Leo Family in Lancaster County- Part 3

Before I begin, I just noticed that yesterday I published my 100th post, as well as received my 5,000th hit on this blog. Thanks for the interest y'all. Here we go:

Some things in life are cool, but not nearly worth the money they cost. Like a $9.00 fried dough at the Woodstock Fair (after shelling out 40 bucks for the family to just walk through the turnstile). Today's activity was NOT one of those things. This was so cool and unique that it'd be a value at twice the price. I'm talking about the:

Strasburg Railroad!!! This locomotive is the "Old 475", built in 1905 and beautifully restored by Strasburg Railroad to perfect working order. The 475 pulled us along a 9 mile ride through some of the most picturesque Amish farmland in all of Lancaster County. 40 bucks for the whole family to ride. This train was the real deal. We chose to ride in the "open air car" located at the very front of the train. The 475 hitched to the front of our car and basically rode backwards, pulling us through the countryside.

Hitching up to the Open Air Car

The boy looks a little nervous...but he was psyched (and a little scared)

The girls are ready

Chugging through the countryside, the horn was deafening when we hit a railroad crossing.
Along the way, we were treated to a bunch of different sites. Here's a shot of a "traditional" Amish home:

Many people think that the Amish live in like some thatched roof house built with rough timbers and heat their homes with dried cow patties. Not the case....these Amish are living large!! Some of the most tricked out homes you'll ever see....just no electricity or phone. I dug seeing the HUGE clotheslines that these home sported. Some of them had to be 50 yards long. MTV needs to do a show: "Cribs: Amish Edition". There were tons of old timey farmhouses, but just as many crazy-cool new pads. These places were styling.

Here's a shot of a traditional Amish schoolhouse. Most Amish kids are taught in a one-room schoolhouse taught by a single Amish woman. They have 20-30 kids per school, so there's lots of them throughout the countryside. They are close enough to the farms so that the kids can walk or take their scooters to school. We caught these kids out at recess.
At the halfway point in our trip, they unhitched the engine at a switching station, brought it to the front of the train, making our car the "caboose" and pulled us back to the station. As we were pulling in we saw:

A full-on Thomas the Tank Engine. Pretty cool stuff. We ate lunch at the station and then said goodbye. We figured that it was time for Ice Cream at Lapp Valley Farm.

Chrissy snapped this shot of Amish kid's scooters parked outside their schoolhouse. I gotta tell you...these kids FLEW on these things all over the rolling hills of Lancaster County...very cool to see.
It is rare that you get to meet the cows that make the milk that becomes your Ice Cream. That is unless you are eating Ice Cream made on an Amish Mennonite farm.



After rubbing noses with these guys, we headed up to the parlor and got ourselves the absolute best ice cream we've ever had. You'd think that Breyer's tasted like school paste after having this stuff.

Ivy got Strawberry, Gavin got Black Raspberry. My boy is drawn to Black Raspberry Ice Cream like a moth to the flame...just like his old man. Oh yeah....they also had cats....very hungry cats....



By this point in the trip...I was ready to buy me a plot of farmland and never return. I mean...by "modern" standards, our family is fairly "simple". We don't watch much T.V. We homeschool. We garden. We can and preserve our food. We solely burn wood as our cold weather heating source. In many ways, our family is very different from many families around us. If it weren't for the staunch conviction to a religion that I don't fully agree with....it wouldn't take a huge twist of the arm to get me to live this way forever. I'm sure many people have felt the same after visiting this wonderfully intriguing culture.

Now....while the Strasburg RR was super cool. I'm thinking that if we ever come back to Lancaster County, which I'm sure we will, that this will be the coolest way to check out the area:


Part 4 tomorrow.

Leo Family in Lancaster County- Part 2

We awoke from our first night in the camper to an overcast and very chilly Sunday morning. Today was a big day that we had planned for a long time. On this day, we were all headed to Dutch Wonderland!! DW is an amusement park which is designed specifically for younger kids. You won't find crazy pukey roller coasters that twist you into knots at 100 mph, but rather tons of great rides and attractions perfect for kids about 10 and under with an area of really cool rides designed JUST for little little kids (like Ivy).
DW is only open on Sat. and Sun. in the Fall, so this was the only day that we could go. The best part is that the weather kept away the crowds, so it felt like we were sharing this enormous amusement park with like 40 other people.


