Wednesday, May 23, 2007

Philadelphia bound

Tuesday, May 1, 2007 On to Philadelphia

I am starting to come down with a sore throat so I head over to Target at 8 am to buy aspirin and start taking that every four hours.

Toni has another culinary treat for our breakfast; some sort of French toast thing with chopped almonds. It was great. Yesterday’s breakfast held us over for six hours before we were hungry again.

After getting driving directions to Philly from Mapquest, I review them with Toni. He suggests a better, faster route based on the time of day we would be getting into the city. It was a southern route instead of a northern route on the Interstate. Based on the traffic, that would have taken longer than the highway.

It was an easy drive to get to Philly and Toni’s directions were right on the mark. Only one adjustment, he was thinking I would take the 322 south as one of the turns, but that highway goes east. It was easy to figure out, as I knew I had to go east to get to Philadelphia from Lancaster.

Here is the way to get from Lancaster to Philadelphia, PA:

Highway 30 east about 12 miles

Hwy 41 south about 15 miles

Hwy 1 north about 10 miles

Hwy 322 east about 15 miles and then

Interstate 95 north to Philadelphia, passing the airport on the way into town

Rennie

Lancaster, PA & the Amish

Monday, April 30, 2007

Today we woke up in Lancaster, PA. It’s a beautiful place; the weather is great at 65-70 degrees, some clouds, scenic farmland, horse drawn carriages and plows. This is a place where I can relax and unwind. Live here moves at a slower pace, but it is not standing still, except for the Old Order Amish. Their technology clock stopped around 1901.

We stayed at the Silverstone Inn, an awesome bed and breakfast farmhouse owned by Toni and Lorin Wortel (http://www.silverstoneinn.com 877-290-6987). It was a completely run down 10.5 acre farm built around 1750. The Wortel’s absolutely and completely remodeled it with beautiful materials and attention to detail. It has private baths, hairdryers, Jacuzzi’s, fireplaces, individual A/C, TV, DVD, phone with data port and free Wireless internet access. It is luxury in the middle of farmland and even the toilet roll holders were upscale design fixtures.

The cost of remodeling was obviously more than they paid for the farm, and they are still close to the city, right off Highway 30. Dianne and I walked to dinner and the nearby Target store the previous night. This morning our master chef, Toni, made some sort of crepes for our breakfast.

This is the second B&B for Toni and Lorin after retiring from regular business occupations. Lorin is from the Lancaster area and met Toni when he was working as an engineer on a cruise ship. I don’t usually enjoy engineers; you know the type – you ask what time it is and they tell you how the watch was made, but you never find out what time it is. Toni was not only our chef, but a very knowledgeable and personable host as well. I wouldn’t think of staying anywhere else if I were within 100 miles of the Silverstone Inn.

While touring the area I learned there are over 22 different Amish sects from the Plain to the Mennonites. The Old Order Amish do not permit electricity or phones in their homes and also speak a Pennsylvania Dutch dialect. I was told the Mennonites use electricity. Toni gave us great suggestions on where to go to see the real Amish life, not some tourist re-creation.

We went to a general store run by an Amish family and where the Amish shop. I found it fascinating and purchased all sorts of little sewing items I needed. I probably could have purchased them at any fabric store, but I didn’t realize I needed them until I saw them there. All the supplies for the Amish were here from lantern wicks to plain dishware and spiritual books. God comes first and everything else comes after that. That is one of the reasons for the simple, plain life. They believe the worldly things can prevent them from being close to God.

I also purchased some toys I had not seen since I was a child; black and white Scottie dogs with magnets on the bottom. They dogs will attract and repel each other, or follow each other around when separated by a piece of glass or paper. These will be gifts for my children until my grandchildren can play with them without eating them.

Our next stop was an antique shop that was unlike anything I’ve seen before. It had all sorts of farm implements and items that might be 100 years old, but still in use today by the Amish. (Strasburg Antique Market, 717-687-5624)

We continue our tour through the Amish farmland, visit an Amish farm and check on one of the tourist traps. The easy way to tell if the Amish are willing to have tourists is to see if they have a sign out on the road like: “Homemade root beer. Turn here.” Well, we did that and got some other treats as well.

By now it’s 3 pm and we’re ready for lunch. The crepes for breakfast held us for 6 hours before we got hungry again. Toni suggested we try Dienner’s for real Amish food. It was plain, hearty food; chicken, meatloaf, mashed potatoes, very well steamed vegetables and plain tasting. I loved it and Dianne hated it. We both agreed the variety of deserts were plentiful and great tasting.

Rennie

Friday, May 11, 2007

A New Jersey event

Thursday, April 26, 2007
Well, the Resistant Traveler is on the road again. Dianne and I are on our way to Kenylon, NJ for the bat mitzvah of her niece. This is the last event of this type for this generation. Emily is the youngest of the nieces, nephews and cousins. The next string of event will be their weddings and then the start of a new generation. Shoot, this reminds me that I’m getting old. Shucks, in another 8 years my own grandson could have a bar mitzvah. I better stop this now before I give myself a heart attack.

