blocks to the Congressional Hall. We had a guided tour through the hall. They first took us into the House and then upstairs to the Senate which was much fancier. The U.S. Congress met in Congress Hall from 1790 to 1800.

Our final building was Independence Hall. Delegates meeting in the Assembly Room of the Pennsylvania State House, now called Independence Hall, created the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. We had a tour guide for this portion of the tour. It was an amazing feeling to be standing right in the room where the Declaration was discussed and approved.

We left Independence Hall and got back into the van. Our guide to us to Elfreth’s Alley which is the oldest continually occupied street in America. It was very narrow and there were houses on both sides. On the outside of some of the homes was a plaque signifying the fire insurance company that insured the home. Only fire fighters of that particular company could put out that fire otherwise it burned to the ground.

Then we went to Christ Church where several of the men who participated in the creation of our country worshiped. After that we went to Betsy Ross House. We walked through her house which was shared with another family. She was asked to make the U.S. Flag and if she had been caught, she could have been tried for treason. She also did furniture covers and upholstery.

Our last stop was Valley Forge. This is where George Washington wintered the troops for a spring offensive against the British. We saw the house that he and his wife lived and also the huts where the men stayed. It was a very cold winter and many of the men lacked supplies, clothing and shoes.

It was very interesting and we learned a great deal.

June 2, 2008 - Doylestown and New Hope, PA

Left the RV around 9:30 a.m. to drive to Bensalem where a big visitor center was located. We wanted to get some information about Fallingston and New Hope. When we arrived we were informed that the Quaker Village in Fallingston was not open on a Monday. They gave us some information about Doylestown and New Hope. So we headed for Doylestown. We thought that we would get a bite to eat first before going to any of the museums. We found a great restaurant and had some soup and shared an order of sushi. We arrived at the Moravian Potter and Tile Works Museum and had to wait about 15 minutes for a tour. We went into the shop and looked at some of the tile for sale. We found some individual letters and decided to buy the letters for our last name. The tiles in the floor of the Harrisburg Capitol building were made by this company and was in fact their biggest order ever.

The tour started in another room and we watched a 15 minute video about how the company got started. Henry Mercer was born in Doylestown, PA in 1856. He was a Renaissance man and became a noted tile maker, archaeologist, antiquarian, artist and writer as well as a leader in the turn of the 20th century Arts and Crafts Movement.

Henry Mercer used local clay to make his tiles. Every tile is made by hand and they make decorative tiles and mosaics using designs and techniques made famous by Henry Mercer. We got to see the original kilns that were used, the molds, the room where the clay is stored, actual forming of the tiles, and the hand painting room. It was fun and the tiles were beautiful.

We drove over to Fonthill, Henry’s dream house built in 1910. The castle has 44 rooms, 18 fireplaces, 32 stairwells, and more than 200 windows of different sizes.

Next we drove to the town of New Hope where mules pull a barge down the Delaware Canal and you can hitch a ride for a fee of course. We went to the visitor center and asked about the tour and they said that the ride was shut down for at least a year to repair damaged bridges. We were disappointed. We walked through the town and stopped to have some ice cream and before we headed back home. We noticed as we walked back to our car there was some interesting statuary. Also there was a decorated horse like in other towns with other animals. We have now seen flying horses, lambs, bears, goats, and cows. They are all decorated and bought by people and business owners for money and then the money goes to help a particular cause or charity. We enjoyed the day even with all the driving we had to do.

June 1, 2008 - Nottingham, PA

We had a very short drive to our KOA campground in Coatesville. This was the closest campground that we could find to Philadelphia. We had lunch and then drove to the QVC studios. We signed up for the guided walking tour. This is the actual broadcasting facility for the electronic retailing on TV. We saw how their products are sourced, tested and brought to life on air and delivered to millions of QVC customers. We got to see into the studio and also see a show airing live. We were able to go out on the Observation Deck which stands 50 feet above the 20,000 square-foot broadcast area. It was amazing to see the volume and dollar amount that this company is making. It was also encouraging and a relief to hear that all their customer service agents were here in the U.S. They hire 16,000 people and have studios in Nottingham, PA, England, Germany and Japan. We bought a few things in their gift shop and drove back home.

May 30 - 31, 2008 - Lancaster, PA

I had read about the Central Market in one of the tour books and wanted to see what they had to offer. We found the building and started walking up one row and down another. They had all kinds of meats, vegetables, cheeses and bakery items. We bought some fresh chipped beef, some cookies and three herb plants. It was fun to see all the homemade items too.

