BUGGY RIDE AND CAMPGROUNDS

Yesterday, I went to Bird In Hand, Pennsylvania, which is in Pennsylvania's Amish country. Now isn't that a great name! According to legend two road surveyors discussed whether they should stay at their present location or go on to the town of Lancaster. One of them supposedly said, "A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush," which means it is preferable to have a small but certain advantage than the mere potential of a greater one; and so they stayed.

We are traveling with 2 other couples and the ladies decided that we wanted to go for a buggy ride and tour in the Amish country.  Aaron and Jessica's Buggy Rides was the company we chose.  We actually rode in one of their wagons and our driver was a Mennonite man named John.

This is the wagon we rode in

We rode through the farmland and saw several  Amish farms and Mennonite farms.  They were ALL very nice and modern looking.  However, they did not have electricity, but did have solar panels. Also, almost every "modern" farm had their laundry hanging on a pulley line somewhere around the house. They were all beautiful and I was surprised at some of the items they use in maintaining their farms.

One of the farms

An Amish man harvesting his potatoes

Mennonites picking pears

One of the farms

Tourism is a big money maker for this community.  All of the money made from tourism is used to help the entire community which is made up of Amish and Mennonites.  They live very comfortably, especially compared to the Amish in South Fork, Colorado that I blogged about.

The buggy tour was about 35 minutes and then we had lunch and called it a day.

One of the farm houses

While in Hershey, we stayed in the Thousand Trails park.  It is a very nice park.  The ranger where you check in is SUPER nice and accommodating.  She went above and beyond to find us all a site that had 50 amp and sewer.  We arrived on a Saturday (we try to never do that) and it was really crowded in the park.  She told us that most people were leaving on Sunday and we could move if we didn't like our spot.  We had a great spot and had no desire to move.  Really nice park! I would definitely stay there again if in the area.