Marry-Go-Round is good to go!!

The girls, with our nephews in the background

The Famous Dutch Wonderland Pretzel. There's about 4 million families in the United States with this exact same picture.

It was a fantastic time. Unfortunately, our camera broke about an hour into our DW trip and we couldn't get anymore shots. Chrissy's sister took a bunch and will email them to us at some point so I may need to post a supplemental DW photo blog in the future. We had big fun on the rides. Ivy dug the little kids stuff...the teacups and what not. Gavin and I did the Tilt-A-Whirl (in DW land...the Turtle-Whirl) which was one of my favorites as a kid. They also had those old-timey gas powered cars that you can actually steer and accelerate but they are guided on a central rail. We hit those a few times. Gavin LOVED them because he could actually drive them, although I'm pretty sure that I now have a tumor from inhaling the fumes that those things put out.
As cool as they were, nothing, I mean nothing, beat the 2 or 3 turns that we took on the bumper cars. They are never not fun. They are the 1 ride that gets like 10 times better as you get older. There is NOTHING like T-boning some unsuspecting 7 year old and her dad from their blind spot and spinning them around 2 1/2 times. That steering wheel is padded for a reason, sister! Gavin and I were assassins on that thing.
We ended our DW day with a trip on the skyride, which is always such a cool way to take in a park from such a unique angle. The great thing about Dutch Wonderland is that, despite the fact that it's been around for decades, the place looked like it opened last week. Fresh paint on everything. Super clean. Beautifully landscaped.
We didn't get to meet Duke the Dragon, but other than that, we had a blast.

The weather broke a day later and we were treated to cloudless skies and crisp Fall temps for the rest of the week. We spent a good deal of time either chilling at the campsite or wandering around Lancaster County, just taking in the scene....and we stopped at Target and bought a new camera.

At one point early in the week, the boy took a dive off his Strider bike and raspberried up his noggin' pretty good. I know, I know...always wear a helmet...which he usually does...but...the one time he doesn't, you know? Anyway, that's what the big blotch on his forehead is in pretty much any further picture that you see of him.

Why am I so happy? Because I just hit up the:

Welcome to Lancaster County. Bring comfy pants and leave your belt at home...you won't be needing it. I think the unofficial motto for Lancaster County is "If your pants are loose, loop the Smorgasbord one more time".

Our campsite from across the river. The cabin on the right is Susan and Dave's.

Gavin showing the cousins around the camper while Ivy sends a text message. The outside wall of the bathroom doubled as our art gallery for the week. I purposely left those drawings up on the camper wall, just so I can forget about them and then be surprised and nostalgic the next time I set it up.

Most mornings we were greeted by this little guy:

Spotty-Face the Cat!! Not sure if he belonged to the campsite or to the Amish farm nearby but we fed him some buttermilk so he became our little adopted buddy for most of the week.

Chrissy picking up some hot pepper jelly from an Amish farm stand. This was one of our favorite things to do. As we drove along the countryside, many of the Amish farms/homes had farm stand signs at the end of their long driveways. it was cool to be able to go up onto their land and check out their homes, barns, buggies, animals. Sometimes there were mothers and kids manning the farm stand. other times (like the time pictured above) there was no one there...just a price list and "honor box" on the counter. it's great to be able to go to a place where business is still done on the honor system. Anyway, we bought firewood, some amazing jams, jellies, and the BEST homemade root beer that you've ever had at stands like this one.
Anyway, this about wraps up Part 2. Part 3 will include us riding on a 105 year old steam locomotive and the best ice cream ever.
For now, I'll end with a few evening camping pics that I snapped at our site:




Forever fine-tuning the art of "Simple".