We took our stuff home and then Al and Barbara picked us up to take us out to lunch at the El Serrano Mexican Restaurant. The restaurant was beautiful and the food was terrific. After lunch, they took us to see one of the covered bridges. I had been wanting to see one before we left Pennsylvania. Al was so patient and insisted that we take a picture from each side of the bridge. We really enjoyed their company and look forward to seeing them again next year for another Mexican caravan.

May 31, 2008 - Lancaster, PA

Well, today was Larry’s birthday. We had breakfast and went for a walk. By the time we got back after our walk, the rain started coming down. We were under a Tornado watch all day. We got caught up on some of our inside work and enjoyed just sitting at home. Just before we went to dinner, I gave Larry his present, a gold bracelet. He was very surprised and seemed really pleased with it. Later, we went to a very nice restaurant and had a wonderful dinner. It was a nice day and evening.

May 29, 2008 - Lancaster, PA

Today we went to the visitor center to get information about the various towns nearby and find out where some of the covered bridges were located. We left the visitor center and drove to the town of Intercourse. The town was founded in 1754 and named Cross Keys after a local tavern and renamed in 1814. Its name is believed to have evolved from either the entrance to the old racecourse (the Entercourse) just outside of town or from the joining, or intercourse, of the Old Kings Highway and the Wilmington-Erie Road. There were several stores selling Amish and Mennonite crafts including quilts and furniture. We made a stop at the Kitchen Kettle Village. The village contains 32 stores. We went into a leather store and Larry bought a new wallet. We then went into the Smokehouse where we sampled cheeses and pretzels. We bought some hot pepper cheese and some pretzel balls about the size of a marble.

We left Intercourse and drove back to the Amish Experience location where we had tickets for a farm tour. This facility was located half way between Intercourse and Bird in the Hand. Names of the towns are very unusual. We had lunch in their restaurant just before the tour. The place mat on the table had some interesting facts about Pennsylvania such as the number of farms in the state. 58,105 farms with 7.7 million acres of farmland with the average size farm being 133 acres. 92% of farms are family owned, 6% are partnership, 2% are family corporations and less than 1% are corporate owned. PA has 2,164 Christmas Tree farms, more than any other state. They produce more than 465 million pounds of mushrooms per year, more than any other state.

Amish children go to school until the 8th grade. After completing the eight grade they could apply to the Bishop for approval to become teachers. They could only teach for four years and the teacher was paid $1 a day per student.

The bus tour took us through several Amish districts where we could see the size of the some of the Amish farms and dairies. Many of the farm owners are very wealthy. We made a stop at a Mennonite Bakery where the employees were all Amish. We bought some shoo fly pie and an apple pie. The shoo fly pie is mostly brown sugar and molasses. Not bad but very sweet. We continued our bus tour and saw some small buildings that looked like outhouses. The guide explained that those buildings were their telephone booths. Phones and cell phones are allowed but not in the house. To make your phone calls, you would have to go out to the phone booth.

Out next stop was the Riehl farm house. This family allows the bus tours to come there and they have a separate building where they sell Amish crafts and beautiful quilts. We first went into their garage to look at their buggies. The first buggy was their main buggy. It had two long benches inside. All the exterior lights ran off a batter that was placed underneath the carriage. There were two holes through the front of the carriage for the reins to come through. The wheels are made of metal. The Bishop does not allow them to use rubber on the wheels because that would let them wander too far from home. The average Amish family usually has 6 to 7 children so sometimes they need to add a board to the front bench which extends seating out the side of the carriage. It was hard to imagine eight people inside the carriage. The other carriage had a flat bed behind it similar to a pick up truck design. That was used to get supplies to and from town.

Leaving the garage, we went to the barn area. The picture on the right is a skooter that the Amish use.

There were a couple of young calves in separate stalls. Then a place for the horses. They buy retired race horses that are trotters and pacers. The milking cows are kept inside the barn in individuals small stalls on a short tether. They feel that if the cow is allowed to roam outside it builds of the muscle in the cows and their milk isn’t as good. The cows are milked twice a day. A lot of the milk from Lancaster is used at the Hershey Chocolate Factory. Tractors are only allowed because they use the diesel engine to pump manure into the spreader. The wheels are made of steel and are not allowed on the streets. They may not be used to plow the fields. After the barn tour, we went to the shop where they sell their crafts. Bird houses, dolls, and quilts. The quilts were absolutely beautiful. The house and gardens were immaculate and, as the wife told us, it was a lot of hard work.

Our tour guide informed us that the Amish pay property tax, sales tax, public and Amish school tax. They do not have insurance. They contribute money to a fund in the church. Then the money is their for the families if they need it for medical, etc. If there isn’t enough money in the fund, then they have fund raisers - bake sales, etc.

