We got up pretty early because we had to be at our first tour by 8 a.m. We got ready, went down stairs to eat breakfast, they really didn't have great choices so I just had cereal, toast and orange juice. Some guy sitting near us saw our Seahawks stuff and decided to talk to us. He said something about being in Seattle when he was younger and then talked to us about cars. We were polite but eventually had to go back to our room to gather our stuff so we could check out.
We made sure everything was packed away, we grabbed all of our bathroom things, cords, phones, laptops etc. None of our stuff was tangled in our beds, we had all of our shoes and socks. I checked the drawer next to mom's side just for fun and saw that a housekeeper forgot to check the drawer and according to the receipt has been in there since November 8th. Inside the drawer was a plastic sack from the local Walmart with several different kinds of condoms and lubricants inside. Someone had a special night planned and it didn't go as planned or they weren't safe. Either way we laughed.
Mom really wanted to go see the Amish while we were on our trip. We looked around the places that we were going to go and the time limits we had. She found an Amish Tour called Simple Life Tours with Susan Hougelman. It was $50 each, probably for the cost of gas and her time. It was a two hour guided tour and we were going to visit an Amish grocery store, a dry goods store, an Amish furniture maker, a quilt shop, see some of their handmade textiles and much more. We might be able to talk and visit with them as well. Mom was really excited.
We took our stuff out to the rental and off we went. I should have given ourselves a little bit more time even though we were only going 11 miles to New Wilmington. We didn't realize that the Pennsylvania school districts went to school on Veteran's Day and the traffic and busses kept us from getting to our tour on time. I tried to get us there as close to 8 a.m. as I could. We pulled into the lot she told us to go to a few minutes after 8. We saw her white Honda Pilot. We grabbed the stuff we would need and hopped into her vehicle.
We apologized for being slightly late. She said it was okay and that she didn't mind. She wasn't waiting too long. Mom sat in the front and I sat in the back. We had our introductions and small talk and then we started driving to our first location, which most of the Amish community was located in the town of Volant.
During the drive Susan asked us questions about what we knew about the Amish, she gave us facts, some stories and little tidbits here and there during the entirety of the tour. She said to ask questions if we had any. Susan spends a lot of time with the Amish and every once and a while takes a carload of teenagers into town so they could go to the mall or they come over to her house to visit and to use televisions, phones and computers. All of that was okay as long as they didn't own the cars and those devices. It would be hard for them to own computers, phones and televisions because they do not have electricity. Everything is ran with oil lamps, candles, wood stoves and ice boxes.
We learned that they pay taxes because they own property in the US, they vote, some read newspapers to keep up with what is going on, they do business with cash, they pay their bills with cash, they can build a house in about three days and she talked a little bit about the horse and cart buggy's, the family dynamics, church, the languages they speak, school, Rumspringa and courting. Susan took us to several farms and showed us the houses. They were pretty distinct and you could pick them out from the English houses. They were all two/three story white houses with a long clothes line in the front yard. We were lucky to be there on laundry day as some of the houses had clothes hanging from the lines.
We visited a dry goods store and met the people who ran that for a few minutes. I looked around and noticed the Amish eat junk food just like any person. They especially love Doritos and Mountain Dew. They do make their own jams, jellies, pies, bread mixes, canned goods, pickled products and desserts and have their own gardens, livestock and specialty shops.
Susan took us to a home that made their own furniture. We actually got to go inside the shop and watch a teenage boy named Levi, make a chair. They sell them all over the world. It was fascinating to watch.
Next, we visited a store where they sold clothes and other goods such as toys, stationary, games, cards, and books. It was interesting to see what kind of stuff they use (that they don't make) in their every day lives. Our last stop was the quilt store, a place mom was looking forward to visit. She wanted to see their quilts. Unfortunately, their quilts were expensive so mom opted into buying some fabric and a couple of dolls that the teenaged girls made. All the dolls they made had no faces because of their modest lifestyle. Everyone looks the same. This is also a reason why there aren't a lot of photos of them, especially their faces. Most photos are taken from the back. No one is better than anyone else. I bought a homemade, what could be used as a pin cushion or a weight, green chicken made out of rice and fabric. I also purchased a few postcards as well. We talked to the lady who owned the store for a bit and she asked us where we were from and why we were visiting. It was a nice conversation.
