2 September 2013 Exploring Amish Country

Yesterday was a catch up day for us. Jerry, Marge, Patrice, and I spent about three hours in the afternoon planning our move across middle America from here (Jefferson, Ohio) to Coalville, Utah. There we will split up with Jerry and Marge heading south to their home in Banning, California; we turn northwest to Idaho, Oregon, and Washington to visit family and friends, and get some doctoring done before we head south to our winter home in North Palm Springs, California. We all had dinner at our favorite Chinese restaurant in Jefferson, did some grocery shopping, and ended the day with  ice cream at Marge and Jerry's. It remained warm and humid all day and night.

Today Patrice and I did some more trip planning; then we and Jerry and Marge took a road trip to Middlefield about 30 miles south. Middlefield is a part of Amish country in Geuga County. Because most of the Amish businesses are closed on Sunday, we took a chance that some would be open on Monday, Labor Day. Our first encounter with Amish farming appeared about 15 miles north of Middlefield--a farmer cutting hay with a horse-drawn mower. We passed several horse and buggies from there on into town.

Our first stop was at the Middlefield Cheese House. This is a very large modern facility, due to close at 2 p.m. today. Lots of people were sampling and looking around the store. At the cashier counter, we could order sandwiches, cuts of cheese, and cuts of the deli meats in the case. About half of the ladies attending to business wore the Amish caps. We bought a few cheeses, some sliced sliced low-sodium lunch-meat, a stick of summer sausage, and some ring baloney. Another section of this cheese-house business involved selling whey products to other manufacturers.

Mary Yoder's Amish Kitchen was our stop for lunch. We all had the senior meatloaf meal, and homemade pie for desert--Marge's lemon pie was huge. The gift shop attached to the restaurant had Amish-themed items, and some lovely quilts for sale.

We saw this horse and buggy parked at the restaurant--I think the owners were inside having lunch also. The horses we saw pulling buggies were smallish and slim, unlike the large work horses we saw pulling the hay mower.

Notice the benches on either side of the enclosed part of he buggy

and steps down

Marge and Jerry decided to return home to their rig and Patrice and I continued exploring. All of the shops were closing at 2:00 p.m. So we ventured about 10 miles west to Burton where the shops were also closed; this beautiful tea house caught our eye. It sits among other homes and shops surrounding a large town square (with rounded corners).

Tea House, with a glass blowing studio attached - both closed today

Detail on the gable over upper story window

Amish people were most evident in Middleton--we found Amish in small groups of farms between the towns of Burton and Chardon. Beautiful old homes lined the lanes of all three towns--turrets, porches, verandas, columns, wonderful gardens and plantings, very old trees--branches split to the trunk to grow around power lines. Contrasting paint jobs accented the old "gingerbread" installations, as well as the windows and shutters. The valleys with their crops, trees lining the fields, homes tucked in the crevices, it all smelled and looked wonderful.

We drove north to Chardon where we circled around another large town "square" (this one was round) and filled the gas tank with the cheapest gas we have seen in months--$3.439 per gallon. We turned east on Highway 6 to head back to our rig when we ran across this old-time country store in Hartsgrove where we had ice cream!

Carlos was getting disgusted waiting in the truck for us, so we ate our ice cream and came on home. He's quite the traveler.

    
Tomorrow we move on, a couple one-night stops.