Roadtrip – Three States in One Day

We woke up this morning in Amish country and couldn’t wait to get started exploring some more.  As we drove through the countryside, we noticed an unusual amount of Amish buggies out on the road.

Amish country

As we passed some of the farms, we noticed a huge gathering of buggies and horses…

Amish country

Horses gathered together while their buggies were parked in a row.

Horses play a huge part in Amish life.

As we drove into one of the small towns, I was on the lookout for the one Amish delicacy that I love…

You have not lived until you have tasted an Amish soft pretzel.  They make them from fresh dough and bake them in a convection oven.

As I sat in the sunshine eating my pretzel, it was just a small piece of heaven.

There are also other Amish delicacies….

Some of which, I have no desire to try….

I forgot to mention an incident from yesterday…

We were in the parking lot of Target, having picked up some essentials, when we heard a long siren go off, warning the city about ???.  We didn’t know what the signal meant.  There were clouds off in the distance, but they didn’t look too threatening.

My mom went and asked the lady who worked at Target what told us that it was the tornado siren that is tested every Wednesday afternoon.

So, we obviously stuck out as tourists – but seriously, we don’t get huge tornadoes in Arizona.

For lunch today, we ate slices of fresh Amish wheat bread and some of our Amish butter.  It was delicious.

McDonald’s has designated parking for trucks, buses, Amish buggies and RV’s.

Fairy Gardening is quite popular in this area.  I like to imagine tiny fairies living in the garden.

The Amish countryside is so beautiful – I had so much fun taking pictures…  

As we left Ohio for Pennsylvania, we had to drive through a small part of West Viriginia.

Super cute town.

Our goal this afternoon was to visit the grave of my grandfather along with my great-grandparents.

My mother sprinkled some of her mother’s ashes on her father’s grave.

Then it was time to visit another cemetery where my 3rd great-grandparents were buried.

We had a hard time finding this cemetery.  First of all, it is small and has not had any new burials for years.  As a result, there was no address for this cemetery.  I did follow the directions, but they made no sense..  My mother and I were ready to give up and drove into a parking lot to explore our options.

As we got ready to leave, I looked u AND there it was!  Right across the street!

It is always quite humbling to me to walk through a cemetery and see how long ago someone passed away.  I imagine what kind of life that they had.

Both of my 3rd great-parents are buried underneath this marker.  The dates are beginning to fade.

Many of the grave stones showed that death occurred for many in the 1800’s.

You will be proud to note that the trunk of our rental car is quite neat and clean, except for my Diet Dr. Pepper.

The same cannot be said for the interior of the car, however…  

The backseat is filled with our cooler that containers our fruit and Amish butter cheese. Bags are filled with homemade Amish wheat bread and of course, we had some leftover pizza from tonight’s dinner.  The remaining bags are full of the results of our shopping.

We are having a fabulous time.

Tomorrow, we are off Niagara Falls!  

Noelle Johnson, aka, 'AZ Plant Lady' is a author, horticulturist, and landscape consultant who helps people learn how to create, grow, and maintain beautiful desert gardens that thrive in a hot, dry climate. She does this through her consulting services, her online class Desert Gardening 101, and her monthly membership club, Through the Garden Gate. As she likes to tell desert-dwellers, "Gardening in the desert isn't hard, but it is different."