Mmmm, there’s nothing like waking up to the fragrance of freshly fallen horse manure. We weren’t exactly immersed in Amish culture in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, but, for one day, we did get to experience a quieter, more natural lifestyle than we’re used to. Katie and I wriggled out of our sleeping bags as the sunlight poured into our tent. Horse poop odor, it seems, is more powerful than any alarm clock.

Aside from holding our noses, we spent the morning packing up the tent and reorganizing the car, simultaneously tossing around ideas for how to spend the day. We decided to go for a scenic drive, and actually came across quite a few things we don’t get to see too often.
We happened upon a railroad museum with all kinds of cool trains and stuff — steam engines, dinner cars, red cabooses, whistles! Even old rusted antiquated tracks and relics with railroad jargon painted on them!

Katie used all her strength trying to make this giant toy train come to life:

Eventually she gave up, but not before trying to convince me that it had turned into a time machine like in Back to the Future III, and taken her to the gun-slingin’ days of the Old West. I didn’t see anything happen. I suppose it’s possible that she programmed it to dematerialize and then rematerialize back to the present time as I was blinking.

Here’s the face I fell in love with:

More neat train station goodies:

Soon we were speeding down Paradise Lane, taking in all the farms and silos. Every once in a while we would see an Amish buggy being pulled by a horse. The horse would be, of course, pooping. I wish we would have gotten to know some Amish. I feel so ignorant about their culture, yet they make up a large part of the population in this part of the country. I feel like such a lazy, technologically-dependent slob when I see them working hard, long days, savoring the “simple” life. I guess I feel like I’m too slovenly to be worthy of their friendship. I don’t even know when to set my clocks for daylight savings.

In the middle of the afternoon we rolled up to a huge place called Verdant Views Dairy Farms. Ginny, one of the owners, greeted us and told us to hang around for an interactive tour. We got friendly with the cows as we waited for the tour to begin. These cows might not have been so cordial had they realized that we would be physically squeezing milk from their udders in a matter of moments.

Katie fell in love with about a dozen kittens roaming the farm. She named this one “Circles” because of the circular pattern on its side.

Circles took some time to warm up to Katie before reciprocating much affection.

But he came around.

Ginny marked us down for the tour. She said that a camera crew was coming from the local news station, and if we waited for them we could have a free wagon ride. Free wagon ride, you say? WE’RE IN.

In the meantime, it’s easy to wait when there are all these fuzzy animals to pet.

Mister told me that he felt like a giant next to all those bunnies.

How many kinds of walnuts are there? They all look alike to me.

Katie gives a detailed lecture on “how to crack a walnut.”

Then graciously accepts a standing ovation.

Ginny said that she doesn’t need a watchdog on the farm because she has these geese to honk at the first sign of trouble. You can’t tell so much in the pictures, but it looks like their tongues have an extra set of razor-sharp teeth.

The white one is Bonnie, and the ivory-colored one is Clyde.

Mister was having a thrilling day at the farm. Here he is meeting the goats.

Here he is shrieking at the first hint of danger.

He collected his wits, then gave the goat a taste of its own medicine. Get ‘im, Mister!

Bucky-Bo.

Katie puts her life on the line for the perfect photograph.

Nothing ignites the love-fires like stepping in goat poop.

The wagon ride! Ginny and her husband Don took us around the farm on a wagon. I’ve never met two people who put so much thought into everything they do. I guess you have to be thorough when your life depends on your farm. Don told us about the different kinds of corn they grow: everything from sweet corn, to dimpled corn for animal feed (most farm animals can digest all parts of the corn, ie: stalk, ear, silk. Humans can only digest the kernels.) and even corn used just for popping! They set up complicated irrigation chambers, which have evolved over time to conserve almost 100 percent of rainfall. They even planted grass and alfalfa to replenish the soil year after year. There’s so much to do on a farm. Dirk, one of the helpers, told me that he works about 16 hours a day, seven days a week! Enjoy yourself, Dirk. I’m going to take a nap in your honor.

Don explained to us that each kernel of corn is pollinated individually by those stringy things inside the husk. Katie’s got the hands-on example.

You can tell this stuff is livestock feed because of the dimples in the kernels.

Katie holds her own with the Channel 11 camera man.

Don woos Katie with a bouquet of alfalfa.

She succumbs to his charms.

At the end of the day, Don takes an ear of popcorn that has been drying in the cellar for a year. He takes us to his house and shows us how to pop it, right off the ear, in the microwave. Read Katie’s blog entry for the directions. We enjoyed our fresh popcorn with a mug of freshly-picked spearmint tea and watched the sun set over the acres of corn.

What a day! It was the best time we’ve had on our road trip so far. Next stop, Cleveland!

Tags: Amish, channel 11, corn, cows, Don, farm, geese, Ginny, goats, Horse, kittens, manure, mister, paradise lane, Pennsylvania, popcorn, verdant views dairy farm, wagon ride