Friday, April 27, 2007
We arrived in NJ late last night, near midnight. It was awful weather; thunder, lightning, and plenty of rain. It was tough to find the hotel and we got to bed about 3 am NJ time.
I accomplished a major success. Dianne and I were supposed to go into Manhattan with other visiting family and leave at 10 a.m. Wow, just what I need after going to bed at 3 a.m.; a relaxing day in Manhattan traffic, stores and tourist traps.
Normally, I get up between 6 and 7 a.m. without an alarm clock, and I did this morning as well. Dianne on the other hand has the ability to sleep in late. I find that very difficult. And this morning I didn’t want to get up or wake Dianne to get ready to go to Manhattan. Well, we slept in to 12:30 p.m. That was one success for me, sleeping late. The second success is the greater one; we didn’t go to Manhattan. Maybe that’s not a legitimate success, like I convinced Dianne to stay back and relax, but I am going to count it anyway as a success.

Friday evening
About 35 members of the family that came in from out of town had dinner with Dianne’s brother, Gary, and his family at a restaurant near his home in Smokerise. Unfortunately, Dianne’s sister, Lisa, had been sick before we went to NJ, and was feeling awful and needed to leave early. Fortunately for me, I was the navigator to get her to the restaurant and had to leave early with her so she could get back to the hotel, and we took Dianne’s daughter and two cousins with us. Dianne could stay and visit and come back later with other cousins. That worked for everyone.

Saturday, April 28, 2007
Bad start; Dianne’s mom trips stepping out of the tub, falls and hurts her shoulder. Dianne and Lisa gave her mom an ice pack, helped her get dressed, etcetera, and we left about 30 minutes late. The bat mitzvah was to start at 9:30 a.m. but we got there more like 10 a.m. Emily waited for her grandma with the sore shoulder.
Following the service, a school bus took Emily’s young friends to the luncheon at a country club. I don’t know if what followed is how Gary puts on an event, or if it is just how they do it on the east coast or NJ. The O’derves were great and plentiful; three types of pasta, steak, tuna, Peking duck rolls, fresh fruit, Chinese chicken, couscous, calamari, champagne, make your own sandwiches, and that’s just what I had.
Oh yea, and then there were the servers bringing meatballs, shrimp and asparagus dipped in shrimp.
I probably missed one of the food stations, but by the time I was done with the food I had taken, I couldn’t eat more anyway. Since I don’t drink, I didn’t care about the two bars that had enough liquor to serve the Navy on leave.
Since this was the third event Gary had hosted I fully knew what to expect and didn’t hold back on the O’derves. I ate beyond being full, knowing full well there would be a sit-down lunch with a choice of filet mignon, fish, or chicken. When the waitress came by I told her that I would not be having lunch. I don’t know what happens to all the leftover O’derves, but I was not willing to add to the possible waste of food by ordering lunch and taking two bites and have the rest thrown out. I was so full from the O’derves I didn’t even have dinner that night.

Sunday, April 29, 2007
As the weekend continued it was time for the Sunday brunch at Gary’s. With east coast families it seems that if you can still walk, they haven’t fed you enough. I won’t go into the menu here, but with quiche, bagels, lox and pastries, I’m sure you realize I don’t need to list the foods.
By 2 p.m. it was time to mosey on. Dianne arranged for us to do some touring worthy of writing about. Finally the Resistant Traveler gets to actually go somewhere in the U.S. and see our culture and be where I can speak and hear English, or so I thought.
We are heading to Lancaster, PA; the heartland of the Amish. I found out these are also known at the Pennsylvania Dutch, and they still speak Dutch. More on this in the next blog installment.

Wednesday, May 9, 2007

The Resistant Traveler Defined

This blog is a different approach to travel commentaries. I do not want to travel. I like to stay home in my own environment. Many people, maybe even most, find foreign travel to be exciting, enlightening and they have a desire to see the world. I call myself the “Resistant Traveler” and I write for those individuals who don’t care about traveling, but who maybe in a relationship, or married, to a person with either wanderlust, or a need to travel.

First, we need to define a couple of terms; vacation and travel. When my wife, Dianne, first told me that she likes to travel I heard the word vacation. She wanted to be sure that I also wanted, or would at least be willing, to tour the world and travel, but she used the word vacation. While I love my work, and really don’t care whether or not I leave home, I am willing to take a vacation. Dianne told me how she had been to France, India, Yugoslavia and more. While I had no desire to travel to these places, I agreed early in our relationship that I was willing to do so. As a reminder, she used the word vacation, but what she meant was travel.

The first hint of the difference between travel and vacation was evident on our honeymoon to Hawaii. For most people a trip to Hawaii involves relaxation, bathing suits and sunscreen. For me it was maps and road trips. Please realize that Hawaii is just a few islands with a limited amount of streets and highways. I must have driven every mile of every street and highway visiting viewpoints, shopping centers, and housing developments and comparing each hotel to the one where we were staying. My wife has a requirement to see if she can find shoes that she would like while on “vacation.” Did you know that Hawaii has 197 different shoe stores? Even though I don’t drink coffee, I did find the tour of a coffee plantation to be fascinating. I learned how coffee was grown, selected, graded and dried and it’s all done by hand. People all over the world love that drink made from hot water poured over dried out and ground-up plant parts.

We both now agree that my wife likes to tour and travel and that does not mean vacation. She has a desire to see everything that she has not yet seen before and will continue to be on the move from sun-up to sundown, or until she drops. On the other hand, I like to vacation. That means I arrive somewhere to read, relax, nap and pay no attention to a clock. Sometimes Dianne will accidentally use the word vacation when she means travel. I never accidentally use the word vacation to mean travel.

In this blog I will cover travel from the perspective of someone who does not want to travel. I will cover situations, funny events, what we did, where you may want to stay, what to see, where you may want to eat, and hopefully stay away from tourist traps.