Our two hour time limit was almost up so Susan drove us back to our rental in town and asked if we had anymore questions. She pretty much answered all of them. She thanked us for visiting Pennsylvania and taking her tour. I took a brochure just in case I knew of anyone coming this way that wanted to take her tour. I feel like we got more than $50 worth on this tour. We experienced a lot, learned new things and even got to talk to some of the Amish people. Mom was super stoked that we got to do this on our trip.
We got into our rental, grabbed the closest cache, Tour of Lawrence County - New Wilmington (GC7HVMT) before leaving town and headed to our next tour. It was an easy grab on the side of the building.
Mom had been emailing back and forth with Joe, the tour guide for Yellow Dog Village. When we booked this one, we weren't sure how long it would take us to get from New Wilmington to Worthington so we changed out meet up time twice. Mom emailed him again to let him know we would be getting there sooner than anticipated and he wrote us back saying that it was fine with him and he will see us when we got there. We got on Route 422 and headed east to the address he provided for us since there is no cell phone service where we were going so we used our GPS to get us there.
We followed the directions to the place and weren't sure where to go when we got there around 11:20. Mom should have read me the email because it told us where to go when we arrived. Oh well. We sat there on the corner for a bit and then a car drove up with two ladies in it asking if we knew where a horse event was. We told them we were not from here and had no idea. They told us thanks anyway and drove off. I had to pee so I walked down the road behind a shed and peed. Again, if we would have read the guy's email when we booked this tour we would have known where to park and there was a porta potty there. Lame mom. We finally got the hint and drove over to where we were suppose to go in the first place.
Joe actually lived in one of the functional houses so he walked down with his dog to greet us and to tell us a little bit of history about the Yellow Dog Village. He said the history lesson will take about 15 minutes of the hour we had here and the rest of the hour was exploring the old houses. We paid our $10 per person and he told us about the area. The history was fascinating. It was essentially a limestone mining town and when the minerals leached into the water supply and people got sick they just picked up and left...sometimes leaving everything they owned behind. The last family left in 2010. He told us that he purchased the village in 2014 and the goal was to restore the community one house at a time to its original 1920's glory. It will require a lot of funding which he is currently trying to do with grants, government assistance and his tours. He thanked us for coming and told us we could explore the houses. The last thing he said was to be safe and make sure the doors are closed when we were done.
We thanked him and spent the rest of our hour exploring the houses. Most of them had some significant damage, the paint was peeling off the walls, the ceilings caving in, holes in the flooring, the weeds and brush are severely overgrown, lots of garbage, vandalism, animal activity but there was some historical magic about it...these houses are frozen in time. The walls hold so many decades worth of memories here and so much history of the area. This area is a photographer's playground. Mom thoroughly enjoyed taking pictures and she said it was totally worth coming here. We finished up our visit around 12:30. We needed to start heading back towards Pittsburgh.
Before we left town we grabbed I Can See Red Lights (GC7BG3P) that was inside of the guard rail. We continued east on Route 422 until we reached Kittanning, there we took Route 28 at the junction and headed south towards Pittsburgh. We should have plenty of time to get gas and return the rental car at the airport before we have to check in. Our flight left at 4:20 and it was approximately 1:00ish. We got into Pittsburgh pretty quickly for a Monday afternoon. There was a little bit of traffic and some detours but we managed to get through. We crossed over one of the bridges one more time and through the Fort Pitt Tunnel. We followed the freeway and found an exit with gas. We filled up one more time at a Marathon. We got back on the freeway and made it to the rental car return just before 2:15. We drove that rental 1337 miles in six days. We wheeled our bags into departures, stood in line, got our boarding passes and dropped off our luggage at Alaskan Airlines.
