Yesterday we started the day on our journey into Amish country.  Our first sight was the geese families.  They were on the road resting.

 

We came upon a Truly Noland Bug stretch limo.  So funny.

One of the old towns we went through, Lancaster. Here is a bit of history about Lancaster.

Lancaster (Pennsylvania Dutch: Lengeschder) is a city located in South Central Pennsylvania and is one of the older non-coastal towns in the United States. 
Originally called Hickory Town. Its symbol, the red rose, is from the House of Lancaster. Lancaster was part of the 1681 Penn's Woods Charter of William Penn, and was laid out  in 1734. During the American Revolution, it was briefly the capitol of the colonies.

The first paved road in the United States was the former Philadelphia and Lancaster Turnpike, which makes up part of the present-day US Route 30. Opened in 1795, the Turnpike connected the cities of Lancaster and Philadelphia, and was designed by a Scottish engineer named John Loudon MacAdam. Lancaster residents are known to use the word, "macadam", in lieu of pavement or asphalt.  This name is a reference to the paving process named by MacAdam.


The city of Lancaster was home to several important figures in American history. Wheatland, the estate of James Buchanan, the fifteenth President of the United States, is one of Lancaster's most popular attractions.  We were planning on visiting his home, but the navigator and pilot had some miscommunications so we did not go there.


After the American Revolution, the city of Lancaster became an iron-foundry center. Two of the most common products needed by pioneers to settle the Frontier were manufactured in Lancaster: the Conestoga wagon and the Pennsylvania long rifle. The Conestoga wagon was named after the Conestoga River, which runs through the city.  Interesting stuff?!

In 1803, Meriwether Lewis visited Lancaster to be educated in survey methods by the well-known surveyor Andrew Ellicott. During his visit, Lewis learned to plot latitude and longitude as part of his overall training needed to lead the Lewis and Clark Expeditions.
In 1879, Franklin Winfield Woolworth opened his first successful "five and dime" store in the city of Lancaster. 

Peeps, an  Easter confection shaped as marshmallow chicks covered with yellow sugar, were invented by the Rodda Candy Company of Lancaster in the 1920s.
 

Built in 1889, the Lancaster Central Market is the oldest continuously operated farmers market in the United States, and many tourists come to purchase the handmade Amish goods that are not commonly found elsewhere.  We were part of the many tourists that visited the market.  It was really well run and very clean.  They had so many different things to purchase.  We mainly got produce.
Below  are a sampling of some of the booths at the market.
Produce
Meats
Milk cow and goat
Apple juices

There we many other items there too.
Honeysuckle. We parked and took a hike to the Susquehanna River to Chickie Rock.  The walk opens up to the river with rocks in the river and several islands in the river, one of which is 7-mile island .  This became well known after the accident at its nuclear power plant.	.
We are standing on the rock looking out onto the river.  During this whole half mile to a mile hike the honeysuckles were in full bloom and the smell was wonderful.   Chickie's (or Chique's) Rock is on the Susquehanna River in Lancaster County, located between Columbia and Marietta. It gets its name from the Susquehannock Indians, who called the spot Chiquesalunga, the place of the crayfish (We guess surf and turf in Native kitchens was crayfish and venison...) The first legends were passed on by the Indians, who saw ghosts roaming the area back in their day. They have a couple of tales of star-crossed lovers meeting their doom there. One was a mutual suicide pact, where two lovers took the leap off the 200' precipice when forbidden to marry. Another concerns an Indian girl who fell for a white man. Her Susquehannock lover was outraged and slit the man's throat, then threw the girl off the cliff. More recent spooks include a mummified ghost - he's armless, and has arrows sticking out of him. The shore sports the spook of a man that died in a riverboat accident roaming its banks. Then there's the shadow person that wanders the woods at the top of the rock, decked out in a fedora and cape. The spirits of men have been seen at the foot of the cliff, appearing and then vanishing before your eyes. They're supposed to be the apparitions of dearly departed RR and canal workers. And let's not forget our favorite gremlins, the apple-loving albatwitches that call Chickie's Rock home. These four foot tall humanoids like to sit in trees and snack on apples, particularly those of unsuspecting picnickers. They even throw the cores at them after chomping the fruit. In fact, that's how it got its' name - albatwitch is the local jargon for apple snitch. They also date back to the Susquehannocks. Oddly, the best known phenomena is the mist that forms on top of the rock and morphs into a spook. Teens admitted making up the story in 1969, but it's still the most widely reported sighting. Nothing like the power of suggestion, hey?
During the Gettysburg Campaign of the , Chickies Rock served as a  Union army observation post during the Confedrate  occupation of Wrightsville across the river.
The Columbia and Donegal Electric Railway built tracks up the side of the ridge from Columbia in 1893. The railway climbed for 1,900 feet on a 6% grade, running on the west side of Chickies Hill Road and then curving sharply west to reach Chickies Park. This was an amusement park built by the trolley company on the west end of the ridge, atop Chickies Rock, overlooking the Susquehanna. The line to the park was opened on July 1, 1893. It was then extended down the north side of the ridge, running westward about 0.5 miles, rounding a tight horsehoe curve and turning eastward, to cross Chickies Creek at the base of the ridge and run to Marietta. This extension was opened on December 31, 1893. The trolley line was abandoned on April 25, 1932
As we were standing on top of the rock a train came by below.

We came upon this "little" snake on our walk to Chickie Rock.

Often referred to as a “black rat snake,” this snake

is the largest species of snake found in Pennsylvania.

Adults can be 3½ feet to over 8 feet long.

When you shop at Lancaster Central Market at Penn Square in the heart of Lancaster City you become a part of a living history. This is America's oldest farmers' market building. Since the 1730's farmers have been bringing meats and vegetables to the site for sale to local residents. - See more at: http://www.padutchcountry.com/members/lancaster_central_market.asp#sthash.hAh1qJgt.dpuf

When you shop at Lancaster Central Market at Penn Square in the heart of Lancaster City you become a part of a living history. This is America's oldest farmers' market building. Since the 1730's farmers have been bringing meats and vegetables to the site for sale to local residents. - See more at: http://www.padutchcountry.com/members/lancaster_central_market.asp#sthash.hAh1qJgt.dpuf

When you shop at Lancaster Central Market at Penn Square in the heart of Lancaster City you become a part of a living history. This is America's oldest farmers' market building. Since the 1730's farmers have been bringing meats and vegetables to the site for sale to local residents. - See more at: http://www.padutchcountry.com/members/lancaster_central_market.asp#sthash.hAh1qJgt.dpuf

Train museum in Strasburg.

    

Amish country.  So beautiful and peaceful.  We had a wonderful day.