New Hope, PA

It was a gorgeous Sunday—the perfect fall day, crisp temperatures and bright sunshine. We decided to drive to New Hope, Pennsylvania and just spend the day walking through this quaint little town.

Philly’s 9th Street Italian Market

Philadelphia’s 9th Street Italian Market (the oldest and largest working outdoor market in the US) was in full swing on Saturday morning.

We had a great time wandering through the stores and the outdoor stalls, checking out the fresh fruit and veggies walking into stores filled with amazing Italian meats and cheese, fresh pasta, bread and spices. Gordon’s chef genes kicked in as he planned our evening meal of grilled chicken breast stuffed with pancetta and pine nuts.

The Italian section of the market turned Hispanic as we walked south.

At the end of the market blocks, we got to the “Philly Cheesesteak” corner – with dueling restaurants of Pat’s and Geno’s. John and I had tried Pat’s so decided to Geno’s a try. (Our decision- go with Pat’s). We split a cheesesteak and an order of cheese fries….just to give the Brits the obligatory taste of this Philly classic. (Their concensus- “once was enough”)

Cheese Fries!

Jean did, however, do a great job on the ordering of our cheesesteaks, following these simple rules:

How to Order a Cheesesteak: A Guide for Tourists
There is a protocol to ordering a cheesesteak at the cheesesteak epicenter of Ninth and Wharton, which, if not followed, can result in being sent to the back of the line Soup Nazi–style, or even worse, getting less meat. At Pat’s and Geno’s, you must order by saying the name of the cheese you want and then “with” or “without” (or as it is often pronounced in South Philly, “wit” or “witout”), which means with or without grilled onions. A correct and traditional order there would be “Whiz wit.” “Mushrooms witout” will get you a steak sandwich with mushrooms but no onions or cheese. You order and pay for your drinks and fries at a separate window.
Acceptable cheesesteak condiments include peppers of all kinds, hot pepper relish, hot sauce, ketchup, dill or sweet pickles but not mustard and mayo (although a really good steak won’t need any condiments).

Once we got back to Laurel Pond, Jean and I made a beeline to the Outlet Mall—just a mile away—and got a short shopping trip in while the guys started the fire and cracked open a few brews. We got back in time to play sous-chef to Chef Gordon and helped him chop and dice.

Amish Country

Time for a day trip to see the surrounding countryside. We headed to Amish Country in Lancaster, PA. John stopped to show them the old AuWerter homestead, now the After 8 Bed and Breakfast.

Across the street, we stopped to check out a local farmers market – filled with fall vegetables and fruits and the most amazing selection of gourds, pumpkins and squash. Gordon shopped for our dinner that night, filling bags with fresh squash, yams, tomatoes and new potatoes.

We stopped at the Intercourse Farmers Market—which was really more like a tourist trap filled with Amish people selling junk to “the English” (as they call non-Amish). In this case, they really were selling to “the English”—although our only purchase was a piece of shoofly pie.

Jean and I opted for a walk while the boys went to the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania—claiming over 100 locomotives and cars from the mid-19th and 20th centuries, including the Pennsylvania Railroad Historical Collection.

Gordon was in his glory with a building filled with railroad cars and engines. (We had to laugh when we combined photos from the trip and found dozens of photos of the train wheels, train engines, and the undercarriage of rail cars.)

Our evening- more wine, more great Gordon prepared food, a roaring fire and again, a drunken hot tub party….It doesn’t get better than this!

A little slice of American History….Philadelphia –The Cradle of Liberty

After breakfast and negotiating the first morning with 5 in the motorhome, we got into our routine. Jean and Gordon, sleeping on what we called “The High Altar of Love” (instead of sleeping on the inflatable mattress on the floor, we had to put the mattress on top of the extended sofa). While the view was lovely—window level, the drop off the side would be catastrophic. They got the coffee going in the morning, Chloe managed to sleep in until 7 AM and then she’d give them the greeting of a lifetime every morning…thrilled to have 2 more adults paying attention to her.

The day was a bit cloudy and not exactly hot so we decided to make the trip to Philadelphia and do the obligatory American history tour along with a trolley tour of the city. While a visit to the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall may be a thrill for the patriot from the Midwest, we were trying to be sensitive to the needs of our holidaying Brits and minimize the lessons on American history. We didn’t make them sit through the multiple videos in the Visitor’s Center, but did sign them up for the guided tour of Independence Hall.

We made a side visit to see the Liberty Bell before starting the short tour. The group on our tour was very white and mostly old (lots of WWII vets and their wives). Jean and Gordon did a yeoman’s job of feigning interest in the rooms in Independence Hall.

We heard the story of this “the birthplace of America”- built in 1732 as the Pennsylvania State House. Within the hall, the Second Continental Congress met in May 1775, and The Declaration of Independence was adopted on July 4, 1776.

It’s also where the Constitutional Convention met to draft, debate and then sign The United States Constitution on September 17, 1787. Not exactly a grabber for the Brits, but as always they were real troopers.

We finished the tour and jumped on the City Trolley for a double decker view of Philly.

We got to the center of the city- seeing the interesting architecture of City Hall (as we waited in the Philly traffic) – before getting off at the Reading Terminal Market.

What an amazing place—aisles and aisles of food stands. We hit it right at noon and it was packed with the lunch time business crowd.

John grabbed a table while Jean and Gordon stood in line for the DiNic’s Roast Pork Sandwich-a huge sandwich of roasted pork, provolone cheese and greens.

