Trip planned by Sarah - part 2

If you read "part 1" you know that we already had a great day. Having a good walk does your body good and seeing all that beauty does your soul good. 

Now we are on the way driving to the Red Caboose Motel on Paradise Lane in Ronks, PA. Google Maps says the fastest route from Great Falls Park would be 2 hr 12 min but it was rush hour around Washington D.C. and Baltimore by now. When in Pennsylvania the driving is mainly on rural roads. I found it quite an adventure. Soon we encountered Amish buggies. When they came towards us it was easy. When you were behind one it was more of a challenge because the cars behind you wanted you to overtake of course. Most roads were rather narrow. But it was all very interesting. We had forgotten that it was Ascension Day and the Amish celebrated the holiday and did not work. More buggies were about than usual. 

Finally we arrived, checked in and went to our respective cabooses. Sarah and family were assigned to number 8. We had number 21. But the boys had seen the petting zoo and were eager to visit there. It was good entertainment for them. The animals were very nice. 

Soon it was time for dinner. Sarah had made reservations in the attached restaurant. All very satisfactory.

After we had time just for a walk-about. The boys wanted to climb up the Viewing Tower. You can climb to the top of the 50' silo for a spectacular unobstructed view of the surrounding farm land, the Strasburg Rail Road and, of course, the Red Caboose Motel (so says the website). Of course we did that. No shortage of steps.

But the view is really nice.

Time to settle down. The adults enjoyed a glass of wine from the bottle we had bought in the restaurant. The boys watched some TV from the bunk beds. They loved those beds.

At 6:51 am I got a text from Sarah that the boys had sighted hot air balloons from their window. James and I were on the other side and could not see them. I quickly put some clothes on and rushed outside. It was a lovely morning. That red balloon was truly a sight to see how it landed just there. Memories came flooding back when James and I had enjoyed a hot air balloon ride in Turkey (here).  

Back to our caboose to get ready. I could make coffee and cut up an apple for our breakfast. That's really all we wanted. 

But we found the others having breakfast and joined them for a good cup of coffee. There were nice chats going on with the waitresses and other visitors.

Ha-ha, and of course back to the petting zoo. 

We had to wait around. There were Amish buggy rides advertised and that is what we wanted to do before we had to leave. We had tickets for something for 11:30 am in the next town. Nobody knew when exactly the rides would start or when somebody would show up. I dialed the phone number on the brochure and it said 10 am which would give us enough time.

Waiting is hard.

It was a good opportunity for Sarah to take a video of the boys singing and saying 'Happy Birthday' to cousin William. He turns 11 years old today. But it is a school day for him so we can't really call in the morning.

Ha-ha, and back on the fence ... being upset that the train in the distance is not coming closer.

We decided to check out so if the ride happens we can leave immediately afterwards in time for the next event booked. The boys wanted to see our caboose again.

I asked whether they could look whether Omi and Papa had lost something underneath the bed. Oh yes, they did that. Nothing though.

Our caboose has another bed on the floor upstairs with not much room to the roof (similar to those tiny houses). Very cute. They wanted to check it out but I didn't let them mess up the bed. I can't imagine making that bed fresh.

And then David, the amish gentleman, arrived. He was brought by somebody in a car because Amish donck 't own/drive cars themselves. His horses were in the barn next to the silo. Hitching Molly up was quick and off we went.

Caleb and Owen were eager to sit in the front.

Our driver took us on a very nice 25 minute route. He was very talkative and explained a lot.

Cropped another photo to show the amish farmer turning his hey with his team of two horses. When we had waited we had seen a farmer work with a team of 6 horses. 

We turned into a side street where there were small stores/stalls with handmade things. A young girl came to the buggy with a tray to offer us some home made baked goods and drinks. Sarah bought a lemonade and James some cookies. 

It was a gorgeous day and we enjoyed the landscape.

David talked about Amish life but soon we were back at the hotel.

Along the cabooses Caleb got a chance to hold the reins and then Owen too which made them happy of course.

Just when we pulled into the place where we had climbed on Molly the horse did what the red triangle sign wrote about. Can you read it?

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Don't Step in Exhaust

And then we quickly went to our cars and left. The next event was a lot of fun. But about that in 'part 3'.

Trip planned by Sarah - part 1

Ideally we all would have liked to wish William a happy birthday in person but because he could not miss school and accommodations in Nashville are difficult right now that just didn't work out but Sarah was off two days and wanted some family time. She planned an incredible long weekend for her family and James and I were welcomed to join in whatever we could/wanted to do. Up to just a few days before I wasn't sure whether my back would let me do a more extensive walk. 

Lately I had felt much better though. James and I had gone for walks and I actually could show16 days with more than 10,000 steps/day in a row. We decided to join the first day Thursday May 13.

We left our houses about the same time to meet at Great Falls National Park in about 2 hours for us in Virginia close to DC. The drive is mostly on I-95 which is notorious for bad traffic but outside of rush hour it was not bad. There is a big parking lot next to the visitor center and a huge picnic area. As it was lunch time that was the first thing we did. Sarah and I had packed picnics. 

Sarah had studied the map and suggested our hike. Excellent choice.

The hike started out with the three fall overlooks. This is # 1.

The photos will not do justice to how beautiful everything was. The overlooks are fun but so many rocks ... irresistible for the boys not to climb on. I was very happy that Dad and Mommy were in charge. Omi would have had a heart attack. And, of course, I had to take great care to be safe climbing those rocks myself. But yes, it was a lot of fun. 

Outlook # 2

Outlook # 3

We watched for quite a while to see what birds we could see. And yes, there were quite a number of different ones. The first photo is my attempt to catch one of the herons. Can you see it standing on the rocks? Might have been a couple who were diving for food and majestically circling around.

Can you see which little place the photo above is in the photo below? I can't believe my phone still could do that close-up so sharp. Wonder whether my expensive Sony could have done that? Have not used it in years.

The three outlooks are close to the visitor center / picnic area. Then the 'real' hike started. 

Looking into a creek from one of the bridges. Oh my... did we count 7 or 9 snakes? A ranger we talked with later told us that these were totally harmless. Well, that's nice to know.

Sarah had linked together two trails which made a nice loop. Back at the visitor center a ranger told us that they boys should become junior rangers. A little paper work ... answering just some questions with letters or drawings. Caleb is pretty good in writing himself. The twins of course needed to dictate to an adult.

Swearing in! Promise to protect nature etc ... Owen told me later he didn't really want to be a junior ranger because he didn't want to have to work. The ranger had added in that they also should keep there rooms clean, ha-ha.

This altogether had been great. An outing highly to recommend. But it was time to leave. We had quite a drive to the place were we had reserved rooms. Very special rooms. Don't miss the next blog!