Wow...what a week we have had...and we're not done yet! We have laughed probably more than I have laughed in my life all together! We have really enjoyed exploring the Amish country and seeing the beautiful farmland!
Although we started out calling ourselves Thelma (me) and Louise (my friend), we have really spent the majority of the week as Lucy (me) and Ethel (my friend), and very fittingly if I do say so myself! We have had a quite a few Lucy & Ethel moments, and sometimes others around us have as well! Such as the we were going to a diner to eat dinner and needed the address, so we called and asked the person who answered for their street number. His response was, "Street number, we don't have a street number." So Ethel asked in a different way and said "What is your address?" He responded, "2578 Lincoln Street"....LOL, we just howled with laughter!
We spent our first night on the road in Roanoke, VA, then hit the road on Friday (3/19) morning to get to Manheim, PA, so we would be there bright and early Saturday morning for the Amish mud sale...which was awesome! It was a little tricky getting everything we purchased in the car, but we managed and later reorganized it better and vowed not to open the back hatch anymore, unless it was an absolute necessity!
We had dinner with my Aunt & Uncle, then came back there to spend the night Saturday night. Sunday after breakfast we went to Chocolate world and did a little tour of Hershey then headed to Bird-In-Hand, PA to check into the Greystone Manor B & B. It had breathtaking views of the farmland right out their back door, which is where our room was located. It was a truly beautiful and hospitable place, with wonderful breakfasts too! Both of us can't wait to go back again someday! Monday, we took a horse & buggy ride with Menno, a wonderful older Amish man who answered many questions.
We shopped at a local antique shop on Tuesday and spent about 4 hours in there...they had really great stuff! One would think we couldn't buy another thing because we didn't have room, however, we are clever loaders! So, as you can imagine we had to open the back hatch of the car...scary, but we managed! We went to a fabric store where we met a wonderful lady who had been Amish, but left the Amish in 1980 and became Mennonite. She showed us a beautiful scrap quilt she had made and was very kind to answer many of our questions about the Amish. Later in the day we drove around and found a great little Amish quilt & craft shop, where the store owner was so kind and we chatted with her for about 45 minutes. We bought a couple of packages of constructed quilt blocks that just need to be put together to make a quilt...really cheap...$10 and $15!!! I know you are thinking how can we get anything else in the car...we were thinking that too!
Wednesday, we planned to head out of PA by noon or 1:00, but we had just a couple things on our to-do list to take care of first...such as visit Intercourse, PA to stop at a couple of shops and get some canned goods from the cannery there. Well needless to say we did a little scenic driving around also amongst the beautiful countryside, saw some Amish farmers plowing with their 6 horse power (literally) tractors, and didn't leave until about 7 p.m.! So we drove to Roanoke, VA and checked into the same hotel we stayed at on the way up about midnight.
Thursday was just a day of driving to Newberry, SC for the Quilters of SC event this weekend there are classes we are each taking and a meeting to be held on Saturday. Upon our arrival at the beautiful Hampton Inn of Newberry, we decided we would need to bring in several of our fabric purchases, so we could look at it and maybe do a few projects since we are here for 3 days. So we had to open the back of the car...we braced ourselves and hoped for the best! Luckily nothing fell out...however, once we took a few things from the bottom of the pile, we had to figure out how to prop the pile back up, not easy but we did it. I think it took us about a half hour to get everything we needed out of the car and loaded onto 2 luggage carts. As I stood back and looked at the 2 luggage carts and the back of the car (that still looked full), I told Ethel, "It looks like we are going to a hoarders convention." Ethel and I just lost it (in fact I am cracking up now!), and Ethel just had to do the bathroom shuffle and try to find the restroom, she was laughing so hard!!!!
Right now we are just getting ready for the day ahead. Ethel has her QSC class today and I am going to work on a project and help out with set up for registration for tomorrow morning. SO for now...
Blessings,
Amanda :)
