Katelyn's First Road Trip (Day 2 - August 4)

We got up around 8 the next morning. We weren’t really thrilled with this campground. Our site was not in a good location. If you picture the letter V, we were at the tip of it. So, everyone was looking at us, especially the people to the right of us. I don’t know if it was because of Sandy – maybe they had never seen anything like her before. :) Whatever it was, it creeped us out a little, especially Katelyn! But she still said she had a really fun time camping for the first time in Sandy.

After putting everything away, we left to look for some breakfast. We first stopped at a bakery/gift shop and then went to the Bird-in-Hand Market. They had lots of good food there. We decided on some pastries, K a chocolate cream filled donut, Doug an apple fritter, and I got a bear claw. We ate them in Sandy – very yummy!

Next we went down the road to Abe’s Buggy Rides. Here we got to ride in an actual Amish buggy. Katelyn sat up front, Doug and I in the back. It was a thirty minute ride. We asked the girl (who was probably about 20) lots of questions about the Amish culture. She said she started driving the buggy on her own when she was around 10 years old. The horses start training to lead the buggies when they are one. They start pulling them when they are 2-2 ½. We asked her about school – the kids go until 8th grade – they have one teacher with an aide in a one room schoolhouse. They normally have 20-30 kids in the school. The students are assigned work and mostly work on their own until the teacher comes to their group. She said most drivers on the road are respectful. It was interesting – some facts to share with my students when we study PA.










After this we drove to the small town of Lititz. We went to the Julius Sturgis Pretzel House. Here we learned how the Sturgis pretzel business started and a little about making pretzels. We also got to make a pretzel out of dough (not to keep or eat). We got a bag of pretzels and bought a soft pretzel before we left. We walked around the town for a little and then stopped at a restaurant called The Lititz Pantry. We pigged out and then walked back to Sandy. We stopped at a Cupcakery and got Chels and Katelyn a cupcake. Then we headed home!

Katelyn slept most of the way home. This was probably one of hottest rides in the Westy to date. I think Katelyn thought she’d stay coolest if she was asleep and didn’t have to think about the heat! Overall we had a fun time - Katelyn said she liked it and wanted to do a Westy trip again! ~Jess

Katelyn’s First Road Trip! (August 3, 2010)

Today we embarked on an overnight adventure with Katelyn (our 10 year old daughter). We found some factory tours we thought she might enjoy. The first stop on our road trip was the Wolfgang Factory in York, PA. This is a company that sells chocolate (a lot of schools use them as fund raisers). We had to wear hairnets and Doug had to wear a beard net! Too funny! It is a rather small business – we toured three small buildings where the candy making process took place. It’s a free tour and you get a couple samples of their candy after the tour. They also have a small area of seconds, so we got some of that, of course! :)





We were getting a little hungry, so on our way to the next destination, we stopped at a small place to eat called Collinsville Drive In. We ate outside at a picnic table with a nice mountain view in the distance. Katelyn had her first pizza burger – she loved it, we split some fries, and each had a milkshake. Good food at nice prices! When the one worker brought out our food, he asked us if Sandy was ours. He said they like to take pictures of unusual cars that come to their place. Of course, we let him take a picture – not sure what he’s going to do with it??





Next we drove to the Lancaster area – Nottingham to be exact. This is the location of the Herr’s Factory. This was a much bigger place. We got to see how they made pretzels, nachos, and chips. We got to taste chips right out of the oven – they were still warm. Very tasty! This tour was also free and we got a free bag of chips. At their little store they had all different kinds of their products (all kinds of flavors of chips). We decided to get a couple of each kind of snack and then do a taste test down at the beach next week! We thought that would be fun!
We left here and drove to the campground – Mill Bridge Village Camp Resort. We checked in and found out the pool was closing soon. We were all pretty hot so we decided to take a dip. Katelyn met some kids from New York that she played with for a little. We started to get pretty hungry, so we went back to the campsite. Doug figured out a way to make a clothesline using Sandy and the utility post so we could hang our wet towels and bathing suits. K and I got her “bed” ready. She was pretty excited to sleep up top! I finished getting the rest of the stuff situated while she went out to help Doug start the fire. He gave her some pointers and together they got a pretty good fire started! We roasted hot dogs and marshmallows. It was fun. We had some visitors of the animal kind. Who would have guessed there would be a family of cats hanging out with us?? The kittens were very cute, but we didn’t want to encourage them! They almost jumped into the Westy – in fact, at one point Katelyn said one was in it, but them jumped out! We had fun at the campfire, then went inside Sandy. We played Uno (Doug won), then headed for a last bathroom run before it was lights out. ~Jess