To say our trip was successful would be the understatement of the year. It is fabulous, and we are just back from a marvellous tour of Amish Country, the group of Pennsylvanian farmers who have kept to their traditional ways of farming through several centuries and by the look of their farmsteads, are very successful with it. Jamie’s mother took us to the homestead where she was brought up and the farmer and his wife were very welcoming, and we got to see the dairy and have a chat with the farmer (bearded because he is married). It is very difficult to work out the economies of their dairying on a five-minute chat, but he gets paid $ 15 for 100 lbs of milk. Work that one out. We saw ploughing with teams of mules, and he had just been muck spreading with a team of four magnificent horses. They grow tobacco, corn(maize) lucerne, and grass. We had lunch at an Amish family-run restaurant and had traditional food (delicious), we saw a covered bridge which was because bridges freeze up quicker than the road and you could slip off the edge with your horse and buggy, before realising what had hit you. They did not like photos taken of them as this would be making a graven image and anyway one hates to make it feel one is viewing them like animals in a zoo, but I have got some pictures which I am sending to the children.a. They have become a tourist attraction which is awful for them and apparently a lot of them are moving west to get away.
I have started backwards really so I will continue that way.
Betsy, Janie Ebersol and Jon Davies met us at Philadelphia, and we have not stopped laughing since. They drove us to Janie’s house (about 2 hours) and last night we went along in the evening to hear Janie sing in a music group. It was just a rehearsal, so we did not stay long. We spent the rest of the evening looking at photos and reminiscing. Janie is a nurse who trained with Betsy and came to Mulu in 1972/73 Dec She remembers all of you. She said she had a crush on you Piers even though you were much younger! Rebecca had a crush on you Chris, she admitted) Houses here are so spaciously out. You must have a minimum amount of land around your house. It varies from state to state but at least you are not cheek by jowl with your neighbours. The blossom is all out, the trees here are starting to leaf but north in Connecticut and Massachusetts, not yet.
I will go back to the start now. A good flight into Boston and a comfortable but old-fashioned B&B.
The highlight there was that our neighbours on the top landing (3 flights up—not good news) opened the bathroom door after a hot shower and let all the hot steam out which immediately set off the fire alarm which stopped the noise but to our horror a few minutes later not one but TWO fire engines turned up. Thank goodness it was not us who set it off and although Dad (Michael) offered to placate the firemen, she went down and confessed.
We toured Boston by underground and foot and saw the Boston Tea Party ship or replica thereof and walked a bit of the Freedom Trail and checked in with Amway and then left early the next morning for Wallingford and Rebecca and Bob, Chris (14) and Andrew (12).
It’s comfortable and welcoming. We saw our first-ever baseball match. (Andrew was playing) did a tour around the river Connecticut and saw where they moor their boat and some rather beautiful Old England villages/small towns. We had supper on Sunday with Bob’s parents who were lovely. Bob works in the Sikorsky helicopter maintenance department where he is a manager of two departments. Rebecca works in a dentist’s practice as a dental nurse and office manager.
The houses here are all made of wood, but the outer wooden slats are covered these days in vinyl cladding. They look rather beautiful.
We saw what we now think was a woodchuck in their garden – great excitement because they thought it was a beaver!
We caught the train down to Philadelphia on Monday early and passed through New York. We did not really see much of the city but that did not worry us. The trains are very comfortable, and the conductors are very friendly, especially as Amway told us wrong when they said we had all the paperwork we needed…They should have also given us tickets to hand over to the conductor, but by dint of looking aged and helpless, they let us off!
Jonathon has just gone. He flew up from Florida to meet us and hired a car which we have been travelling around in all day. He is a great character as ever and is the family entrepreneur with a trucking business with 7 trucks, into a bit of real estate with a big warehouse which he hires out and his daughter was spotted by a talent scout and is now earning a lot of money as a model. She is 16 and into her last year at high school which she does in between modelling. Jonathon was full of memories of his time at Mulu (1968) and admitted to nicking Dad’s whiskey (aged 17) while we were downplaying bridge with my Mum and Dad and then watering up the bottle to hide the fact. He says he used to sit by the player, playing Nat King Cole and sipping whisky. He is going to email you, Piers, about a scheme for exporting some special ferns needed by all flower arrangers in the UK..
Tomorrow, we drive down to Betsy’s place in Virginia in her old jalopy. She told us she lived out in the Bunies so I spent ages trying to find these hills on the map before we left but it transpires that in the Bunies means out in the outback sort of thing.
Apart from the first three nights when my body clock kept waking me up at 3 am, we are sleeping like logs, eating like kings, feeling on top of the world and revelling in it all.
Much love to you all, take care We love you Mum and Dad
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