Marcelle and I left home at 6:30 to head for Lancaster where we rode the Lancaster, PA Ice Cream Lovers Ride. This is the "best" ride in Pennsylvania according to Bicycle magazine and includes three covered bridges and three local creameries.
Before starting the ride, we stopped for breakfast to kill some time. We decided to wait for the weather to clear by eating a wonderful breakfast just a few miles from the start at a place called the Coffee Cafe. Marcelle had fruit and yogurt. I had an egg and cheese sandwich. This meal held us for a long time as we didn't stop for a snack until about mile 28 sometime around 2pm!
The ride starts at the Landis Valley Village and Farm Museum. As usual, with better planning, we could have spent some time here. It's a living museum sort of like Williamsburg, VA with museum employees stationed at the many outbuildings in period costume to educate tourists about the farm. Seeing everything in the village would involve a lot of walking, so even if we'd left enough time at the end of our day, however, I'm not sure we would have had the legs for it.
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| Marcelle and I at the start of the ride. Looking fresh! |
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| Horses resting in the shade. |
What is it about covered bridges? It's not so much the going through or over them, is it? It's more like the view through them--the framing of the countryside on the other side? Or perhaps the site of them on the approach, offering passage through a beautiful internal structure of beams that shelter and protect? I don't know. But we all seem to like them an awful lot.
We passed several cemeteries. This small cemetery looked like it belonged to just one family. There were two old stones that said "mother" and "father" then there were 7 or 8 little stones marking graves for what appeared to be for children.
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| Marcelle in the distance |
We arrived at the Bird-in-Hand Creamery around mile seven. After that big breakfast, we hardly had a chance to get hungry. But I was determined to eat ice cream (it's the ice cream ride after all), so we stopped.
We were surprised to see this was such a tourist trap. I knew the bike route we were riding had been highly publicized by Bicycle Magazine, but I didn't realize we were on a real tourist circuit. When we rounded the corner into the parking lot, we were dismayed and shocked to see two tour buses and the place crawling with people. Also, while the Amish and Menonites take pains to produce all (or most?) of their own goods, they appear to have no qualms about selling made-in-China garbage such as the metal yard ornaments shown below. The "creamery" was just one small portion of a really cheesy gift shop. We breezed through as quickly as you can when wading through a tour bus crowd.
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| Me sneaking a picture of the tour bus. |
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| Canned goods in the creamery. |
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| My ice cream. |
I like the idea of not wasting anything, so I really appreciated the below sign. I wonder what they do with the oil? Also, I didn't want to be seen taking a picture of a silly sign and had scanned the area for the owners and didn't see anyone. Then this guy came around the corner as I snapped the photo, so he ended up being in it.
The farmland went on forever and ever. The one sad thing about this is the monoculture. Where are the fields of bell peppers or squash or beans? The farms had kitchen gardens but crops were consistently corn, soy, and wheat.
There was a shortage of red barns which are usually a staple of this kind of landscape. I think the lack of color is probably in keeping with the Amish/Mennonite tradition of humble simplicity. Nothing flashy.
We came upon this cemetery which I assume must be the Lancaster Cemetery. We stopped just because the expansiveness of this was so surprising. While we were there, a tour bus pulled up next to us on the side of the road. Really? At this point I thought maybe our entire ride would be one where we leap frogged with tour buses. I also wondered if this pastoral landscape had been turned into a carnival, but this was the last bus we saw.
A horse and buggy approached in the distance - a common occurrence on this day. I tried to take pictures from a distance where I hoped I wouldn't be noticed and where people's facial expressions and identities would not be visible. The picture below is actually zoomed in quite a bit from the original.
The corn was so healthy and green, I couldn't help but take pictures of it. I wonder if they've had all the rain we've had in VA? Or if corn even likes rain? I've never grown it.
We arrive at Lapp Valley Farm--the second creamery--at about mile 18. My little bowl of ice cream had proven enough for the day, so I wanted to see the creamery, but really had no interest in more ice cream. We did, however, get to use a bathroom!
