Lancaster County Pennsylvania: The Amish Village

Lancaster county transportation.

Somehow in all of our journeys up and down the eastern part

of the country we have missed Amish Country.

It was time to correct that omission and are so glad that we did.  

Lancaster county is some of the most beautiful farm country

that we have ever seen. Talk about country roads!

It seemed like we never found a way to get from one address to

another without driving over and around a mountain.

We started our visit with a trip to The Amish Village.

Cultivating corn.

The drive took us past several farms and were lucky

enough to see the corn field of an Amish farm being cultivated

with a horse drawn wagon. The farmer was balancing in the

moving wagon with a dog running along beside him.

It was like a look into the past and we were thrilled by the

spectacle.

The banked barn has entry on two levels.

The Amish Village is an authentic Amish homestead.

It currently serves as a museum that showcases the house and

banked barn.

There is a covered bridge on the 12 acre property as well as a

small dam with water wheel and a wind generator that

demonstrate methods of generating energy that are acceptable

to the Amish way of life.

There are a blacksmith shop and a one room school built

according to a standardized plan. These buildings are typical

of a Plain community.

Premium admission included a bus tour of the surrounding

countryside and one was getting ready to leave as we checked in.

Amish farm

Margaret was our bus driver and tour guide for the day. She is

a long time resident of Lancaster County and has many friends

within the Amish community.

We learned that the Lancaster County Amish came here to

Pennsylvania after being invited by William Penn himself.

They arrived between 1720 and 1730 seeking religious freedom.

Members of the thriving community of over 30,000 continue to embrace a simple life free of materialism and dedicated to God. The Amish way of life is focused on service.

Margaret's stories helped us to understand some of the Amish

customs and traditions. It was interesting to learn how a culture

has learned to do business with the English while protecting

themselves from becoming too worldly.

Scooters outside the one room schoolhouse.

Margaret took us past a number on one room Amish school

houses. She told us that all were built from the same approved

plan. It was interesting to see the childrens scooters all parked

outside.

Thats not an outhouse its a phone box, outside the house.

We learned how to recognize Amish homes by the lack of

phone and electric wires, the type of clothing hung to dry and

sometimes a telephone box near the end of the driveway.

Kitchen gardens were meticulously tended, neat and ordered.

We drove through miles of Lancaster County backroads

observing the Amish lifestyle without intruding upon it.

Lydia's Country Store

We stopped at Lydia’s Country Store where the baked goods

were a huge temptation. Molasses sugar cookies are my

weakness and oatmeal raisin Fred’s. Its going to be tough

sticking to our food plan in Lancaster County.

The bus dropped us back at The Amish Village and we

toured the 2 story homestead built in 1840.

This stand mixer runs using air as power.

The kitchen was pretty amazing. Propane lights and a mixer

powered by air were a couple of the innovations we found

fascinating.

The lamp base hides a propane tank.

The bathroom was surprisingly modern.

I had pictured hand pumps for water but learned that a wind

generator supplied power for the water pump.  

There was a laundry and separate kitchen area for canning

in the basement.

Beautiful quits were on all of the beds.

Outside was a Spring house where milk cooled in metal cans.

The banked barn built into the side of a hill, allowed entry on

two levels. 

Basement laundry

We enjoyed the tour and then headed to Deinners for a late

lunch at Margaret’s recommendation. The food was plentiful and

the service great just as she said it would be.

The Amish Village

199 Hartman Bridge Road

Ronks, PA

(717) 687-8511

Arizona Festivals

Arizona is a busy place this time of year. The weather is perfect, there are lots of visitors and everyone wants to be outside.
We enjoyed 2 outdoor festivals this weekend and had a wonderful time.
Saturday we drove a short distance West to the Pinal County Fairgrounds where Wertz Farms was holding its annual Gourd Festival. Gourds are a cash crop here in Arizona. The long hot growing season is perfect environment for them. 

Bins of gourds for sale.

Gourds are planted in April and grow through early Fall when farmers stop irrigating them. Once the water source is shut off they are left to dry in the fields and are harvested in February-March in time to plant the next crop.

chicken gourds

The folks at Wertz Farms put a lot of work into the festival. There are Gourd decorations throughout the Fairgrounds accompanied by funny signs and gourd related displays.