Leo Family in Lancaster County- Part 1

Besides trips to New Jersey to visit Chrissy's family, we have never taken a vacation with the kids. In fact, it's been over 10 years since Chrissy and I got away for a weeks vacation together. Last Autumn, Chrissy's sister and her family went to Lancaster County, PA and had a marvelous time. When they got home, Chrissy and her sis immediately started planning for next Autumn...we locked it in...The Leo's were fixing up their camper and heading to Lancaster, PA in October 2011.
Cut to Friday, Sept. 30.
Weather Forecast: 80% chance of heavy rain in Ronks, PA (our Campground location) starting at noon (our scheduled arrival time). I called the campsite and asked if I could check in early. They told me that I could start setting up at daybreak on Saturday, as there was no one in our site the night before. I called the audible and we left MA at 9:30pm and drove straight through the night, arriving at our campsite at 4:45am Saturday. We crashed in the car until daybreak and I started setting up. My goal was to be set up way before the rain hit. Well, the rain never came (until much later), but we were gifted with just about the best site at the campground:




Our site was about 12ft wider than every other creek-side campsite at the campground. We were nestled between 2 HUGE willow trees. If you look in the third picture of Gavin in the chair around the fire ring, you'll see a road in the background. Up the street was several Amish farms and homes, so everyday, we'd see Amish kids on their scooters heading to school. Additionally, several times a day, sometimes a dozen times, we'd see and hear Horse and Buggies or horse-drawn farm equipment riding down the road. It was very cool to be this close to everyday Amish life. Lancaster County, PA boasts the largest Amish community in North America. Nearly 50,000 Amish make their living farming and crafting in this area. This shot was a VERY common sight in the area where we were staying:

Everywhere you turned, the Amish were out and about, living amongst the rat race, slowly and quietly doing their thing. BTW, the "man" driving this wagon was no more than 14 years old. The Amish breed them young, strong, and skilled.
The Southern side of our campground bordered a working Amish farm:



We were good and settled before Chrissy's sister Susan, husband Dave, and their two boys rolled in at around 2pm. They all stayed in a "Camping Cabin" right across the road from our site, no more than 50 ft. away. It was a fantastic setup. They had a great paved driveway for the kids to ride their bikes in, we had a stellar waterfront fire pit for late night hangs....it was just about the perfect setup.
Well...the rain finally came, around 7 pm Saturday night. It rained BUCKETS. We found out later that what we went through that night was nothing compared to what they had experienced down there three weeks earlier which literally had our campsite under 3 ft. of water.
It wasn't nearly that bad for us but, our camper did leak a little in the corners of the bed canvas. We sopped up most of it with towels, but occasionally rolled into a damp corner as we slept. Anyway....as the rain fell into the evening, we decided..."What better to do on a rainy camping night than to":

Get on our rain gear and play and then:


Bake cookies in our camper's tiny oven!!!

It was the first night that we ever spent in our camper.
We were 357 miles from home.
It was pouring rain.
We ate fresh baked cookies and fell asleep dreaming of the next day's activity:


Dutch Wonderland!!!

Stay tuned for part 2.....

From Albatross to Awesome-tross

In 2009, I spent $2,000 on something that I didn't want.
I had no desire for it.
I thought it was a waste of money.
But...my wife really wanted it.
She doesn't ask for much.
So...I bought it.
I bought my brother-in-law's 1990 Coleman pop-up camper. They stopped using it in 2003. It was closed up and parked behind an auto-dealership for 6 years. It was a quick sale. He and I popped it up together....it was dingy and smelled like mouse pee. I still bought it.....although I didn't want to.
In the Spring of 2010...I hauled it north from New Jersey to Massachusetts and parked it in my side yard..I popped it up one more time, only to reveal some significant structural damage to the interior roof caused by a water leak. I closed it up ...and let it sit. I was still not convinced that it had any value whatsoever. I knew that I'd get around to looking into it sooner or later. Or maybe I'd talk Chrissy into just getting rid of it.
Well.....sooner or later became October 2011.....we planned a camping week in western PA with Chrissy's twin sister and her family....It was time to get to gettin' and rebuild and restore this albatross.
2 weeks ago, I pulled into the front yard and set it up **insert red-neck, hick joke about having a camper set up in your front yard here** There was much more mouse damage, droppings, and awful urine-smelling foulness than I had expected. At first, I was ready to stick it on the curb with a "free" sign on it.
But....
I got to work.
The first order of business was pressure washing the outside and then to the structural stuff. My grandfather and father have blessed me, generationaly-speaking, with a fairly well-rounded workshop. I've pretty much got on hand everything I need to build, weld, grind, drill, cut, torch, bolt, wash, repair, rebuild, anything that comes my way.
After day 1....I had repaired the structural stuff...but I still didn't want the camper. Then came the cleaning.
I spent a few hours everyday just scrubbing, cleaning, scrubbing, cleaning....bleach-water became my best friend. I must have pulled 5 million pebbles of mouse poo out of this thing. We took down all the curtains, took off mattress pads, and ran them through the washer a dozen times. I rented a carpet/upholstery cleaner and cleaned the daylights out of the dinette cushions. I should have taken pictures of the entire process....just to remember how utterly disgusting this mouse-motel was....but I didn't.

