July 25

It had been a stay-at-home-with-not-a lot-happening-kind of -week, so by Saturday morning I was ready to go for a backroad drive – and Cerwin liked the idea as well. He doesn’t have the need to get out of the house like I do, because he picks up milk and silage samples for DHIA three mornings a week, plus he goes to the TFC Global office at least once a week to mow the lawn and take care of any other maintenance things they may need done.

This time we decided to go over the mountain to the north side of Lebanon and explore some of the countryside in that area.

Our destination was a water garden display that was advertised on the internet. When we got there, we realized that it is no longer a place for visitors, but we drove in and talked to a man attending some plants. He asked if he can help us. So we asked a few questions. He said they no longer have a butteryfly house or water garden display, but are now only handling water plants. He even opened the gift shop for me, which is usually closed. He said I could look through the things they had left. There were beautiful gardening things, but I didn’t find anything I needed. We were impressed by his kindness and the others who were working there – and the water plants they had for sale were beautiful and healthy-looking.

After that we decided to go to our favorite butcher shop – Bur-Pak – and get some of their delicious sweet bologna. Our GPS took us through an Amish area where we saw several buggies.

Cerwin did an almost instant U-turn as we passed these signs. This is why we take an ice chest (with a block of ice) on these kind of drives.

When I saw an Amish lady attending the stand, I knew we were in for a treat. Her young son was inside taking care of the sales. She had just come out to see what was left. I chose a lemon sponge and Cerwin chose an apple pie.

The next stop was Bur-Pak near Myerstown. We bought three packs of Sweet Bologna (for the freezer), one pack of Hillbilly Bacon and a pack of Pork Roll. We had never heard of Hillbilly Bacon, but I liked that it was round – perfect for the open-faced sandwiches we began talking about on this drive.

I kept hoping to find a roadside stand where they were selling tomatoes, but we didn’t find any.

I like the wheel shadows.

Because I needed tomatoes for open-faced sandwiches, we stopped here.

They were shipped in from somewhere, but that didn’t matter because they would be broiled for this meal.

We took the scenic route through Middle Creek Wildlife Management Area on the way to Fox Meadows Creamery.

We didn’t expect to see much wildlife – for two reasons: it was the middle of the day and there is not much going on here this time of year. We saw a few Snow Geese or Trumpeter Swans at a distance. I was hoping we would get closer, but that didn’t happen, so all I could tell was that there were white geese or swans on that body of water.

This black swallowtail butterfly was the highlight of our wildlife viewing.

Cerwin said, “Look up there. Is that an eagle?” Nope, just a turkey buzzard. Turkey buzzards are important to our ecosystem, but are quite common in our area.

I enjoyed the drive through the many acres of meadowland and woods.

The lake was quiet – except for several people in canoes.

Then it was time to go to our side of the mountain and head toward Fox Meadows.

Our purpose for stopping here was a half-gallon of Madagascar Vanilla ice cream, but since it was lunchtime, we shared a turkey panini. It was fabulously delicious.

Who are those masked ladies? As soon as Cerwin took this picture, he said this view won’t work, lets try the other view.

Me with our granddaughter Jana – who works here. I was glad she was waitressing so we had time to nab her for a photo. She had to keep her mask on, so I put mine on to match her. That was a delightful bonus to our morning.

Sunday lunch was open-faced sandwiches: with Hillbilly bacon, tomato and cheese.

My recipe: I fried the bacon a bit, then put a slice on a piece of bread and placed them on a cookie sheet and broiled in the oven until the bacon sizzled a bit. I removed the cookie sheet and added tomato slices on top of the bacon and grilled until the tomatoes were hot. I removed the tray from the oven and added cheese slices. I broiled this until the cheese bubbled and turned slightly brown. (The Hillbilly bacon was perfect for this because one slice fit a piece of bread. Much nicer than regular bacon.

To complete lunch, I had a slice of lemon sponge pie and Cerwin had a slice of apple pie. This picture makes me want to go back to that Amish stand, but we don’t remember what road we were on. We could go back to the water plant place and put BurPak in our GPS. 🙂

I took a picture of my slice of lemon sponge, but didn’t get one of Cerwin’s apple pie.

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We are beginning to feel like my grandparents. Both couples loved taking drives after they retired. Cerwin didn’t remember his grandparents doing that, but they may have enjoyed that as well.