Gourd-geous decorations.

The festival includes a fair type competition for ribbons as well as a barn full of vendors showcasing their wares.
We walked the grounds admiring the seasonal displays while checking out the food offerings and then headed over to the Vendor Area.

The National Gourd was on duty

Their does not seem to be a limit to the number of things that can be created from gourds.
We saw birdhouses and bowls, Thunder drums and lamps, jewelry and vases.
They were painted and wood burned and dremeled.
Some were adorned by beads and fossils, some had edges woven from pine needles and we even saw one man that edged his gourd basket with horse hair leaving a long trailing edge on one side that resembled a mane.

Gourd Jackrabbit and cactus.

We worked up an appetite with all the walking and stopped for lunch from the fair type offerings. There was a great truck brewing coffee so we treated ourselves to iced Americanos. Fred enjoyed a sausage and pepper sandwich while I couldn't resist the smell of the smoked brisket and a homemade barbecue sauce that used cherries as its base.
Before leaving the fairgrounds we picked through the raw gourd bins and brought home 3 specimens that will be turned into Summer projects.
It was a great way to spend the morning.

Music by the Steven P. Project

Sunday we had made arrangements to see Fred's cousin Heidi who is in the Air Force and stationed in Phoenix. We planned to meet at 8 Acre Park in Surprise as they were hosting a Food Truck Festival as part of their Second Sundays in the Park series. The park was a lovely grassy space...probably the greenest we have seen in Arizona outside of a golf course. It was filled with picnic areas, games for children and a bandstand where musicians were warming up. The Steven P. Project were performing.  The entire outer edge of the park was lined with food trucks. There were the typical burgers and fries, cupcakes and ice cream mixed in with more diverse choices like Greek Gyros and Spanakopita, Mustache Pretzels, and the Maine Lobster Lady (I will get my lobstah closer to the Atlantic thank you). Southwestern foods were well represented offering, tacos, burritos, queso and fry bread. 
Fred and Heidi went for the burgers while I browsed for a while before deciding on ZPotes who specialized in Salvadoran cuisine, specifically Pupusa's a tasty flour tortilla with the stuffing cooked inside. I settled on the Pupusa de ayote, a tortilla filled with zucchini blossoms and cheese. We were all delighted with our choices. 

Our only disappointments of the day were that there was no coffee vendor and that we were eating lunch too early to enjoy the libations at the State 48 Brewery truck. 
It was great to see Heidi and to catch up with her. We are going to try meeting up at a Spring Training Game before leaving Arizona in early March.

Fort Bowie

Adobe remnants of Fort Bowie

November 24, 2017

Today found us driving back east following the route we took toward Chiricahua a few days ago. Our original plan had been to visit Fort Bowie that same day but we lingered at the magnificent rocks for too long.

Fort Bowie is a remote National Historic Site. The access point on Apache Pass Rd is a trail head with a 1 ¾ mile walking trail to the Visitor Center.

Remains of the Fort Bowie Hospital.

We took a wrong turn through some rough dirt roads and ended up at the Ranger Station, but had a shorter trek.

Apache Pass where Fort Bowie sits had long been a traveling route between the Mountain Ranges. The pass was the flattest route and also had a source of fresh water in Antelope Spring. Spanish explorers walked this road. The Butterfield stage line traversed this pass to deliver the mail. There was no military presence here until 1862 with the building of Fort Bowie.

Remnants of old Fort Bowie

Fort Bowie was commissioned to provide protection of the pass and those using it from the Chiricahua Apache lead by Cochise and then Geronimo.

The Fort was a very basic outpost for the first few years but by 1886 adobe structures had been completed with separate quarters for officers and enlisted men, a post hospital, storehouses, corrals and a commissary.

Bowie Point, site of a Heliograph station

The fort stayed in service until 1894 8 years after Geronimo and his band surrendered and were exiled to Florida. The fort no longer had a purpose with the Apache warriors banished to reservations.

Soldiers have been moved to National Cemeteries but civilians remain in the cemetery at Fort Bowie.

