We slept in a little bit, but not too long. The woman who cuts my hair told me about a nearby Amish bakery that makes the best, still-warm-from-the-oven doughnuts and we wanted in on those! Using a map of the Amish area that the campground provided, we found the bakery. It was located in the basement of one of their homes. It was very small, no bigger than the average living room, but was it ever packed with stuff! They had several different kinds of bread – sourdough, wheat, six grain, and others I can’t remember. They had jams and jellies of every kind. There were several different types of cookies – chocolate chip, oatmeal raisin, snickerdoodles, and more. Pies covered one wall – rhubarb, cherry, peach, apple, custard. Yum! They had chocolate doughnuts plus glazed and sugar-covered. I’ll never eat another store bought doughnut again. I’m spoiled. As we came out of the bakery, we spied an Amish girl who looked like she had Down’s. I wonder about special needs children in the Amish community.

We decided to tour more of the Amish area and headed to an Amish green house. I got a cardinal lobelia for $2.50. A nice one, too. Those prices beat my dad’s plant sale! They had started mums for the fall. They were arranged in these perfect rows, black plastic between them all and a watering system. I’ve never seen anything so neat.

We thought it would be great fun to go to an Amish grocery store. We parked next to the buggy parking. What an amazing place. I could have gotten a huge bag of corn starch for $1.09! I say could have because the trouble is they only take cash or check. I only had my credit card. We had expended our small supply of cash at our previous two stops. Lesson learned – next time we go shopping there, bring cash! It was fun to look around. They had bread mixes and pancake mixes all in bags. Their selection of sprinkles for Christmas cookies and the like was huge! They even carried these cute tin pails I know I could have found a use for and the black stockings the women wear. The trouble is, most of the Amish women I saw were barefoot. This includes in the bakery and in the grocery store. I guess they don’t have to adhere to the sanitary regulations regular businesses do. When we came out of the store, there were a couple of buggies parked next to us. In one was several Amish children, all staring at us. We were staring at them, so I think we were even.

Doug said maybe we should become Amish. The simplicity of their lives is certainly appealing. But when I told him about the strict directives in their lives and the consequences for breaking them, he changed his mind. But what a reminder to slow down and enjoy our lives more. It was a beautiful drive and a great time. I can’t wait to go back.

When we returned to our campsite, Brian was up and getting himself some breakfast. We headed over to the pool for one last swim. It had been raining, but let up enough for everything to dry. After lunch, we were able to pack up our camper and head home.

We had such a great time, one of our best camping trips. If I hadn’t had to work the next day, we would have stayed an extra day. They have these little sleeping cabins and I’m trying to convince my sister and her family to come with us next year.

Sorry, out of respect for the Amish, I don’t have any pictures of them. Here are some miscellaneous pictures of our trip. The one of the turtle is a snapping turtle laying her eggs. That was something I’d never seen in person before. Cool! We had to be careful not to back over the nest when we were leaving. I hope others are being careful of it, too. Enjoy the pics!