April 28, 2008
Road trip
Written by RobynDeHart in Jaunty PostWeek before last my mother and I went on a road trip. She was going with me to the RT conference and well, I had figured Pittsburgh was roughly 10 hours from my house so we should drive it instead of fly because it would be a beautiful drive and we’d save some money. Okay, this idea of mine game before gas became the price of gold, but you know it was still cheaper than flying. In any case the more we planned the trip, the more I thought that if we added a day or two we could do some extra things. You see for whatever reason, my mother has always been fascinated by the Amish culture and has always wanted to see Amish country. I figured everything out and realized that the drive to get to Amish country wouldn’t take us any longer on the way up and would only add 4 hours to get from there to Pittsburgh. So I started looking at everything I could find on Lancaster county PA, trying to find a hotel and everything and I ran across this one website that seemed to be go-to site for all things Amish country.
I told my mom about what I’d found and the name of some of the cities, Intercourse being my favorite. Well, really, how can you not enjoy that irony? So I slyly suggest we stay in the lovely Intercourse and my mom says nope, she just can’t do it. How will she tell my father? 
But I’m thinking it’s a perfect phase 1 before an RT conference. Needless to say I found this instead. http://www.800padutch.com/lancastercity.shtml Go ahead, go look at it, I’ll wait.
Are you back? Great. Sounds like a quaint village, don’t you think? Now if any of you are from PA, I’m sure you’re laughing by now. It’s okay, I deserve it, but this website is misleading. So we book our night at the historic Hotel Brunswick in historic downtown Lancaster - presidents have stayed here, it’s a classic. As we’re driving into Lancaster, my mom’s eyes are glued to the windows.
“I don’t see any Amish,” she says.
“No,” I say through gritted teeth.
“Not really what I expected.”
“Let’s just get to the hotel, I’m sure downtown will be charming.”
Thank God we had brought my GPS unit in the rental car, she kept us going in the right direction as we’d never have found half of the right places. But she steered us straight to Hotel Brunswick in the heart of Lancaster, which incidentally is a city. Like a real city, and the hotel was nestled right in the inner city fully equipped with loud music, sirens and stinky streets. Did y’all know this? There are no Amish in the city of Lancaster. And that charming prison built to resemble a castle in Lancashire, England, looks like something from a giant miniature golf set - yes, it’s that cheesy.
The day actually got worse from here, suffice it to say we ended up eating at a Bob Evans because we wanted to get back to our hotel before it got dark. The following day we did head east instead of going straight to Pittsburgh, and we eventually found the Amish, with the gentle rolling hills spotted with their farms and the buggies driving alongside the cars.
We walked through a quilt museum and went to a farmer’s market where they sold amazing looking fruits and vegetables and homemade breads and pastries. We drove through the countryside and looked at their farms with their clothes hanging on the line to drive. And it was charming and beautiful and my mother totally loved it. Wanna know where we were? Yep, you guessed it. Intercourse.
So how about you? Ever take a trip that wasn’t quite what you’d expected?
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Rainy Says:
Funny post, Robyn…
How true that the hype rarely matchs reality and our expectations. First time we saw the Alamo I couldn’t believe it was so small. And where was John Wayne?
I’d lived in the Boston area and have seen many depictions of Salem, making potential visitors think they are going back to a quaint little town. No such thing. It’s just a regular (some of it not so nice either) town with an assortment of witchy tourist attractions.
The first time we visited the Lancaster area in our RV, we came across the same thing you did. And the 18-wheelers barreling down the highway. Well, we found a campground in New Holland, PA (outside of Lancaster). It was a climb for our RV but so worth it. Right below our RV campsite was a Mennonite farm and during the spring planting season, Mr. Farmer would come out in the early morning and plow the fields behind his team of mules. Down a side road there were a few Amish homes and you’d sometimes catch a glimpse of Amish kids in their garbs playing about. A memory forever metched in my mind (and where was my camera?) was a long clothesline with Amish clothes hung up, whipping in the wind.
In some of the towns we’d stop in some of the country stores and in the parking lot you’d often see a horse and buggy parked there. And on Sunday the Amish head off to church (or someone’s home) in their buggys. We stayed one other campground where you’d see buggy after buggy drive by on Sunday. The thing with Lancaster is that it is so built up and does not coincide with the Amish lifestyle. One visit we saw some Amish teenagers meeting at some sort of 7/11 and drag racing their buggies along the Interstate. Cute…but the TRUCKS!
So, sometimes what you are looking for is there, maybe packaged a bit differently. You just have to go down another road.
RobynDeHart Says:
Rainy, yes the Alamo does take you back a little. I grew up only about 45 minutes from there so I’m used to it, but I know that it always throws people for a loop when you turn to go downtown to get to it. I think most people expect it to be out in the middle of a field. Goliad is much more impressive of a mission if that’s what you’re looking for.
Margo Maguire Says:
The only weird thing I can think of is the time we were on the road west to Yellowstone and the radiator went bad. This would have been around 1993 or 94. My chintz— er, thrifty(!) husband wouldn’t pay the $460 to have the dealership in Big Rapids fix it. We went to a re-built car parts store and bought a good-as-new radiator, and he installed it in the parking lot of our motel, overlooking Mount Rushmore, at 7 AM the next day.
Shana Says:
I’ve never really had a vacation like yours, Robyn. I know when we went skiing in January I was worried we’d get snowed in, but we were fine.
I love the pictures. Has your mom thought about writing Amish-set books? I hear they are selling really well.