BACK IN THE USA!! Even though Canada is so similar to the US, it's still a good feeling to be back in this wonderful country of ours. Crossing the border was a bit more time consuming than going into Canada. We were questioned mostly about fruits and vegetables, of which we had none. We must have looked suspicious however, because the agent came in and looked in our refrigerator. Not finding any lettuce or terrorists, we were allowed to go. We skirted around Buffalo, NY, and headed west along the coast of Lake Erie. We overnighted in Erie, Pa, and then on to Geneva State Park in Ohio where we were able to complete our goal of paddling our kayak on all five of the Great Lakes! Leaving our tree-shaded campsite, we headed south into Ohio's Amish country. We enjoy the more leisurely pace of the backroads as well as the beauty of the countryside. One problem with these roads is that for many miles there may not be a place to pull over to stretch or take pictures. So many of the pictures are taken as we drive along, and may not be of the best quality. We began to see the Amish buggies on the roads. We had passed through many acres of vineyards, and some Christmas tree farms, but now we were back in dairy country with pretty farms on rolling hillsides. There are also many Amish furniture and woodworking shops and some big furniture operations. As we drove in around 4:30 pm there were Amish on bicycles, probably heading home from their 'day jobs'. We had been briefed on how to tell an Amish house and found it to be true. First, there are no electric lines to the house, and second, the window curtains are pulled to one side only. We also noticed that they had clothes lines with laundry hanging outside. We just had to stop at another cheese factory and this time they actually made the cheese there, and they did have a nice film about the process. They made only Swiss cheese in 5 flavors. Our fridge is now quite well stocked with cheese! To illustrate the size of this operation, there must have been at least 4 large milk tanker trucks come into the weigh station. They drive onto the scale and send samples of their milk via pneumatic tube to a place where it is analyzed for quality. If it passes, the truck then goes and unloads the milk. In between trucks, I drove the RV onto the scale and 'stole a weigh'. (get it? stole away?) We found the Walmart in Millersburg, OH. and parked to spend the night with some mountains in front and a wide paved trail behind. The trail apparently follows what used to be a railroad and connects several towns and is used by bikers and buggies. This parking lot is an access point. Soon we heard the clip-clop of horses hooves and an Amish buggy with two young girls came in right past the RV. Then another buggy with an older couple came in from the trail access. This looks like such a nice way to travel, particularly in nice weather. Anyway, we discovered that Walmart is not only RV friendly, they are also Amish buggy friendly. These buggies went and parked in the covered hitching post!! These girls had driven about 5 miles to get here. These people were the Millers, and were very gracious to spend time talking with us. (I think he looks like a leprechaun.) They said the only difference between us and them is that they don't have cars or electricity. They can travel in motor vehicles as long as someone else drives. They have machinery to work the fields, but mostly horse-drawn. They do have a power lawnmower. I asked because all the lawns are neatly mowed. We have seen literally thousands of round and square bales of hay in the fields on this trip, but here we have seen some fields with stacked hay bundles. I thought they must have been cut by hand, but Mr. Miller said there was a machine that cut and tied the bundles, but the stacking was done by hand. One bundle is placed over the stack as a 'roof'. As I write this early in the morning two buggies have already come in, one from the street and one from the trail. This is a fascinating bit of Americana to be in the middle of.
Stay tuned. Chuck
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Who We Are
Chuck and Mary Lou have been traveling in their RV since 2002 and have lately been taking longer, extended trips. This is our way to share our experiences. Trip Reports
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