Anyway....the dust settled today. She's back. No longer an albatross...but rather a Phoenix, rising from the mouse-crap laden ashes....my "brand new" 1990 Coleman Plantation camper:

Here she is from the outside. She's a beast. 26 1/2 ft. long when it's all opened up. I had to patch a few spots on the canvas where the mice chewed through. I found a place online that will replace all the canvas brand new for a grand....maybe in a few years. For now....I need to settle on a home-grown solution.

Here's a shot from the back-bed looking across the galley. It's something like 160 sq. ft. of living space...bigger than my first dorm room. BTW...the little girl doesn't come standard...I added that accessory myself :^)

Sink, Fridge, 3 burner stove with oven...cuz you never know when you might want fresh baked cookies while camping. This beast also flaunts a hot water heater, furnace, 2 queen beds, air conditioner and....

A hard-walled shower and....

turlet....privacy, baby...dig it.

Anyhow...today, I worked most of the morning on it...finishing up the details....Tonight was pretty much the first night that It was all set up...all cleaned...and restored...and ready to go. Well...In true Leo Family fashion...there was only one thing to do:

Eat dinner in it!! Hot dogs, beans, and beer....a good old American meal for a good old American camper.
We hung out in it afterwards....jumped on the beds...did some puzzles...ate some cookies...watched a movie....




In 2 weeks we're hitching up this baby and cruising out to Amish Country, PA for a week of camping. The Amish make a lifestyle out of generational blessing, fixing what they break, making what they can, restoring what they have, and generally being resourceful and good stewards of what they have been blessed with. Although my camper is a bit modern for their taste....the work and commitment that it took to get it there is right up their alley.

Irate, Informed, and Graced

I need to be more like Jesus.

Don't we all.

Jesus taught radical truths and, as such, spend lots of time surrounded by those who didn't share his conviction...some who you may even call "ignorant". But He didn't focus so much on the ignorant attitudes of those with whom He came into contact with as much as He did His response to them.....mercy....understanding....grace.
MAN....couldn't we all use more of that.
I mean, even Peter....a guy that had been with Him since the beginning....was so content to continually screw up, doubt, and not get it....it makes you wonder "what chance do WE have?....if a disciple who SAW Jesus do this stuff and heard His words first-hand and still screwed up so royally...what chance do I stand?"

The answer is "none". It's all about Grace.

I had an opportunity this weekend to make a choice. A Proverbs-teaching, cut and dry, wisdom-or-foolishness choice. I both succeeded and failed.

Ivy got Chicken Pox. We have dozens of friends who do not subscribe to the typical unquestioned, lobbyist-influenced, health care system that totes shots and vaccinations as the be all and end all of disease prevention. Does modern medicine have some things right? sure. Do they have TONS of things that they grandstand about for their own selfish gain while putting millions of children at risk for future permanent negative consequences to their self-proclaimed "universal solutions"? ...absolutely.
So within that parameter lies the role of the informed parent, needing to make a decision.
Our decision is a simple one....Chicken Pox has been around forever....If one of our kids catches it...we'll let the others catch it, get "infected" and get it over with. We even went so far as to invite other families with young children over to contract the virus from our daughter in hopes that they could also get it "over with". We had many takers. Over this past weekend...close to dozen children circulated through our home....playing closely with Ivy...with parents in hopes of their kids catching the virus themselves....and they also "getting it over with".

