All things Amish

Today we headed off for the "Amish" experience. We passed a handful of buggies on the way as well as a buggy manufacturer. We checked out the price of a new buggy... upward end was $18,000. Seems it might be cheaper to drive. I have to admit to being a bit disappointed. I thought we would experience an Amish community/home/business. Turned out to be extremely touristized.

But from what I could see, the farms were impeccably kept with quaint wood fences, lots of horses and cows in pastures, but were quite small. But if you had to farm it with a horse drawn conveyance, eighty acres or less would be good. Interesting tidbit---they purchase retired thoroughbred racehorses to pull their buggies. Makes sense.

And they do not live much different than the rest of us, except that appliances are powered by batteries, generators, propane, or solar. They seem to have found loopholes to get around their convictions. But I suspect all denominations have their own "justifications" for many of the things that are done.

From there we went to the "Sight and Sound Theater". There are no words to describe that experience. The theater is HUGE, seats 2100 people, does two shows a day, and is sold out for months in advance. We saw "Noah". Not only did it have at least 15 different pairs of live animals (that bounded down the aisles, including a pair of skunks), astounding animatronics, incredible actors, and a great story, but you felt you were inside the ark. It surrounded the audience on three sides. If you come to this area for nothing else, you will have experienced the best there is to offer in live theater. Or if you can't, go to the film version of the live production that is in movie theaters right now.

From there we shopped in "Amish" (??) shops. Only one had true Amish hand crafts. I had considered buying a quilt....but $8,000 was a wee bit out of my league. But I wandered through and drooled on all the exquisite offerings. I thought I could downsize my desire for a quit with a table runner but couldn't even afford that. Oh well. Settled for the tourist stuff. Wandered back to the hotel and crashed!

So far walking hasn't been too bad, although my back complains at standing while listening to the stories. So wish I had begun doing this years ago.