Flash Floods, Food and Factories

Our week in photos:

We had to try a Whoopie Pie, made here in Lancaster, PA.

We drove through Bird-in-Hand, Blue Ball, stopped at Intercourse and didn't make it to Paradise--all here in Pennsylvania, of course.

Thanks to inattentive drivers, Amish horse and buggies are now equipped with flashing red lights and rear view mirrors.  And still people and  horses are killed when drivers in automobiles don't yield to them.

Our first stop was at the Intercourse Canning Factory.  There is a viewing area of the canning line and a large storefront where they sell salsas, jams, chow chow, saurkraut, pickled EVERYTHING and souvenirs.

The store was canning pickled eggs today.  I asked two different employees how many eggs they pickled in a day's work and neither one could tell me.  I guess they just worked there.

Next up and right across the street was the Intercourse Pretzel Factory.  There was no one actually making pretzels that day so one of the employees simply explained the process to us.  Then we were given the opportunity to make a pretzel by hand, as that's how it's done here.

You cross one end over the other and then cross it again.

Then you grab each end and fold them down to the other side and voila', you have a pretzel.

Of course, the pretzel makers here at the factory use the spin and twist-in-the-air method, which we all tried.  This is my dismal attempt.  It's definitely not as easy as it looks.

All that work made us hungry, so upon the advice of Don and Vicki, we headed to the Shady Maple Smorgasbord in East Earl, PA.  As did every other senior citizen in the county.

Denny really isn't in pain, despite his appearance.  And this is but a small segment of the several buffet lines that make up the vast eatery that is Shady Maple.

Last night we heard sirens which I thought were tornado sirens but there were no alerts on the weather radio so perhaps it was flood warnings because all the rivers and creeks here are reaching flood stage quickly.  I'm hoping we have no trouble getting out of here when we leave tomorrow for the state of Delaware. 

This is a beautiful area and in addition to eating a lot of fat food (there is also a small shoo-fly pie in our refrigerator) we have been gorging ourselves on the local peaches, green peppers, tomatoes, apples and sweet corn.  The farms here are lovely as is the countryside.  It is fun to drive the back roads looking at the farms and watching the hard working Amish and Mennonite families harvest their crops with their huge Belgians and big mules.  Farm stands offer fruit and vegetables unmanned, relying upon the honor system of payment.  It is a step back into the past here, and a most welcome one.  I could live here.