AMISH & MENNONITES
We are surrounded by Amish and Mennonite farms... When the wind is blowing in the right direction, you can hardly breath anything but cow manure!!! Luckily this only happened the first day and has been much better since then. We took a tour of the area and learned a lot about the Amish and Mennonites from our tour guide who was raised Mennonite... The farms are beautiful and most of the homes are pretty big. Each home has a large room over the garage that is used to host the church service. They do not use electricity or running water. They get water from wells driven by hand pumps. Phones are permitted, but not in the house, only in the garage or barn. Cell phones are allowed, but not smart phones. They travel around in horse driven buggies. The buggies do have a battery for lights. Rubber wheels are removed and replaced with steel wheels for buggies, farm equipment, scooters, etc...
Farming has to be tough... Chickens are considered "Free Range" even though they stay in the coup. There are doors for them to roam, but most stay inside due to the danger with birds of prey and other animals...
Some of these farms are quite large. We were told some are multi-million dollar farms!!!
Children go to school only to the eighth grade. They learn the basics to live in their world... math, reading, writing and history.
We visited the town of Intercourse, PA... not what you think... it was named Intercourse because is the spot where two major roads come together...
HERSHEY, PA
We also visited Hershey, PA and the Hershey factory... Chocolate, chocolate, chocolate... doesn't get any better than this!!!
LANCASTER, PA
We wanted to go to Lancaster to visit the Market downtown. Well, the market was not much to see, BUT... There was a "Comicon" Comic Convention going on... we felt like the weirdos in town!!!
EPHRATA, PA
Ephrata Cloister is a small historic section in the town of Ephrata. Ephrata Cloister was created by german born Conrad Beissel who, in 1720 at the age of 24, moved there to set up a strict religious group who believed that the second coming of Christ would occur within weeks or maybe months. This group was celibate, worked and prayed all day and night, were permitted to eat once a day (Vegetarian only) and never slept more than 6 hours at a time (sleep 3 hours, wake up to pray for two hours, and then sleep 3 more hours). All the members emigrated from Germany. Conrad Beissel died in 1768 and the group steadily declined until 1813 when the last member died. Of the 40+ buildings only a few remain...
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