Tour of Amish Farm Country

(Gordonville, PA) Hi 80 Lo 57 – Nice cool day, no humidity. An update on our mysterious thump. Last night, just before going to bed Jim turned the AC power off at the pedestal, thinking that if it was the converter then the noise would stop. But in a few minutes the thump returned. So he turned the power back on and we went to bed for another restless night. This morning he called Quadra Manufacturing, maker of our Big Foot leveling system to see what they think. The technician said it's unlikely there would be any noise coming from the leveling system without the legs slipping. We've continued to be very stable on the legs. He did tell Jim how to disconnect the controller from the electrical system to see if the noise stopped. We went on with our day's activities (more on that in a moment), then later this afternoon when we got back Jim did the following:

* Turned the battery disconnect off for a while, then turned it back on.
* Started the generator and ran it for a half hour or so, then shut it down. The automatic changeover worked fine.
* Disconnected the Big Foot controller and reconnected it.
* Raised the rig on the levelers and re-leveled it.

That was all done about 3:30, and (knock on wood) we haven't heard the noise since, and it's now 9pm. We're not getting our hopes up, but maybe one of those things Jim did re-booted something in the system. We'll let you know how it turns out.

We almost overslept for our day's activities. It’s so dark under the trees that we thought it was either a rainy day or the sun wasn't up yet.  When we looked outside it was bright sun with no clouds. That's why we don't like trees. We both like to get up to lots of bright sunshine coming in the windows.

One of the amenities of this park is a free two-hour tour of the surrounding Amish Farm Country. We had to drive about 10 minutes to an inn to catch the bus. Our bus driver/tour guide was a former Amish teacher and has lived here all her life so she was very knowledgeable about the Amish way of life.

We found out there are approximately 60,000 Amish and Mennonites in Lancaster County, the largest concentration in the country. Our tour took us on the county's back roads. The farms are huge and have beautiful fields.


 

They work the fields with horse-drawn plows. They use teams of up to 8 horses. A lot of them were planting or plowing today. It's been so wet lately the crops are later than usual.

We made three stops. The first was an Amish farm, they had llamas, turkeys and a peacock, which decided to show his feathers.




That was a nice surprise.

Our second stop was at a home where they sold hand-made quilts.  They were gorgeous, completely hand-sewn, and took up to a year to make.


Yesterday was a religious holiday (Ascension Day), and Amish don't do any work on holidays, so they were behind in their laundry. Almost every Amish home had laundry hanging out. They use clotheslines with pulleys so they can stand in one spot.


The barns are beautiful!


The third stop was a candle shop. They make all the candles on site. These are made to look like dessert.


When we finished the tour we were starved so stopped for a bite to eat and then went to the Bird-in-Hand Farmer’s Market.


I love bird houses. I had a few when we lived in our sticks and bricks home, and I miss them. If we had the room I would have bought a couple of these.


This caught our eye, on a plaque in one of the stores.


Our sentiment exactly! It was a fun day. Now let's hope our thumps are a thing of the past.