Friday, July 3

I woke up with the need to go somewhere. I think the fact that we cannot go to Belgium this summer is in my subconscious and I was feeling sorry for myself for missing out on a vacation. 🙂

Where could we go on a short road trip? Then I got a good idea. It has been many years since we drove to Morgantown (PA) to where I began volunteering in TFC’s Northeast Region Office – at Melvin and Joyce Mast’s farmhouse. After that we could go to Gap (through Amish country) and end up at our favorite Amish bakeshop for a soft pretzel and soft ice cream.

I asked Cerwin if he wanted to go for a drive and proposed my plan. He liked it and within an hour we were on the road.

We weren’t far from home when we came upon this team. My attention was drawn to the gait of the one on the right because it didn’t match the other two, then Cerwin pointed out that the two on the left are mules and the one on the right is a horse. I wondered if the Mennonite man was training the horse to be on the road – or just going somewhere. Sometimes horses are trained for road travel by older horses or mules.

We stopped at The Village Farm Market near Hinkeltown for a few grocery items and put them in an ice chest we had along for that purpose. Cerwin loves their pies.

We saw these young mules near Morgantown, just before turning onto Twin County Road.

They looked pretty in the morning sunshine.

Best Road. I wonder how many time I turned onto that road during the time I worked for Mel and Joyce in their TFC home office?

I made the one-hour trip once a week from 1977 to 1987. When TFC got a computer, I went a second day a week (and got paid for that one) from 1987 to 1990 when the region office moved to our house upon the death of Mel.

The first sight of the farm brought back many great memories.

By the time I started working for them, Mel and Joyce lived in the basement of the large farm house. The house was large enough for three families. Their son Herb and his wife Rhoda were running the farm and lived on the east end side of the house, there was a tenant on the west side, and Mel and Joyce lived in the basement.

This is where I learned how to do bulk mailings for the post office. In my partial retirement from TFC I am still doing that today – howbeit in quite a different way. 🙂 Back then I organized the newsletter mailings by writing zip codes on large brown paper bags and lining them up on a long church bench that separated their living room from their dining room. Today everything is computerized.

I don’t remember the year – maybe the mid-80s – when Joyce’s sister Lois and her husband, Wilbur, moved to this house and Mel and Joyce moved to the one next door – near the end of the farm lane. The office moved to the basement of this house, which gave us much more room for desks, copiers and printers.

After a bit of reminiscing we headed over the mountain toward Honey Brook then through the countryside toward Gap.

We found this all-metal trailer to be unique and didn’t figure out what it was.

Windmills in this area are usually a sign that it is an Amish farm.

The landscape and farms are beautiful.

In some areas the corn fields looked dry and the leaves were curled up instead of open like they should be.

The roads are grooved and marked from having many steel-wheeled buggies and farm equipment traveling over them.

After a bit we arrived at our favorite soft pretzel and ice cream shop that is run by Amish. If you are from our area you will notice the poster of the missing Amish girl (right) who it now appears was kidnapped. Her home was not too far from this area. There was an arrest this past weekend, but she has not yet been found.

We had fun sharing a picnic table with three sisters and one of their husbands who were from Maryland. It was quite busy while we were eating, but a large group and a tour bus left before we did. I took this picture as we were leaving.

They are known for their delicious soft pretzels.

I saw sugar peas advertised at a roadside stand at a time we didn’t think of stopping, but checked everyone after that and even asked a few places – but sugar peas were over and no longer available.

We did get some new potatoes at one of the stands.

That was a fun morning and early afternoon. Now I have the need for a backroad drive out of my system for a few weeks. 🙂