Day 23: Gettysburg, Lancaster

Thursday,  September 26

We enter Maryland on US-15 North and immediately curve around a big mound of dirt in the middle of the highway – strange.  Now, if it had been like the Mecom fountain (in Houston) in front of the former Warwick Hotel (now Hotel ZaZa) that would be different.  The Warwick, built in the 1920s, was a gracious reminder of days gone by.  When comedic legend Bob Hope visited, he said that looking down on the cars curving around the Mecom fountain and going straight down the street was a beautiful sight and one of his favorites.

We park on the street and find out that the parking meter only takes dimes.  We didn’t have dimes and put in a quarter.  It didn’t even register so we went into a business to get change.  So, if you’re visiting Gettysburg, bring plenty of dimes!

The Gettysburg Museum of History is not all about Gettysburg.  Owner, Erik L. Dorr, has curated an eclectic and just plain weird collection.  There are Civil War artifacts,

political and other military items and odd things like George & Martha Washington’s hair!

All over Gettysburg monuments, statues, artillery and other items can be seen.

On the road to Amish country, we stop by Perrydell Farms and again I am flabbergasted!  Such a nice building puts a port-a-potty for customers across the parking lot!  Now, I carry a small bottle of hand sanitizer everywhere.  I will say that the Perrydell Farms store carries an excellent chocolate milk and a delicious (and generous) $1 ice cream scoop with an optional pretzel cone.  I enjoy the peanut butter ice cream, the pretzel cone not so much.

It’s late when we pull into Lancaster, Pennsylvania.  We go by Katie’s restaurant looking for authentic Amish fare.  Turns out that they eat the same foods as the average American – pot roast, chicken pot pie, meatloaf, etc.