The Rally's Over

We left the rally on Friday morning before daylight. They had scheduled a cleanout by the "honey" wagon for that morning, so we wanted out before they came and blocked up the driveways. Rains on Thursday created a good bit of mud, so I held my breath while easing out through it. No problems though. We thoroughly enjoyed the rally and seeing old friends.





The Sugarcreek rally is the best bargain in WBCCI without doubt. For $126 per couple, we were entitled to nine nights of parking, five nights of great entertainment and door prizes, six or seven tours a day for three days, ice cream, popcorn, beans, and a buggy ride on Thursday, with transportation to and from the Swiss Festival in downtown Sugarcreek on Friday and Saturday and a lot of good fellowship - all in the beautiful, rolling, Amish countryside for environment. For a little extra cost there were optional dinners scheduled three evenings in an Amish home, a golf tournament, and baked goods, and apple sauce cooked on site. Even though the golf tournament was rained out, the week was wonderful.



As I write this we are at son John's animal farm in Meherrin, Virginia - Alpacas everywhere.

Thursday In The Park

With all the tours over, all the planned activities were inside the park this day. An Amish family came to make "putt-putt" ice cream; another Amish family came to make apple butter; an Amish couple came to give buggy rides around the park; our hosts popped popcorn and cooked beans and ham in seven large black iron pots. The latter is always the highlight of Thursday at the rally. All that happened despite the fact that it rained most of the day. That's a usual occurrence at Sugarcreek for at least one or two days.
















The ice cream was made with an old, but rebuilt John Deere single cylinder engine connected with belts to two 20 quarter churns. Everyone got a huge dish to enjoy. The apple butter was cooked over a wood fire in a big iron pot, then ladled into pint jars to sell at $3.50 per pint. Buggy rides were free to anyone who wanted to ride. The popcorn and beans were provided by our hosts, the Land-of-Lakes unit of WBCCI as part of the rally fee. So many beans were left over that they begged over the PA system for everyone to come back for seconds. We filled a 2-quart dutch over twice for future use. It was all good.

Wednesday's tours

On this day we visited stables where horses were brought to auction, a commercial printing plant, a harness and boot store, a country store in the boonies, a ice cream freezer plant, a buggy wheel works, and a clock builder. It's amazing how these cottage industries among the Amish prosper.











Most of the shops were located on the family farm, often miles off the beaten path. The printer had modern computerized equipment in a brand new building. The wheel works was in an old barn using machines that dated bact to the mid-1800s. The ice cream freezer shop made motorized churns that used old, refurbished John Deere engines. The largest one sold for over $7,500.00. The clock maker's shop was as clean and neat as a shop could be, and though he had no electricity, the windows brought in enough light to make the room very bright. All his equipment ran on either air or hydraulic motors with an exhaust system in the floor that vacuumed out most of the dust. He crafted the cabinets of all his clocks from scratch, using oak, cherry, and walnut wood mostly.

Just realized that the Warther Museum has a web site. To get a little better taste of that amazing place you can see more of it at http://www.warthers.com/

Tuesday's Tours

On Tuesday’s tour the highlight was the Warther Museum. Words just can’t describe this place with any degree of accuracy. It’s just a phenomenal display of one man’s carvings. Here’s a picture of his carving of the Lincoln funeral train, done in ebony and ivory.



This is a picture of a single steam engine with over 9,000 parts, again done in ebony and ivory.



This is just one view of the beautiful hills around Sugarcreek.



This is but one of some 30 beautiful showhorses being housed and groomed for showing at the Jacobs Showhorse Stables.



These quarterhorses are owned by others who pay big money to have their horses cared for during their show career. Inside the stables the controls are highly complex. Temperature is maintained at a constant 72 degrees. The stalls are cleaned twice a day. The horses are exercised in a controlled fashion once a day. They’re fed twice a day in measured amounts. Even the length of time the lights are one is controlled. When showtime comes, they’re taken aboard an elaborate trailer to the show site and judged for conformation much like the dog shows that are more publicized.

