“NIAGARA FALLS!” – PART 3

ON TO INTERCOURSE!

We drove through the first snow flurries of our season to get to Intercourse, Pennsylvania in Lancaster County, and the home of 29 covered bridges! We quickly realized that if we spent 15

minutes at all the bridges there that we would be short a few days on our allotted schedule! So, we

only visited a few.

All the way up and now on the way back south we had followed “Maggie Magellan,” but Ron could not take one more “toll road!”

“Where she takin’ us now?” he asked angrily over the walkie-talkie.

“We’ll soon be on I-81,” Gary explained. However, Ron wanted to check his Atlas against the way points on the GPS system.

If there are two things you need to trust in life it’s your compass and your navigation system. We were soon back on the road, and luckily we only paid one more toll before making it on into Lancaster, otherwise, Ron may have parted company with us in short order!

Finally, we were unloaded at the Country Inn and soon sitting in the adjacent bar and restaurant, cooling off with a Yuengling.

The next morning we took a tour at the Amish Village and learned a little about the local culture. Unfortunately, we sent a couple of Amish guys to hell by taking their photos before learning better!

I would have loved to spend a little more time in the area, but you can only see so many Amish farms and covered bridges in couple of days. Everyone enjoyed walking around Intercourse and touching all the craft merchandise. While the Dragons did a little more of this than we could stand, us Knights drove around until we found a sign advertising cheese for sale.

We learned during the lecture at the Amish Village that most of the Amish cheese was made in Ohio, but the guide thought we could find some locally too. So, we finally saw a sign and drove up past the barn to a little out building marked “Store.”

Inside there was a nice young Amish teenager helping a customer in his stocking feet. He was very friendly and looked nice with his “bowl-cut” hair cut, suspenders, and multi-colored plaid shirt.

“Got any cheese?” Ron asked.

“Oh yes, we have plenty here in the refrigerator (gas powered naturally).”

“Did you all make it?” Ron asked.

“No sir,” he answered.

“Was it made in Ohio?” I asked.

“Oh no, we buy down at the store,” the young man said without shame.

We bought a pound each and it was good, although it was not authentic Amish cheese!

After passing road killed deer number 50, we finally saw the Tennessee welcome mat. It was good to be back home. After all, if you have ever visited East Tennessee, you know that the country in West Virginia, Virginia, New York, and Pennsylvania is not that much different. The only difference I could find was that the hills are just a little further apart!

We also have a “shopping Mecca” like the Pennsylvania Dutch Country – it’s called Pigeon Forge here! The difference here is that Dolly Parton will greet you wearing less traditional outfits!

Be sure to click to enlarge these shots, and/or visit my Flickr page for more photos.