Lancaster County, Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania Dutch, Amish Country, Lancaster, PA are all names that describe this area of Pennsylvania. I have never been here before, but I have developed an image in my mind of what I expected to see. As we got off the interstate in Lancaster County I was mightily disappointed. Highway 30 took us through the town of Lancaster and I was reminded of hundreds of tourist towns across America. Along both sides of the 4-lane highway were fast food and big chain restaurants, T-shirt shops, an outlet mall, even a place that offered buggy rides. This was not the image in my mind. I’m sure, if we had gotten off Hwy 30, we would have found more of what I expected, but this first impression saddened my soul.

Our campground is in the small community of Strasburg about 5 miles from Lancaster. Strasburg is the place of my Amish dreams. There are large beautiful farms side by side, in every direction, for as far as you can see. Main Street through town is littered with horse dung and the country road that passes by our campground has almost as much buggy traffic as motorized vehicles. I took this picture of the buggy from inside the Montana.

Strasburg is a small community of about 3000. The town is old, but very well maintained. We found a gravel parking lot where we left the truck and struck out on foot. A couple of the larger homes are B and Bs, but for the most part the houses looked like single family dwellings. There are a few shops selling items you would expect to see in this area. There was a small sandwich/ice cream shop, but no chain eateries of any kind. This is so refreshing. I haven’t seen any fresh produce stands. However, it is too late for strawberries and too early for everything else.

This is a great location for all kinds of sightseeing. Strasburg is only 50 miles from Philadelphia and 50 miles from Baltimore. Hershey, PA and all the chocolate you can stand is just around the corner. We are not going to be here long, but there are a few things we want to do. Valley Forge is probably on the top of our list. We also want to educate ourselves on the difference between Amish and Mennonites. Gene has his heart set on home baked pie so the search is on. This should be fun.