Lancaster and York counties

Last week York sent me out to Pennsylvania for a a week of training. I looked up the area on Google Maps, and a couple of things kept popping up. First, it's the factory tour capitol of America. Harley Davidson and Snyder of Hanover pretzels, to name a few. The other thing that popped up was nearby Lancaster, seat of Lancaster County and a hub of Amish country. So, despite the tours all being over by the time I was off work, I decided to visit both. 

Amish country, sunset, hot air balloon

The first stop was Hanover. I figured that a town with such a German name (even if they spell it wrong) would have a decent place with Rotkohl and maybe a Market street. Well, it had neithter... but it did have a nice coffee shop! I hung out with the proprietor of Merlin's and talked travel over strong (decaf) espresso. She told me that the one thing that Hanover was proud of was the battle that led up to Gettysburg, where northern cavalry (including George Custer) had a skirmish with JEB Stuart's troops, delaying their arrival at Gettysburg. 

 The next day, I headed over to Lancaster after work. First, there was a matter of getting some field hockey gear - impossible to find in Washington State, but everywhere east of the Mississippi river! Then, I found another great coffee shop in downtown Lancaster. The city is a little farther into its revitalization than Hanover or York, and has a bustling brick downtown. 

From Lancaster, I drove east into the countryside. It was surreal. I passed two young men driving open prams, each with a covered, empty seat text to them. The uniform was long pants, button down shirt (maybe with sleeves rolled up), suspenders, and straw hat. It was worn by young boys on their kicker scooters, full grown men on their kicker scooters, and the lads who appeared to be driving prams to pick up their ladies. All the way to Intercourse, PA, at seemingly regular intervals, I would pass some such anachronistic sight. It was like stepping into another time! 

 My last day of training was followed closely by a hike recommended by one of my students. It was a short drive from the training site, and made a loop around a resivoir. The dam engineer side of me geeked out over the earth dams, while the rest of me puffed in the nearly 90* heat around the lake. One thing that I've noticed about forests on the east coast is that they're loud. It isn't the proximity to roads that makes them so, but the number of insects that seem to be screaming into megaphones compared to the ones at home! Their hum drowned out every creek I crossed, but fortunately few of them were the biting kind, and my walk went on without itchiness.