Amish Country

Day Ten - Tuesday 4th April, 2006

Started the day at Cookesville in Tennesee. The girl at the Days Inn wondered why we were there, 'why would you come here', she said.

Not such a bad place and it was a nice hotel for the night. We did a quick tour of the town and the shops before hitting the I40 again.

30 miles after Knoxville we finally left the I40 and headed north on the I81.

We meandered up 81 where there is some beautiful scenery. Gary got a bit edgy on this part of the trip. It was the closest point we got to our good friends Jim and Bette in South Carolina. Due to a few mix ups we weren't going to meet up on this trip and it was frustrating to be so close (200 miles) and yet so far.

At a town called Bristol we crossed into Virginia.

We enjoyed the scenery and had a lazy day before we stopped in Staunton. Here we had the worst hotel for the trip to date, a Guest House Inn. Very noisy and basic.

We are in the Shennandoah Valley, very scenic.

Day Eleven - Wednesday 5th April, 2006

Today we continued through the Shenandoah National Park area.  Time is tight on this trip but this is an area we would like to check out again on a future trip.

On the 81 we continued north and entered Pennsylvania, bypassing historic areas such as Gettysburg - no real interest in the Civil War and Hershey - don't like the chocolate!!!!

We left the 81 at Harrisburg and took Highway 283 to Lancaster, where we stayed the night in a Holiday Inn.  There was a Dennys just across the road but at 5:30pm the staff were having a meeting and so not available to serve!

We did have a quick look around Lancaster before calling it a night.

Just 290 miles today - a slow one.

Day Twelve - Thursday 6th April, 2006

This turned out to be a long day - mainly a day specially for Rayls but Gaz had a very special moment as well.

We started out from our hotel and headed for Amish Country and in particular the quilt and craft stores that Rayls loves so much.

On the way we crossed some covered bridges just like from Madison County.

The houses were all very Amish with plain clothes hanging on the line, it was like a step into the past, especially the horse and buggies that are very common.

They have some weird names in Amish Country - our first stop was in a little town called Bird in Hand.

Rayls spent a couple hours in some of the stores while Gary killed time watching the horse and buggies mingling with the large trucks that go down the main road. The best sight was an Amish teenager dressed in all the Amish clothing, roller blading down this main road.

After Bird in Hand we moved on a place called Intercourse. More quilt shops for Rayls whilst Gaz checked out the scenery. More horse and buggies and cars/truck waiting for green traffic lights - weird.

Mid afternoon we left the Amish area and headed to the Haym Saloman Memorial Park in Frazer, Chester County about 45 miles away.  Here we visited the gravesite of one of our favourite singers, Jim Croce. 

Around 4pm we headed north and eventually drove 125 miles to Scranton, PA.  This was a toughish sort of drive as Frazer is in the outskirts of Philadelphia and by the time we reached Scranton it was getting dark.

Stayed at a nice Days Inn, went to a Friendlies Restaurant for dinner and managed to do some much needed washing at a Laundomat.  Ended a long but really good day.