I guess that I should have expected for this idea to be met with some resistance. Especially in this uninformed, Ignorant-reactionary, believe-what-you-are-told-on-the-internet culture. But I didn't.
We didn't receive TONS of resistance...but the resistance we DID get was from radically ignorant, uninformed, uneducated, sad sources. From parents who think that what WE are doing is absolutely crazy and irresponsible but yet don't spend 2 seconds researching and educating themselves on the scores of vaccines that are being injected into the bodies of THEIR children. No thought is given as to the need for these injections...their overall effectiveness, or the contents in them (if you've read this far and have a 2 year old child who has all of their vaccine shots....they've already been injected with aluminum, formaldehyde, MSG (the same stuff that's in Chinese food), human DNA (including that of aborted fetuses), Guinea Pig or Cow embryos.....shall I go on? Yet somehow....it's my wife and I who are the "irresponsible" ones for allowing our children to be exposed to a non-lethal (at least at their age) virus with which they'll be immune to for their whole lives instead of allowing modern medicine to inject their crud-laden ( and hugely controversial) "vaccine" into our child's bodies....which may or may not even work.

Here's the part where I get pissed. Here's where I fail.

Or at least it's the part where I used to get pissed. Now...I just get sad. here's the part where I grow.
I get sad at the ignorance of our culture....and not even just the secular culture. The Christian culture that we live in has become so uninformed and secularized....so many uninformed decisions are being made for Christian children. I want to scream. It's not just the vaccinations. It's the hours that parents allow their children to be influenced by Xbox or PSP....the days and days that they allow their children to be molded by a secular coach or dance instructor in the name of "building character" while, in reality, are being corrupted by worldliness. The shopping out of their parental responsibilities to train up their children. I want to claw my eyes out. But Christ showed grace....so must I. Grace that is Greater than all Our Sins. I don't nearly have the tolerance or capacity that Christ Had. But I don't need to.
I need to daily praise Him for the education and conviction that he has given me and my family....and pray for those who need it. His grace is the only reason for any vision or guidance that we receive. I'm certainly not perfect. I'm a selfish sinner in need of huge amounts of growth. In 10 years...I hope to look back on where I am now and see HUGE amounts of growth in the life of me and my family from where we are right now. It begins by understanding, and receiving His grace.

Would you this moment His Grace receive?

A "Grand Caravan" Indeed.

So...my van is in the shop. It's taken a couple of days to take care of something that we anticipated being a 1 day fix. To make a long story short...I had to rent a car to get to work tomorrow. Alls I needed was something to get me to Worcester and back. I contacted a local car rental place in town and asked them to give me "the absolute cheapest" car they could rent me to get back and forth to work tomorrow. I was prepared to take a '73 Pinto...I just needed wheels. The guy at the rental place says "well, I don't have any economy cars left but I've got these 3 minivans sitting here...I can rent you one of those at 'economy' pricing, come on over".
I head over there thinking that I'm going to be rolling to work tomorrow in some sun-faded navy blue 1988 Plymouth Voyager with fake wood panelling.

Nope.

Ladies and Gentlemen...I give you the 2011 Dodge Grand Caravan Crew Flexfuel:



This baby was LOADED!!! They may have thought that they rented me a Minivan but, as far as I was concerned, they rented me a playground...and you better believe that, for 58 bucks, I was taking full advantage of this rig. This beast came complete with:


Retractable side windows.


"Stow-and-Go" seating...aka...DANCEFLOOR!!!


Ample drink holders.


Satellite Radio featuring a KILLER Grateful Dead Station. We caught a great Scarlet>Fire from 31 years earlier at The Spectrum in Philly....score! Also featuring....


"Reverse Gear Back-up Camera"...just to help ensure that you don't run over your family.
We pretty much spent the lion's share of the night hanging out in this rented hoop-dee...we had some snacks:


Watched a movie:


And dug the crazy-cool Star Treky running lights:


It's funny. My nature would usually be to get all cranked up that there's a snafu with vehicles and that I got to pay out of pocket and track down a rental car for the day. Instead, The Lord helped me to have a great attitude and turn something that could have easily been a drag into a Minivan Driveway Vacation Night for the fam. I couldn't think of a better way to blow 60 bucks.
The icing on the cake? The license plate:


Don't Mess With Texas...you got me?!

All this fun....and I haven't even driven it to work, yet.