Road Trip to Pennsylvania

The last few weeks, Nate's been doing some family history research on Grandma Millers' side of the family. (Her maiden name is Mast) Nate came across some info about his first Ancestor (Jacob Mast, who's his 7x great grandfather) who was Amish coming over from Switzerland on the Amish Mayflower back in the 1700's. How awesome is that? Nate found info that Jacob Mast is buried in Berks County, PA so we decided yesterday to take a road trip to PA. Our main goal was to find the cemetery and after that we would go to Intercourse, PA for a little Amish Country trip. We got up at 5:30am and left our house at exactly 6am. We made a quick stop at Starbucks where I got a Venti Caramel Apple Spice with extra Caramel, then to WAWA to fill the tires with air and we were on our way. Once we got into PA we stopped at a visitor center for a bathroom break, stretched our legs and got pamphlets for Amish Country. We got to Berks County a little after 10am. We made great time. :) We came upon Roadside America and figured someone there might know where the cemetery of the first Amish Settlers is located. A guy there told us of a farm where the cemetery might be and gave us directions. And off we went....

But first, I had to get a picture of the Amish Statues out front of the place. :) (I think that Amish Woman's hands are a little big...LOL)

At the entrance of the Roadside America there is a sign about the Northkill Amish. This was a marker that Nate wanted to see as well so I'm glad we found it. Apparently, some of the Amish in this group were killed by an Indian Attack. There is a building down the road from the marker but the current owners don't allow anyone to visit.

We made our way to the farm......We drove by it and Nate saw the cemetery in the field behind the farm. He knew it was the place so we turned around and went to the farm house. I stayed in the car and waited and Nate knocked on the door. Nate talked to the owner for a few minutes and the guy said to him that he had the right place. I then changed out of my flip flops and into my socks and sneakers and we headed on back to the cemetery.

As you can see in the picture, it's very small and the tombstones are very old.

The owner of the farm told us to untie the gate and stay as long as we wanted. There was a lot of strings to untie. Here's Nate untying the knots....anxiously wanting to get in.

A view of the surrounding farmland from outside the cemetery.

Tombstones.....The older tombstones have faded or broken into pieces. There are 28 Amish people buried in this cemetery. Only about 15 or so have a tombstone. Not sure if Jacob Mast and his wife had a tombstone or not. We do know it's been confirmed that they are buried there.

The owner of the farm gave us a sign in book that he let us take with us to the cemetery to look though. He also told us to sign it.

Several visitors have come there. Apparently, every June members of the Mast family come for a little reunion and clean up the cemetery and mow the lawn. Nate wants to go if they have a reunion this year.

At the front of the farm there is a marker next to the road.


After Nate was done exploring his family history we plugged Intercourse, PA into our GPS and made our way to Amish Country. (If I remember correctly, it was a little over an hour)

I hear that the buggies are Grey in PA, so I was excited to see that. The buggies in Ohio are all black. I couldn't wait to compare the differences to the Amish in Ohio to the ones in PA.

Clop, Clop, Clop :) You gotta watch for buggies and road apples. :)


By this point it was a little after 12 noon and we were hungry for some Amish food. Nate found Yoders Restaurant and Country Market on the map so this was our first stop in New Holland, PA near Blue ball, (yes blue ball) PA.....15 min from Intercourse. :) We both had water to drink and got the buffet.

I loaded my plate with Chicken, mashed potatoes, corn, mac and cheese, a little roast beef and a roll. MMMMM I only had 1 plate and then I got an ice cream cone for dessert. :)

After our bellies were full we wanted award winning cheese so we drove to Honey Brook (15 min from New Holland) to September Farms.


We got lots of goodies while in here and got to sample just about everything before we bought our stuff. We got garlic and basil jack cheese, smoked cheddar, and apple cinnamon cheddar. I got a jar of apple butter, cheese fudge, and a homemade cherry cheese tart. They had these little tarts (many flavors) for $1.25. Not knowing if I would like it I only bought 1 cherry cheese tart. OMG!!!!! It was like a mini cheese cake. I loved it and will def be back for more of those. LOL :) Oh yes....we bought 2 little ice packs that they sold at the farm and put them in our little cooler we brought with us with drinks and put our cheese in there to keep cold. :)
Animals at the Cheese farm.

I petted the mini horse. He looked kinda sad. LOL

Next, we drove to Intercourse. In route, a Rooster decided to cross in front of us. He was in no hurry. He took his time crossing in front of us.

haha

Cute farm we passed on way....
We stopped at some trading post place where I bought a sticker and a magnet. I don't remember the name of it. It was right in Intercourse.

Also in Intercourse, we came upon The Kitchen Kettle Village. Nate got some Hazelnut coffee packets at a coffee shop. Then we both got an Intercourse sticker as some gift shop.

I found this cute garden flag but I wasn't going to pay $12 for it. I don't pay over $10 for a garden flag. I love the little lamb.
We then went into a bakery place that had all sorts of treats that made our mouths water. Nate picked up this cinnamon roll and made fun of the icing. It was lathered in icing. I don't even know if that would taste good. LOL

Shoo-fly pies. :)

Whoopie pies! :) YES PLEASE!
We got.....a small package of Mint and Chocolate Whoopie pies, Peanut Butter and Chocolate Whoopie pies, a small shoo-fly pie, tortilla chips, a jar of black bean salsa and a jar of pineapple salsa. We also got a tote bag for 99 cents to carry all of our goodies. :) It was almost 5pm which is basically when Amish Country shuts down for the day so we decided to go ahead and head home.

Right before bird-in-hand we saw a sign for homemade rootbeer. We passed it and then Nate said "yeah we need to try it" so he turned around and we pulled into the farm to get rootbeer. I wanted a picture of the sign so as we tried taking it there was a couple taking pictures at it as well. Nate took their picture next to the sign. LOL They laughed at us. :)

This is the farm with the homemade rootbeer. A little Amish girl sold us 2 cold rootbeers.

The rootbeer came in a cute glass bottle. They were $2 each. :) It was different from any rootbeer I've ever had. It wasn't bad. We def liked it more once it got a little warmer. We finished them.

And now showing all of our purchases.....

This is a little pinecone I took from the cemetery. :)

A magnet for my cubbie at work. Dirty town names eh? :)
Here is the cherry cheese tart I mentioned above. Sooooooooooo good. You can also see one of my stickers I got for my rainman book.

The little shoo-fly pie. I'm excited to try it. :)

Cheese fudge.....sounds gross....but smells and looks like fudge. And guess what? It tastes just like fudge too. If I just bought it off a shelf without knowing there was cheese in it, I wouldn't even have guessed there was cheese in it. LOL :)

Oh my favorite salsa ever!!!! Pineapple Salsa! :) I love this stuff. :)

Here is a picture of all of the loot. :)
Oh yes.....We pulled into our drive way at exactly 8pm! :) 14 hours we were out and about and we did everything we wanted. YEY! A fun road trip with my Nate. :)