Wednesday 3rd Sept - Meeting the Amish!

The day started with a relaxed breakfast after a swim in the pool by the keener of the two travellers! Then it was off to pick up the hire car from the airport (it seemed a good idea at the time of booking to go a day later)! In stead of the little 2 door compact size car booked, we were offered the pick of their range for a measly 2 dollars a day extra, so came away with a Ford Explorer SUV! Mark, eat your heart out! Probably a bit too large for our needs, but what the hell, this is America! After lunch we headed out west to Lancaster County, home of the Amish. Initially we drove past our old place at Kennett Square which hadn't changed as much as expected, it was just a little more established. We travelled in Marian's car which has a system known as 'Drive Assist' which involves you phoning a a guy and telling him where you want to go and he then programmes your GPS remotely - just right for those who have problems with new technology! We were waiting for some sniggering on the other end of the phone when Marian told him she wanted Intercourse, PA, but he played it absolutely straight and in no time at all we reached Intercourse! Of course the attraction here was the quilt shops which Christine spent no small amount of time browsing. Fortunately the packages that accompanied our exit were not too numerous, apparently there will be plenty more opportunities for purchases later in our trip! In the evening Bill and Marian introduced us to a new experience - street eating! My preconception of this was a row of stalls selling burgers, hotdogs, pretzels, ice cream etc. but how wrong can you be. In the township called Media where they live, every Wednesday evening during the summer they close off the Main Street and all the restaurants an bars put tables out in the road for customers to sit and eat at. A great idea for the warm dry evenings of Pennsylvania but maybe not so suitable for the cool and wet summer evenings in Norfolk!