Then it was onto the town of Intercourse, right in the heart of the Amish country. Soon we had to slow down for several of their horse drawn carriages.

We had made a reservation at the local hotel and had a room on the second floor. This turned out to be OK for our brief stay and gave us a "home" while we toured the surrounding country sites. That evening we went to one of the "family restaurants" where they serve traditional "wholesome" Pennsylvania Dutch meals. When I saw that this meant deep fried chicken, creamed corn and other boiled vegetables, and mashed potatoes with gravy, I decided to order fresh fish from the menu.

Part of the Amish religion includes "no picture taking". They consider this to be vain and against God's will. I was aware of this relative to the people, but was not sure about their horse-drawn-buggies, farms and other possessions. So I talked to an older Amish lady who walked by and asked what it would mean to them if I took a picture of the buggies. She reluctantly replied, "That would be an insult," and continued on her way. This was after I had taken the photos above and felt that I did not want to delete what I had already done. But, I never took a picture of an Amish person even partly visible after that.

However, we encountered another interpretation when we took a "buggy ride" with a nice fellow who claimed to have a neighbor whose farm we would visit. We were told not to take pictures of the people but that anything else was fine. The ride along the country road was fun and we saw many farms and their crops along side of us.

Every place grows their own corn. When it is harvested, the stalks and all are cut and pulverized for cattle feed during the winter months. This is all stored in the tall silos visible all around the country.

An other crop is tobacco. When harvested it is hung up to dry in barns and special sheds that have slotted doors that can be opened to let in fresh air. When ready, it is sold to large tobacco companies from down south. The Amish don't smoke themselves but they do profit from the sale of this crop.

Mondays are generally wash days. As we drove around we could see clothes hanging on the lines. This is one way to tell the Old Order Amish apart from the Mennonites, a more progressive sect of the same religion. The differences among the various Amish and Mennonite groups through the years have almost always been ones of practice rather than basic Christian doctrine. Some Mennonites will sometimes drive cars, use diesel powered equipment and wear less conservative clothing such as seen hanging on the line below.

An other way to tell them apart is by the color of the buggies. In this part of the county, gray tops are for the Amish; black means they are Mennonites. Thus the farm we visited belonged to a Mennonite family. The Old Order groups want to be left alone and shy away from tourists and their offensive cameras. Others try to benefit from our souvenir hunts. This farm had a section of the basement full of quilts and other trinkets for sale. After we bought some souvenirs from the owner, we rode the buggy back and continued our tour of the area. That included several covered bridges; some old, some still in use.

Notice the wooden beams and braces used on the interior of one of those covered bridges. We also stopped at some stores that sold souvenirs, locally made furniture, pumpkins, mums that just started to bloom, quilts and lots of different fabrics for quilters. When we saw this, we thought of Sharon's cousin who is an avid seamstress and makes beautiful quilts.