This creamery turned out to be the one we should have eaten at. It was simple and quiet and had a sign instructing buses to keep driving. I wandered down to see these calves hanging out in the shade of their pens looking soft and vulnerable with their big watery eyes.
Bridge number two, the Bitzer's Mill Covered bridge, came at just before mile 27. We sat here on the wall leading up to the bridge to eat our "lunch" which consisted of nuts we bought at CVS (across from the Sheetz, which were the only two stores we passed in the ride, at mile 21) and a protein bar.
The buggy turned and came through the bridge which was pretty cool. I love the sound of horses hooves approaching.
Looking at this picture, I realize there are no windows on the back of the buggy. I'm a little surprised by that. At one point, we were approaching a buggy driven by a woman who also had a child with her. An eighteen wheeler came up behind her and passed her, forcing us to stop and pull over. The site of that monstrous truck bearing down on this woman and her child made them look so small and vulnerable. It seemed a metaphor to me of the courage it takes for these people to make the choices they do, and to insist on their simple ways amid the frenzy of industry and technology that encroaches from all sides around them.
I know from my own responsibilities around the house that routines are the most efficient way to get things done. It seems in Amish country, Thursday is lawn mowing day. And lawn mowing appears to be women's work (don't tell Steve). I think we saw eight or nine women out mowing the lawn in their traditional frocks. One woman was pushing a mechanical wheel mower. Several looked like grandmothers. It was a hot day (90 by the time we finished) to be out mowing in a dress and bonnet).
If Thursday is mowing day, I wonder if Wednesday is laundry day. Everyone had laundry hanging to dry on the lines, but I never saw anyone actually hanging it out--so I wondered if it had been hung the day before. The laundry lines were attached to a pulley that (for many of them) was high on a pole so the laundry rose into the sky like a hoisted flag. I noticed many had diapers first, then kid clothes, then the mother's clothes, and the father last.
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| This was a rare line not on a pulley. Pic courtesy of Marcelle. |
A man working in the field with his boys. They appeared to be hoeing weeds. When we rounded the corner, I saw their bikes thrown in the grass where they'd left them after riding to the field from home (I assume).
I was fascinated by the teams of horses (and often donkeys), used to mow and plow the fields. Some of these farmers pulled some kind of motorized contraption that mowed the field behind them. Others pulled a plow. This farmer had a motor. Driving a team like this seems like a real skill--one that is mostly lost to us now.
This farmer was pulling his equipment across a dusty patch in the field at a distance. His farm sits on the hill in the back drop.
The neighborhoods around the area looked wealthy and were well-groomed. Most houses had tidy flower beds that were all mulched and uniform looking.
The cue sheet was accurate and the roads were clearly marked, but we did have this one glitch when we came upon a road closure. Unfortunately the work was on a bridge, so we had to detour several miles in order to find the next way to cross.
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| Pic courtesy Marcelle :) |
Covered bridge number three--the Pinetown - Bushong's Mill Covered Bridge appeared at mile 36. We stopped and walked down to the water where a few local kids were fishing. I took pictures like a tourist--sometimes it just can't be disguised.
We came to the last creamery - the Oregon Dairy, almost immediately afterwards. It was the biggest commercial production of all of them - including a huge cafeteria clearly equipped to handle tour bus crowds. We used the bathroom, asked the nice young woman who worked there if she'd mind filling our water bottles, and got on our way.
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| Marcelle is posting to Instagram, hence her captioning! |
We ate dinner in Lancaster at a cool Vegan place called Root. It turns out there is a hipster vibe to Lancaster, which was a surprise. Marcelle and I enjoyed a couple of draft IPAs, veggie sushi wrapped in swiss chard and portabellas in red wine with broccoli and potatoes.
The below is a closer look at the house which is inside the larger building. I think earlier in the day we would have been able to tour through it.
Lancaster had several pianos placed around the city where anyone can sit down and play--which people did.
Below is a historic church that Marcelle found in a brochure, but now I can't remember what it was called or what denomination it was. I'll have to ask her!
The soldiers and sailors monument in Penn Square was erected in 1874 to honor the Civil War dead. I believe that's Lady Liberty on top.
12 mph