We also visited another cheese factory, a furniture store, and a radio and TV museum, but only caught a picture of the cheese factory.

Tours Around the Amish Community

The first three days of the rally are devoted to tours around the Amish countryside. On Monday we visited an Amish school – Pleasant Valley School – a cheese factory, a milk can factory, a woodcraft plant, a flour mill, and a leather shop. The school was the highlight of the day. These Amish children are a delight – clean, innocent, beautiful, intelligent, and very well behaved. There were 27 students in eight grades – actually seven grades because there was no one in the eighth grade. The teachers introduced the boys and girls (lots of Yoders, Millers, Troyers and Stutzmans). And we each introduced ourselves to them. Then they sang a song for us about Jesus before starting their work. It was obvious that every child was serious about learning. This was a new school – open only three years. The one large room was divided by a curtain – the older children on one side, the younger on the other. Each grade (5 or 6 kids) would go in turn up to a table in the front where the teacher led them through an arithmetic drill. Then they returned to their desks to work in a workbook on their own. The teachers were young girls, maybe 16 to 19 years old. There were about fifty of us Airstreamers, so we were divided into two groups. While one group was with the students, the other was downstairs asking questions of an older Amish couple about the school and about their faith.



The Amish don’t allow pictures, so the picture here is of the cheese factory we visited. A table full of gourds, squash, and pumpkins was for sale out front.

Sugarcreek, Ohio (written Sat. - Sept. 23rd)

We are now in Sugarcreek, Ohio at Winklepleck Park, the site of the Swiss Festival Airstream rally – the most popular rally within WBCCI. Sugarcreek is on the edge of Holmes County, the home of the largest Amish community in the world. It’s a beautiful area with rolling hills, open farmland, lots of horsedrawn buggies - and lots of tourists.



The picture shows where we are parked at the rally site. We have the motorhome on the left. The trailer and red pickup on the right belong to Fred and Sara Creighton. We met with the Creightons in Fort Chiswell, Virginia and traveled together to Sugarcreek, arriving late Friday afternoon.

After registering for the rally on Saturday, we drove over to the little village of Charm where we first shopped the Keim Lumber Company, then ate lunch at Grandma’s Homestead Restaurant. Kemi Lumber is a first class hardware store with as complete a storeroom as can be imagined. The Homestead Restaurant features Amish cooking – excellent food. After lunch we visited an Amish leather shop and bought some belts.

Back at the rally site, the evening’s entertainment featured a three man musical comedy routine. A singer-guitarist, a banjo player, and an accordion player entertained for an hour. It was a good routine.

On The Road Again

On the road again. Not sure when the next time will be that we get to a WiFi hotspot and can do a posting, but stay tuned. Will try to stay as current as possible as to our whereabouts. Our first stop on Friday (tomorrow) will be at a campground in Fort Chiswell, Virginia where we will meet Fred and Sara Creighton before going into the rally site at Sugarcreek, Ohio. Sugarcreek is on the edge of the largest Amish community in the U.S. - Holmes County. We'll be there about a week. Our cell phone number is (706)781-7798 if needed.

The Morning Sun

A little sun, a little mist - and voila! - a touch of the Master Painter's handiwork on this quiet and peaceful mid-September morning. Picture made from our front porch.

Bathroom Remodeling Project

This was Ann's project from start to finish - new ceramic tile floor, new paint and hydrangea figured wallpaper, new hi-boy, fast flush commode with a self-closing seat, and new vinyl base mouldings. My only contribution was the base moulding. Of course, it was all done with the able help of Don Woodruff.

The one problem encountered at the outset was when taking out the old commode, we discovered that at some point in the past there had been a leak. The subfloor was rotten all around, but it was dry now. So, that all had to be replaced before proceeding.

Here's some pictures. None show it fully. Too small a room for a good shot.