We drove by a cemetery. When a Amish person dies, the family calls an undertaker and the undertaker takes the body, embalms the person and places him/her in a wooden casket, then returns the casket to the Amish home. The body is washed and dressed by the family. The body/casket remains in the home for two days while several of the men dig a hole at the cemetery. Then there is a viewing with family and friends. Finally the body is laid to rest at the cemetery. The tombstones are very simple and are inscribed with the name, birth and decease dates. The bodies are buried behind the tombstones and the tombstones are always facing East. They believe that God will return from the East.

The last stop was at the Mount Hope Wine Gallery. We sampled four wines and most of them were rather sweet. The tour guide said that the Amish drink wine and they also use it in their Communions twice a year. We bought a couple of bottles of wine and a wall tile. The bus returned us to the Amish Experience Center. When we got off the bus we walked to the Amish house for the next part of our tour.

The second part of the tour was an Amish house. We started our tour in a room with benches. The tour guide said that these were the type of benches used for church services. The Amish territory is divided up into districts. Each district would have about 30 families. They do not have churches - they have their church in the homes. Once a year each family would take their turn having the church services at their home. Approximately 100 - 250 people would attend these services. Some times the group would be too large for the house and would spill out into the yard or be held in the barn area. The men would enter one door and the women another door. They would sit on benches - with no backs - for about three hours. The first hour was singing hymns and the second hour was a sermon. After services the hosting family was expected to serve lunch. The youngest ate last and often young kids were seen going home to eat because this whole process took several hours before they would get to eat.

We went into the boys room where several boys would sleep together. The windows of the house were all covered with green pull down shades. Furniture was simple and there was a flashlight to read by. The boys clothes consisted of pants and plain shirt. The outfit for church consisted of black pants with side pockets only, suspenders, white shirt, black vest and black jacket with a black hat. No buttons (only snaps), jewelry or anything flashy was allowed in the church.

Next was the girl’s room where again several girls would share. When a girl turned 16 her father would provide her a private bedroom. Her clothes too were simple. Plain dresses with black aprons and a blue bonnet. The blue bonnet was work until they were 13. The outfit for Church was a plain dress with a white apron over it and black high top shoes.

The parent’s room was next. Their clothes hung on hooks on two different walls. On top of the dresser was a basket called a Kavli. It is a special basket used as a diaper bag to take to church.
We saw the living room where the wife had her quilting frame and the various furniture where the family sat together and played games or read. They had a lamp on wheels which held a propane tank inside for their light.

The kitchen had a big round table for dining with a hanging propane light. The stove and refrigerator ran off of propane. The peddle sewing machine was off to the side. They are now buying new sewing machines and running them off of battery power so the women can have all their fancy stitches.

The living room didn't have much furniture. The light in the middle of the room was on wheels and ran off of propane. There were a couple of wooden children's games also.

At 16 years of age you have to decide whether you want to become Amish or go into the outside world. Just because you were raised Amish doesn’t make you Amish. Some of them want to go to college first. Some kids get a driver’s license and buy a car. A few of the parents allow the car on their property and yet others insist that the car be parked some where else. No electricity or vehicles are allowed in the Amish community. . When you decide to become Amish some time after 16 years of age, you are then baptized. These ceremonies take place every two years. You must be baptized prior to getting married.

You must get the approval of the Bishop and the girl’s father before courting her. Amish only marry Amish. They need to be sure of their choice because there is no divorce. The weddings usually take place during October, November or December because the crops have already been brought in and everyone would be available for the wedding. The wedding takes place in the bride’s home from 8:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. and about 300-400 people will attend. It is a special honor to be asked to help with the wedding reception. The bride wears a plain colored dress with a white apron, no make up and no jewelry. They usually serve roasted turkey and have celery on the table for good luck. No wedding gifts are brought to the wedding reception. During the months of January, February and March, the bride and groom will visit the attendees and receive their presents.

The final part of our tour was in a theater in a barn setting with projected film images on five different areas in the theater. It was a story describing the Amish life through Jacob Fisher and his family. The title was “Jacob’s Choice.” It explained the difficult decision Amish youth face - to join the faith or live in the outside world. It was very interesting and well done.

It had been a full day of touring and we were glad to be at our RV. We watched an Amish couple drive their horse and buggy up and down the roads of our campground selling their fresh baked goods. The buggy had been specially designed to carry their bakery items. He walked behind the buggy ringing a bell and she drove the buggy.

May 28, 2008 - Lancaster, PA

Drove from Harrisburg to Lancaster today. We had dinner with two couples that we had met on our Mexico caravan. Barbara and Al picked us up and we met Laraine and John at the restaurant. It was great to see them and we had lots of laughs.