Bird in Hand, Pennsylvania
Posted by Donna on September 20, 2009
20 September 2009 – Day 2
First, a brief mention that today would have been my father’s 71st birthday. I wasn’t sure if my mother would want to leave on our vacation yesterday or if she would have wanted to put flowers on his grave today. Obviously she was fine with leaving yesterday so…
I began my day at just before 7 a.m. I went for a run around the Staples/Best Buy parking lot and buildings. As we got on the road I did a quick drive around to clock the distance. Just over .3 miles for the loop. Ran 4 laps… do the math. 
I made a phone call this morning and got some exciting news. It directed our travels today. I won’t tell you yet what that news is, but it’s an adventure we are going to have tomorrow. Motherdear and I are both wicked excited!
Those plans brought us to the Amish community of Bird in Hand, Pennsylvania. But I’m getting ahead of myself…
After my run, shower, and breakfast at the hotel, we went back to our room for a bit. I got online to check my e-mail and Facebook. My mother read her book. Did I mention that she’s reading a really smutty book? It makes me blush just thinking about it. I read it about 20 years ago and I still remember some of the steamy stuff in it. LOL
We headed out at around 10:30 a.m. The journey would take about 2.5 hours. Not bad. Not bad at all.
Along the way we enjoyed the rolling mountains and the scenic views. It occurred to us one time that we hadn’t put the radio on, and even then neither of us reached for the dial. It’s nice being with someone you feel comfortable sharing silence with. Not to say that we didn’t talk a lot, but we also shared the quiet too. It was a very pleasant ride.
One surprise came as we were climbing a hill (or it could have been a mountain). There was a sign that read: “Remove sunglasses.”
What? I wasn’t wearing sunglasses but my mother had just reached into her purse to get her’s out. I told her she better not because we were in territory not friendly to sunglasses. A short distance and a curve in the road later, we discovered why people were told to remove their sunglasses.
We were approaching the LeHigh Tunnel. My mother asked, jokingly, if we HAD to go through the tunnel. Funny she asked, because it looked like there was a service road that went up and over the top of the tunnel making a loop to head back in the other direction!
But we brave women forged our path as many others had forged before us. The tunnel was pretty cool as tunnels go. It was .8 miles long and had some cool airplane engine size thingies to keep the air circulating.
We passed the town of Virginville, but didn’t bother to stop since neither of us qualified. We did take a few minutes to ponder what it must be like for teenagers to admit to people that they lived in Virginville.
In Talmage (an unincorporated community) in Lancaster County, PA, we saw the first of many horse and buggies being driven by Amish people. One thing that amazed me was that these buggies have turn signals… and the driver used them! How shocking is that! People who believe in and use technology every day have a difficult time using their car’s turn signals, yet these people who choose to resist technology can flip a switch to make a light go blinkey-blinkey. Amazing.
I do have to admit that I felt a bit unsettled after taking a picture of the rear of this buggy while we were waiting at a traffic light. It occurred to me that these people are living their lives the way they’ve chosen to live them. They are simple lives governed by their faith and the rules of their community.
I felt unsettled because it occurred to me that these people were a tourist attraction to me… Perhaps no different from the bearded women in a circus show. I knew I shouldn’t stare at them, but that’s all I wanted to do. It’s weird and uncomfortable for me still.
A few minutes later we passed a large group of Amish or Mennonite people walking down the street. An older bearded man was being pushed in a wheelchair. Children were being pulled in a red wagon. A gaggle of young women were walking together and laughing.
We arrived in Bird in Hand at around 1:30 p.m. (we’d make a lunch stop at McDonalds along the way). We got a room in a delightful inn called Bird in Hand Village Inn & Suites.
Time for my confession… When we entered the really beautiful registration desk area I looked around for signs about internet access. There was nothing. I immediately did a brain shift to accept that I’d be off-line for at least 24 hours. Yes, it was painful to realize, but I could accept it.
We got in to our room in the Ressler House building. It’s beautiful. It’s the bed and breakfast accommodations I’ve always wanted to experience. Both my mother and I were so excited!
We decided to explore this amazing little community a little… on foot. Well, I was on foot, my mother was in the wheelchair. She remembered to buckle her seat belt and she didn’t need a helmet today. We walked about a mile or so and had to share the road with many horse and buggies. It was so neat to watch them driving by.
It was shocking how fast cars and trucks passed these buggies though. The horses never flinched, obviously well exposed to the high speed traffic.
After our walk/roll… we came back to the Ressler House, grabbed our books and bottles of water, then sat out on the porch (in rocking chairs) for over an hour. We read a bit, chatted a bit, and just watched the world driving and rolling past. It was relaxing and enjoyable in ways that I can’t quite describe.
We went back into our room and I picked up the Inn’s information binder. Guess what I learned? I learned that Bird in Hand is not an out-of-the-loop location!! They did have free wireless access! Woot! Ding! Grats!
Now we’re sitting in the dining room. Mom is in one corner reading her book. I’m at another table near the electric outlet typing this entry. I also have to download pictures from my camera. I’ll be posting pictures to my Facebook page (cuz it’s easier than doing it on my blog) if you want to see pictures of our trip.
Well, I better get to that task because tomorrow is going to come early. tee hee hee
Hugs,
–Donna
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