The Visitor Center is small but includes exhibits about the fort, the region and about communication. Heliographs were used extensively in this remote area. The US Army Signal Corps adopted the British invention to use in the American Southwest where the sun shines more than 300 days a year. The Heliograph works using mirrors to reflect sunlight and a keying system that interrupts the light flash in a series of dots and dashes that correspond to Morse Code. Arizona and New Mexico once had 23 Heliograph stations about 25 miles apart. Fort Bowie and Bowie Peak were in this chain of communication.

Apache Pass

We enjoyed visiting this remote outpost of the American West.  Most of the fort has disappeared with the passing of time. Portions of adobe walls remain to show us where buildings, corrals and the water cistern once stood.

The Ranger at the Visitor Center recommended the Overlook Ridge Trail to give us a birds eye view of the pass. We set out behind the Visitor Center and started to climb. The views from the top of the ridge were as beautiful as described. You can still see tracks through the pass and imagine wagons and coaches trying to climb the hills. The downward trail took us past the Fort’s cemetery and by Antelope Spring in a gentle 3 mile loop.

We returned to the car, tired and dusty but happy to have made the effort.

Fort Bowie National Historic Site

3500 Apache Pass Rd

Bowie, Arizona

Land of Standing Up Rocks

Arizona Desert Sunset

November 19, 2017

Thanksgiving week and we have made it to Arizona.

We will be spending the next week in Benson, down in the Southeast part of the state.

There are several National Park sites in this region that have been on our list for a while and the towns of Tombstone and Bisbee are close by.

We are staying the week at the Saguaro Escapees Park. It's lovely here with a great view of the desert and mountains as a backdrop. We are at the border between the Chihuahuan Desert and the Sonoran Desert and are beginning to see a change in the landscape. Today we spotted our first Saguaro cactus.

The sunsets are lovely painting the sky with a pink glow for 360 degrees.

The neighbors in this large well maintained park are friendly and welcoming. They have invited us to attend their annual Thanksgiving feast.

Monday we drove back toward the east with a plan to visit Chiricahua National Monument.

Once again we found ourselves on dusty back roads climbing in elevation to reach the National Monument. We stopped at the Visitor Center for a trail map and to watch a short video before driving the 8 mile scenic route  through Bonita Canyon to Massai Point.

Gravity Defying rock formations

Chiricahua was named by the Apache as the Land of Standing Up Rocks.

It is an incredible configuration of top heavy rocks that look like they shouldn't be able to hold themselves up.

The gravity defying structures resemble stone cairns carefully balanced by the hands of a giant.

Chiricahua is a sky island

Chiricahua is called a Sky Island. The isolated mountain range is surrounded by meadows and grassland for miles around.

These rocky peaks, like much of the landscape of Arizona and New Mexico were formed by the ash of volcanic eruptions. The ash particles fused into a type of rock called rhyolite. Thousands of years of weathering and erosion of the weak spots in the ash formation created the individual spires that we see today.

A view from Massai Point

The rock formations capture your imagination. They look like castles or cityscapes, ships and faces. Many of the prominent features have been named. Balanced Rock, Organ Pipes, Geronimo, and the Sea Captain are among them.

The face of a reclining Geronimo

We were delighted to see hawks soaring around the peaks and to hear woodpeckers in the wind blown pines. Mexican Jays harassed us for scraps while we picnicked at Massai Point.

Mexican Blue Jay

There are miles of trails to hike at Chiricahua. We chose the Massai Nature Trail and a portion of the Ed Riggs trail for their amazing sky views.

Balancing rock in Bonita Canyon.

From Massai Point we could see the Dragoon Mountains where Chief Cochise and a small band of Chiricahua Apache lived and evaded being forced to Reservation life. We hiked into Cochise Stronghold from the State Park 2 days ago and enjoyed seeing the Dragoons with their lookout points and hidden canyons from this perspective.

Organ Pipes

Chiricahua National Monument

12856 East Rhyolite Creek Rd

Willcox, Arizona

Cliff Dweller Canyon, New Mexico

We left White Sands and drove a couple of hours to Silver City, New Mexico. Silver City was founded by Silver Miners in the late 1800’s but now the only mining that we saw was for copper. Those large strip mines are quite a business in this part of New Mexico.

Silver City has an interesting downtown area. We found a great Farmer's Market and procured some Thanksgiving vegetables as well as a jar of hot spicy dilly beans. Chili peppers go in everything in New Mexico!

