July 13, 2022 – July 27, 2022
Today we drove from our Harvest Host site (a farm stand that sold donuts – hurray!) outside Indianapolis over to Berlin, OH – Amish country! The Amish are largely of German descent, which likely explains the name of this fairly small town (Berlin, OH). The countryside here in Ohio is nice – the Amish country in particular is well manicured and it’s clear that most Amish work hard to maintain their property and lifestyle. We stopped at a restaurant that got good reviews just outside of Berlin and had a classic Amish meal (mashed potatoes, stuffing, chicken, etc.) which was good, but… way too much food! We’re staying in an RV park tonight with full hookups, and the weather has been really cooperating for us – almost chilly at night! Interestingly enough, while out running this evening an older Amish woman went flying by me on her bicycle. It was certainly somewhat humbling, even if I was on a bit of a downhill slope. She just smiled… :-)7/14
After spending some time in Amish country, we headed to Cuyahoga Falls for a Jack Johnson concert. It was a big venue, with well over 15,000 people in attendance! There was not a mask in sight (for the COVID situation), though we learned just a couple days ago that Mona’s mom came down with it. She’s doing ok, and it seems like some of the medications available for it are helping. The concert was enjoyable, and we had a nice campground to stay in that was close by.
Today (7/15/2022) we went to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, which was interesting. We also looked around Cleveland on a Friday evening, and it was pretty shut down even by 4pm. The downtown areas that center on office space still seem pretty empty, likely partly due to the COVID situation with more people working from home. We stayed in a persons yard listed on Harvest Host. In general, we’ve had good luck with our Harvest Host stays, and this was true of this stay as well.
Next up was some biking at Cuyahoga National Park. We had hoped to do some mountain biking in the park but rains from the previous night kept the trails closed to bikers. Instead we found a long trail, almost like a “rails to trails” type bike/walking path, and we rode 20 miles on that. The area was filled with canals and locks that were used to move a lot of freight around in years past. The park was organized, clean, and not too busy, so it make for a really nice bike ride. After biking, we drove a good distance to another Harvest Host, this time a farm about a half hour away from Pittsburgh. We bought a little produce, and settled in for a nice dinner of veggies – Ramona’s favorite! During the night, we were both awakened with an amazing electrical storm, along with a significant amount of rainfall. Some of the lightning was close, in one case between the lightening and the crack of thunder, it felt almost like the van shook a bit!
Next up was Pittsburgh. I had hoped to tour a steel factory, but unfortunately all the tours were already booked. Instead we parked near Three Rivers stadium (home of the Steelers), and then did some sightseeing around downtown Pittsburgh. Having spent some time working in Pittsburgh many years ago, it was fun to see some of the same buildings, and also nice to see that the city has gone through a bit of a renaissance! There was a large festival of sorts happening, aptly named Picklesburgh. Heinz (the company) was a big sponsor, and Mona was able to buy a few things with Heinz prominently displayed! After our time in Pittsburgh, we drove close to 3 hours and stayed in a campground just outside of Gettysburg. It rained a lot again today, so it was nice to reach our campground with no van leaks or water problems of any sort.
After Pittsburgh, we spent some time in Gettysburg and largely just toured around the area looking at all the civil war memorials. There’s tons of history in Gettysburg, and if you’re into the civil war and associated history, this would be a required stop! It was warm while we were there, so we didn’t do as much as perhaps we would have done otherwise. Once we’d seen the key points around the area, we continued to head east and made our way over to Amish country near Lancaster. Mona had found a bed and breakfast for us to stay at where we could actually visit with the owners to learn more about the Amish.
Our bed and breakfast was outside of town and was considered a “farmette”. The owners (and elderly couple) had a big garden, as well as a few animals that included some horses, goats, and sheep. They were very pleasant to talk to, with the woman being quite focused on getting everything done while there was still light (as there was no electricity in the house other than a few battery powered lamps and fans). The elderly man was difficult to understand at times due to an accident from years past, but we were still able to learn a lot from him. Their life is simple in some ways, and hard in others. By not using a lot of today’s technologies (e.g., cars, electricity from the grid, etc.), the amount of work to simply “live” certainly goes up. It keeps the Amish people very busy, that was clear. Of our two Amish visits (one here in PA, and the other in Ohio), we found the Ohio location to be a bit nicer – further from major population areas, more buggies on the road, etc. Both were nice, but that was our general feeling.
After our time with the Amish, the weather forecast was calling for increasingly hot temps, so we decided to rent an AirBnB in Philadelphia to get out of some of the heat. We found what turned out to be a nice place in “Old Germantown”, and made our way into the city. One thing we constantly have to be watching for is if places have suitable parking for our van – ideally something off the road, and big enough to accommodate a fairly large vehicle. Thankfully this place had off road parking (not easy to find in big cities), was close to public transit, included a washer/dryer, and was just a really nice place to stay. We enjoyed our time in Philadelphia, and spent one day going downtown to visit the Liberty Bell, and to look around the city. Unfortunately, it was so hot that walking around was not as nice as if the weather had cooperated – we found ourselves ducking into various buildings just to beat the heat! We did enjoy looking around, and learning a bit more about the history that unfolded in that area.
We also got a few errands taken care of – namely getting the van in for a routine oil change and lube. We also ended up having the rear brakes replaced, which wasn’t too surprising given the miles we have put on, and the weight of the van. We also had a nice visit with Karen’s daughter Ashley and her husband David and kids. They just happened to be in the area, so we met at a small Mediterranean place and enjoyed getting some lunch on yet another hot day!
After our few days in Philadelphia, we headed to the Promised Land state park for some camping and paddling. The weather had eased off a bit, and we had a couple nice nights at this campground, on what turned out to be a nice spot to paddle.
Our break from the weather was a bit short-lived, and we ended up going to one more bed and breakfast in a small town called Stanhope, NJ. We were in a small room, but had the run of the house and made ourselves comfortable for an evening, just catching up on some internet time, and getting out of the heat.
At this point, we were coming up on our trip to Iceland! We decided to spend our last couple of nights before the trip in another campground in New Jersey. It turned out to be a nice place, but buggy in the woods! It was a peaceful place which seemed a bit odd knowing that we were only about 50 miles from New York City. We got a few of our last minute chores done before our Iceland trip, and Mona spent time planning “down the road” for our time next winter. More on that to come, but suffice it to say that the planning part of traveling never ends!
We also hit our 1 year anniversary as van lifers (7/25/2022). It’s hard to believe that a year has gone by. We’ve covered a lot of ground, and a lot of states, and we feel extremely lucky to have been able to do something like this! We enjoy everything that comes with our travels – seeing new places, trying new food (ahem, too much at times), meeting new people, and just having the flexibility to do things we could never do if we were working full-time. We’re excited about the next year coming up as well!
