We’re In Amish Country!

Monday, October 2, 2017- Trip Day 59

We left Cedarlane RV Park this morning with 107 miles to travel. Almost four hours later we check into Evergreen RV Park in Dundee, MI. We stopped a couple of times, once at a roadside antique shop and once in beautiful downtown (I’m not kidding!) Wooster. I will tell you that we traveled on no less than six different roads- some were highways, some were compacted gravel with the only tracks coming from Amish horse drawn wagons! Terrain changed from mostly flat to rolling hills as we head southeast away from Lake Erie.

Wooster, a town of 24,000 souls is the seat of Wayne County

The State of Ohio has the largest population of Amish people in the U.S. numbering around 59,000 folks. We are here to learn and witness of the Amish way of life. The Amish live in communities of approximately 40 people.

Their kids go to Amish Schools, mixed grade schools. When the student population exceeds 40 kids, they build another school. The Amish don’t have churches per se. They have services at farm houses, rotating services from one farm to another. Every other Sunday they attend services at a neighboring community. That way they stay in touch with their neighbors.

A lady Amish docent at the Yoder Family Farm who travels by buggy 9 miles each way to work explained how the Amish live. She taught school in Amish communities for 30 years. Amish have no electronic communication devices- no cell phones, no TV, no nada. We visited the morning after the massacre in Las Vegas and she was blissfully clueless. They have not motorized farm equipment, no cars, no motorized lawn mowers yet their farms are beautiful. Their main mode of transportation is the horse and buggy, their farm equipment powered by draft horses. If you see a truck or car on their property it belongs to someone else who is visiting, making a delivery, or loading milk, hay or other farm product for market. They will ride in a car, even rent one to travel a long distance but they hire someone to drive them. Jil asked if many Amish kids went to college. The docent looked at us like we were kinda dumb and replied “None. There’s no need for a college education in our way of life.”

We’ll continue the tour tomorrow……….. Until then, be safe my friends……….

We weep and pray for all affected by the Las Vegas Massacre. God Bless Them All…..