There were a couple of good coffee shops and several restaurants as well as a distillery. The city has a rough history that includes a major flood that destroyed much of the downtown. They rebuilt with elevated buildings and sidewalks leaving the old Main Street as a “big Ditch” that provides a place for water runoff in the event of a flash flood. It makes for an interesting downtown as the big ditch area has been developed into a green-space environment with elevated walkways and desert gardens.

The drive through the Gila National Forest gave us spectacular views.

Sunday we drove the 45 miles into the Gila National Forest to visit the Gila Cliff Dwellings. The road, NM 15-N, is narrow and winding with expansive views of the mountains as we climbed higher. The drive took us about 1 1/2 hours that included a couple of stops to enjoy scenic overlooks.

We started off deep in the canyon and climbed about 180 feet in elevation.

The Gila Cliff Dwellings are a series of caves high in the walls of a canyon formed by the Gila River. For a short period of time more than 700 years ago a group of Mogollon people used seven of the caves as their home.

We stopped first at the Visitor Center to look at the exhibits and watch a short introductory film, then drove to the trail head.

This monument at the Visitor Center marks the location of Geronimo's birth.

There is an established trail to the caves crossing a bridge over the Gila river, a small trickle after the long hot Summer. The path is well maintained and pretty easy with one particularly steep portion that could be difficult at this elevation of 6000 feet. Luckily we have spent the last 3 months at elevations of 3000 feet or higher and are acclimated to the environment. As we walked the trail we caught glimpses of the caves through the pine and cottonwood trees that line the canyon.

The Gila River after a long hot Summer

We reached the top of the trail and stopped to catch our breath. The caves were right in front of us rising in elevation from #1 at ground level to #7 How the heck did they get up there?

The caves from the trail.

The caves are quite a combination of natural environment and adobe additions. In one place, long before the cave dwellers arrived, a large slab of rock had fallen from the ceiling. It was much to large to move so adobe was added and it became a wall that divided sleeping quarters from the kitchen and public living space.

Note how dark the sooty ceilings are.

The roofs are so blackened with soot that they resemble a night sky. We accessed the individual caves via a series of stone stairs, narrow rock bridges and wooden ladders that challenged my dislike of high places. Caves 6 and 7 are not on the tour as they are only accessible with rock climbing equipment.

Caves 2 and 3.

We met a volunteer named Brenda who had been workamping at Gila for the last 2 months. She was a fellow full time RVer and fan of National Parks. Brenda had a lot of knowledge about the cave structures and conversation with her allowed us to visualize living in them.

An outer wall across the caves natural opening.

She pointed out petroglyphs on the wall of cave 5 and was keeping notes of visitor's interpretations of them. Brenda encouraged us to explore the 46 separate rooms of the high natural homes.

Stone and adobe were used to partition the caves into rooms.

Interestingly the position of the caves allows morning sun to warm them and leaves the entrances shaded during the hot portion of the day.

Stone and adobe fireplace.

Cliff Dwelling Canyon is an abundant environment for hunter-gatherers. 24 of the 32 specimens of plant remains found in the caves were wild. Pinon nuts, yucca, acorns, berries and nuts were all present. Squash, beans and corn were also found in storage caches. These crops referred to as the 3 sisters were cultivated by many native American ancestral people throughout the west.

The caves have beautiful views.

Pottery shards and the bones of deer and small animals have been uncovered as well as the mummified remains of residents dated to that time period.

The caves are a wonderful example of life in the New Mexico High Desert 700 years ago. The 10-15 Mogollon families lived here for only 20 years, 1 generation in their culture. It is impressive that so much evidence remains of their occupation.

Ladder to cave 5.

We returned to the parking area via a second trail to complete the loop, and enjoyed a different viewpoint as we descended. This side of the canyon still has evidence of a large fire that occurred in 2011.

The Gila Cliff Dwellings are in a remote area but worth the effort to get there. We took a more easterly route home. It was slightly longer but took us through another part of the National Forest with different views.

We saw deer on the way home.

Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument

New Mexico 15-N

It’s a long winding and beautiful drive, about 43 miles, through portions of the Gila National Forest. 15-N ends at the National Monument.