Vacation tid bits - Sunday, October 22, 2006

I recently spent a few days in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, a county with a large Amish and Mennonite population. Although this was my second trip, I am still amazed by this group’s ability to hold fast their religious principals despite living within our modern populous. How do they resist availing themselves of today’s technology. Even more surprising is living without use of a car or even electricity. Simply amazing! Thanks to them this beautiful agricultural landscape has been preserved. No condo development, no tract houses, not even any street lights. Unfortunately this tranquil farm land is only minutes away from route 30, where we have the usual, shopping malls, Burger Kings, Red Lobsters, miniature golf courses, and much, much more. I hope they can hold out forever.

Made our usual wine tasting stops and wine purchases, although some of it never made it home. Sat in the motel provided gazebo and used it to wash down the cheese, crackers and apples. One of our wine trips was a disaster. Drove many miles in a downpour, almost got killed going the wrong way on a one way highway and found the damn place was closed. Mr. Dickel, owner of the Lancaster County Winery was sitting in his house and decided he wasn’t going to open the damn place up even though open daily is advertised. It was even worse because I was in desperate need of a facility. Oh well, a couple of his shrubs looked like they needed watering.

Found a very nice place for breakfast. Figured I would finally find one I couldn’t complain about. Not bad, but I still got my usual soggy toast and an un-grilled roll. We went there three times to keep giving them a chance to get it perfect. Well, I finally got one that was very close, but I had to come all the way back to Southington to get it. Went to Erika’s on Queen Street, a restaurant I had previously criticized and got what was just about perfect, crispy home fries, real brown toast that didn’t bend when tested and eggs done to perfection. Even my wife’s poached eggs were perfectly prepared. I should have gotten the waitress’s name so I could praise her here……she got everything right, I can’t believe it.

Lot of other things happened in the five days we spent in Pennsylvania, but I hesitate continuing to bore you. I’m surprised you read this far. For any golfers reading this, you’ll be happy to hear that I played golf one day and shot my second best round of the year ( 86), Guess I have to go out of state more often. The 86 was after I nearly decapitated myself when I ran into a tree branch trying to see where one of my shots went. I’m still bearing the scars and definitely can’t use hairspray without screaming. Well, enough until the next time.