Today we took a cruise east into Lancaster County to dine at a place we have been before – Dienner’s, in Ronks. Ronks is east of Intercourse which I thinks means one thing to the Amish and something else to the rest of us. It serves food that you can order from a menu or one can just sit down to their lunch buffet. The place is run by the Amish and the food is superb. The buffet costs $12 a head at lunch and I got to have a great salad, clam chowder, beef somethings in gravy, a bit of potatoes and some baked limas before slipping up to the dessert counter for stuff I am not supposed to eat. It was terrific.
We finished up at the trough and took a spin through some of Lancaster County. On the way we passed through Manheim, Ronks, Intercourse, Lititz (LA-tits to us but LIT-itz to locals) and some other tiny intersections on our way to check out the gorgeous residential, farm and municipal architecture. The Amish and Mennonite farm families keep extremely tidy farms and their holdings in this county are extensive. They reproduce at prodigious rates and their houses are rambling and massive. They also don’t use powered stuff like cars or trucks so we spotted quite a few locals out riding in their little carriages behind very healthy-looking horses. This place is a strange anachronism.
We also passed some equipment sales and service joints so everyone in the county apparently are not compelled to use horses for horsepower. We saw to farm equipment today that looks like it would turn any unsuspecting idiots into red fodder should they be foolish enough to get tangled up with the working end. Based on some of the driving we saw today, it would seem that plenty of folks around here are strangers to thinking, slashing their way home with cell phone in hand.
There are some photos of this back country gorgeousness. Click here