Babies Everywhere

Tuesday we spent some quality time at Detroit Diesel to have them check out what exactly was leaking behind our rear wheel. We got there at 9:30 am and parked her in the middle of the parking lot. While we were waiting we met Mike who was waiting for the transmission to be fixed on his Endeavor motorhome. He was a teacher and had two little boys (11 and 9) and a wife who loved to camp and they started when the boys were babies. We were explaining that we didn’t have a clue what our problem was, and he was so nice, that he offered his house in case we had to leave Bella overnight. Fortunately, the problem was only a leak around the fan housing which used power steering fluid for lubrication. The seal needed to be replaced, so when we get to Florida, we’ll have to look into that. We left a little lighter in the pocketbook, but not as bad as we feared. Whew. Dodged a bullet on this one.

I was planning to make a stop in Lancaster to visit the Amish country on the way to our next stop in Maryland, but Gary decided to visit there today. Our timing was perfect; we parked, walked in to buy a ticket and walked in to the next tour. The house we toured was built in 1817, the farm in 1820. In the early 18th century, many Amish and Mennonites emigrated to Pennsylvania for a variety of reasons. It was extremely interesting to hear how they live their lives so differently from us, and yet among us. The self-guided farm tour was revealing. We met two baby goats, two baby sheep and two baby donkeys. Gary worked on a tobacco farm when he was small, and just the smell of the tobacco barn brought back many memories of his childhood. It’s cool that smells can do that.

We had a plain and fancy lunch at the Good and Plenty Amish Restaurant, and I remarked that I would like one of their tablecloths. It was heavy, shiny plastic and we had been looking for a quality picnic tablecloth. The waitress checked and yep, they sell them downstairs in the gift shop. Yay. I asked where they were, but they weren’t packaged, it was sold by the yard. Even better! I found the material we wanted and pulled out the end, but it was only about a yard long. Do you have more? After a rummage in the back room, they came out with a different roll. But this one only had a yard and a half on it. More searching and out came another roll. This was almost two yards long – great. At 3.99 a yard, it was a bargain. Strange Pennsylvania Dutch souvenir, but hey, it works for us.

Tomorrow we leave for Maryland which is not more than 3 hours away, so we can take our time in the morning. It will be an adventure, because for the first time, we will be BOONDOCKING – at Walmart! No hookups. We will fill our water tank here, use our generator for power and be fine. Gary wants to sleep with his gun under his pillow – macho, macho man. He says he’d rather be judged by 12 than carried by 6. Cute. It would be cool to meet another Rver - we’ll let you know!