We went through security, which didn't take very long, thank goodness and wandered around for a bit before deciding we needed something to eat before we left to sit on the airplane for 5 hours. I found a Chick-fil-A and got a chicken sandwich, waffle fries and a drink. I asked mom if she wanted something and she said chicken nuggets because they are easier to eat with braces.
We walked to gate B31 and were so glad we had a direct flight to Seattle so we didn't have to deal with a layover in a random city.
It was finally time to board and we were in group B. I sat in seat 7A, mom in 7B and a guy who lived in Portland in 7C. He spent most of his time working on his computer.
About an hour to two hours into the flight I had to get up and use the restroom. It sucks when you have the window seat but I got up and headed to the back, there were a few people in front of me so I had to wait in line for a while. I finally got my turn, did my thing and got out. I saw that the beverage and snack cart had been deployed and since there was one aisle, I got to stand back there and wait until they got to our seats. I probably was gone from my seat for at least an hour. When I finally got back, mom was like, where did you go? I told her I had to wait a bit for my turn and then I had to wait for the cart. Since I was gone, I didn't get any treats or a drink. I kinda needed some water and didn't have any in my Nalgene.
As we got closer to Seattle, we started talking to the guy sitting next to us, he was probably around my age. We started talking about why we were in Pittsburgh and we told him that we are huge fans of the Penguins and centralized our visit around the game on Saturday. We told him some of the other stuff we did the six days we were there. He told us that he was raised in the Midwest and needed a team to be a fan of so he started rooting for the Steelers. Turns out one of his friends he went to high school with plays for the Steelers and he scored him some sideline passes and tickets to the game. I told him that was so cool. He said he was there the entire weekend and also went to the Penguins game. He said he is a huge fan of the Penguins as well. Then we started talking about the Penguins and how we have to listen to it on our app because it's not on TV very much. We also mentioned that we hated that we had to rush home because most games started at 4 p.m. Pacific Time. We both realized we ultimately couldn't complain because we were able to listen to it on a free app rather than missing it all together. It was a good talk.
We got closer to Seattle and I wondered how the Seahawks were doing on MNF. As we touched down at SeaTac (around 6:45ish) and we could turn on our phones I immediately checked ESPN to find out the score. We had just fumbled it on the one yard line as the time ran out. We were down 10-7 at half time. Ughhh! I sure hope we play the second half better. I was getting all anxious now. I let Ben know we landed and that we will have to go get our bags. He was sitting in the cell phone lot waiting for us.
We deplaned and wandered through the airport towards the baggage claim. I was so glad we didn't have to wait very long. Our bags popped out onto the carousel pretty quickly. I let Ben know where we would be and he drove the Escape to come get us. I was so ready to go to bed. I needed some sleep. I know we gain some hours back but I was ready for bed at this point. The close football game didn't help my mood either. During the ride back towards home, the game was killing me. We did have to take mom home in Rainier as well so it would be a while before I would be able to get a shower and some sleep.
We dropped mom off at home and helped her bring her suitcase in. She immediately turned the TV on and the game was on. We had so many chances to win it in regulation. I told Ben I hated overtime so I told mom I would see her later and we were heading home. I really wanted to go home because I was tire and was getting crabby plus, I had to go to work the next day. We listened to it on the way home and I was literally dying. I did NOT want to lose to the 49ers and I did NOT want them to continue their lucky undefeated streak. We finally got home, unloaded the Escape and Ben turned the TV on for the rest of overtime. I could not believe what we were watching. After some really bad missed field goals we prevailed beating the 49ers 27-24. I could sleep soundly tonight.
I got a shower in, ate a snack and relaxed until bedtime. I can't wait until I get to go back to Pennsylvania to explore some more. I hope it sooner rather than later.
Mom and I found two caches in two new counties. The totals for this trip were: 26 caches, those being 3 virtuals, 4 earthcaches, 1 multicache and 18 traditionals, in 4 states and 14 counties. It was a good mix of exploring, sports, history, geography, sight seeing and of course geocaching.
Next Adventure: Thanksgiving #1 and #2
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