Amish Country

We stayed at Scenic Hills RV Park, they are a nice, private park and we had a wonderful site. We have never met any people as nice as the people in Amish Country. Our “silly” GPS took us down Hope Street. Which, we thought might be good, however, it ended up being a one lane (for our truck, two lane for buggies) country road. All of the Amish were super nice and all we did was keep waving and running over horse poop. It was definitely a memory!  At one point, our “lovely” GPS took us down yet another country road as we were going to Walmart and we had the windows down in the truck because it was so nice outside and Faith blurted out….ewww, what stinks!!!!  Of course the horse poop was everywhere and it was sometimes hard to avoid. Our truck stands out, it stands out without the boards on top, but we have them, so we are around 9’ tall, we’re kind of hard to miss. All of the Amish sit outside for dinner, with their entire family and eat, talk and watch cars drive by. So, this little country road, that we probably shouldn’t have even been on, was quaint and people stare, yes, even nice people stare, so we wave and keep going.

When we arrived on Friday the town was super busy, which we found out why later, was because it was their fall festival weekend. We decided to let things settle a little and Kevin worked Saturday and Sunday instead of Monday and Tuesday. We spent the weekend riding bikes and playing together. Everything around here closes at 5pm and they are all closed on Sundays. If you want a parking spot, park in the nursery parking lot and get there early! Walk the few blocks to see the whole town, it will be easier on your patience!

Monday we walked around the town of Berlin, not much to see really, a bunch of antique shops, furniture and quilts are super expensive, but I’m sure worth the price. We bought some fresh popcorn, two signs for the outside of the RV, a few cards and misc. other things (by that, I mean more food). We stopped at a bakery called Der Bake Oven, is a very cute and super friendly place to grab some delicious bakery items and coffee. I bought a bunch of stuff from their day old section and brought it back and froze it.  The kids loved it there and they had the best latte I’ve had in a while. After lunch we went to visit the World’s Largest Cuckoo Clock in Sugarcreek, OH. Do you know how large it was? Well, we almost passed it! That’s how large! I had directions that it was on the north east corner (maybe west, I don’t know) and we were sitting at the traffic light and didn’t see it until it was almost too late. We turned around and sat and waited until it hit a half hour and watched the clock. There was also a rocket memorial on the North West corner I couldn’t find right away. We actually parked on that corner! I’m so bad with directions!

Tuesday we went to Lehman’s and shopped there. They had an awesome art display by Paul Weaver where he carved out wood to make 3-D pictures. We bought a coffee mill (I couldn’t bring my big one with me), an axe, a puzzle, some lodge cookware, the kids got a Raggedy Anne and Andy and of course we got some more tasty food. Had a nice lunch in a jail cell….don’t worry, it was a fake one to give the café some character, lol. Lehman’s has a ton of really neat stuff and the kids helped me pick out our next stove! Found apple presses, old clothes washers, grain mills, you name it. Very neat stuff!

Wednesday we went to Heini’s Cheese Chalet to view the factory and of course…taste cheese! We tasted some very good cheese. Our favorite was the raw milk cheese. Our least favorite was the cheese fudge. Yep, just how it sounds, gross! And they had all different flavors, like blueberry and peppermint. We picked up our fridge magnet here and of course, more food…cheese and sausage!

Thursday, Kevin and I had a coffee date back at Der Bake Oven down the street. They had great breakfast food, we admit, we tried the sausage gravy and biscuits…Better than Bob Evans! If you have a vehicle any bigger than a car, such as an SUV or truck, don’t even bother trying to get in the parking lot, just park across the street and walk. After we drove back to the RV we decided to go apple pickin’ at Hillside Orchard. We had so much fun! The kids’ first ever experience and they loved it. They asked if we can have apple trees at our next house. The kids tried apple cider for the first time and LOVED it. We bought some Amish homemade apple cider vinegar, pickles, homegrown veggies and of course a gallon of apple cider. We decided to skip the chocolate store, I know right! We’re running out of room to store food, lol. We have tasted so many new things, some good and some not so good.

We skipped the farm tour in Walnut Creek mainly because we found out that it is an exotic animal farm with giraffes and zebras. I was expecting more farmy type animals, you know? People here are definitely nicer. Some places are meant for tourists, some places aren’t. We just aren’t the shopping people that this little city is made for. I like to shop, (once a year maybe) usually for clothes and that’s good for me. Walking around antique malls that are 3 stories high with kids in tow and tiny little old knick knacks just isn’t for us. The people who stay there are super friendly and gave us many more suggestions and our newest neighbor gave us some dish washing rags that she made. They are really nice and I wish I could knit like that!  Scenic Hills campground was wonderful and Amish country is a very nice place to visit.