I raced over to Salumenia for a classic Italian hoagie. Before we waddled back to the bus, we managed to try an Amish hot pretzel and buy some chocolate covered expresso beans. Just making sure we were covering all the food groups.

The bus took us from central Philly, past the Love Fountain in the center of the city to the outskirts of town, past the famous “Rocky Steps” and the countless Philly museums and through the colonial city back to the Visitors Center.

On the way home, we stopped by the ShopRite and picked up fixings for dinner. With Chef Gordon in town, we wouldn’t have to bother with going out to get great, gourmet food. Jean and I, with wine in hand, took on the sous chef role, helping with the chopping while Gordon prepared the chicken for the grill. Our campground was perfect—a firepit, gas grill and our own personal hot tub. The first attempt at starting a fire was a challenge. We had more smoke than fire and our neighbor decided to rescue us with a supply of dry bark to get a real fire going. Wine, great food, a smokin’ fire let to the first of our drunken hot tub parties.

We got back into the coach to find that we had been infested with flies—they were everywhere and Gordon went from Chef Gordon to the Great White Fly Hunter. Armed with John’s fly gun, he must have brought down at least 30 of them, losing all of our rubber bands in the process.

Gordon- The Great White Fly Hunter (Note the angle of the slider room on the right side!)

Dinner with the Amish

With my eye surgery delayed, we decided to make our trip north a bit less hectic. We stopped in Lancaster, PA for a visit with the Amish and a bit of family research. We spent a day in Columbia – visiting family gravesites. John spent the day at the Lancaster County Historical Society and unearthed some interesting family tidbits.
On Wednesday evening, we joined a group of Cajun motorhomers for an Amish dinner. We drove for what seemed like ages- passing large Amish farms, driving through towns like Blue Bell and Intercourse – and finally turned into the “Smucker” driveway.

The hostess of our evening was the widowed mother of 10 children- 6 of them still at home. We were ushered into her kitchen/dining room/living room- converted into a dining hall with tables seating 30 people. We got separated from our Cajun group and joined a table of New Jersey-ites – all from the same community in NJ and staying at a nearby B&B. They raved about the food, served family style. The dishes were passed- homemade applesauce and broccoli salad, roast beef and carrots, chicken tenders, sugar snap peas, green beans, mashed potatoes (no gravy- the men weren’t happy), and, of course, bread. It was a bit like a 1950’s suburban Sunday dinner- lots of well cooked food with absolutely no flavor.
The hostess did some table-touching- talking about leasing out their farm land and doing these family style group dinners to get by. Her unmarried daughters work at the local B&B doing house-cleaning and were busy most of the evening- serving food and cleaning plates. Her eldest son, however, sat at the head of the table and ate with the rest of the guests. Guess the feminist movement hasn’t reached the Amish community. After plates and plates of food, we were stuffed and ready to leave—but wait- there was dessert—strawberry and peanut butter pies – with huge bowls of ice cream. We did our patented early exit and headed home. Our first- and last- Amish dinner.

Hazelton, PA

Is it Pennsylvania or Appalachia? The coal mining history of the town is evident everywhere-strip mining and tailings. The city itself still shows some traces of a classic past- old Victorian houses- now run down and inhabited by the town’s growing Hispanic population. This was the city that John’s great-grandfather lived in for 30 + years. We lucked across the gravestones of a number of his relatives in the city cemetery and spent time in the local library and historical society. The two elderly women who ran the Historic Society/Museum sat in their little “library” and told us stories of the changing town and the horrors of life as a miner. They showed us the mining histories detailing the countless deaths reported annually. Then, they told us of the changes in their town today- with the influx of Hispanics coming in for social programs, the growth in drugs and gangs and the shootings in the city. Like so many US cities, the downtown store fronts are empty, the streets full of litter, and the beautiful old houses in disrepair.

We had further confirmation of the decline talking with the locals at the “Roadhouse” were we had a huge burger and some wine. One of the locals, a CFO at a a program for kids with problems, told us of the spike in psychiatric problems. He told us that the incidence of schizophrenia and severe mental illnesses as well as drug problems have grown so dramatically in the past years.

Shoo-fly pie and dead relatives....

From cosmopolitan Pittsburgh to Amish country. We went from a wealth of ethnic restaurants to all you can eat “home-style” cooking. From speeding guys wearing backward baseball caps in old American cars to Amish men with long scraggly beards wearing all black and riding in horse and buggies. The area has grown dramatically and the entire stretch of Highway 30 is filled with outlet malls, Amish craft stores and restaurants touting shoo-fly pie. And the traffic has grown with the building. Trying to cross traffic can be a life-threatening experience.

We spent several days doing more family research- this time, John's father's side. Ploughing through deeds and court records, we were able to pin down the location of John’s great-great-great grandfathers property. We were stunned to find that the brick house on the property still exists. Originally a two story brick building, it has been expanded over the years and is now a bed and breakfast with 9 rooms. We met the owners who were in the process of selling the B&B and buying another property. They were very gracious and showed us the inside and outside of the house, explained their discoveries while renovating-even showed us the cellar.

Our other family search was in the Columbia, PA cemetery. We were lucky to track down one of the volunteers who has taken on the cemetery as a project and has attempted to catalog the gravestones and keep the place maintained. We found the graves of 8 of the AuWerters from the area.

John’s father had told a family story of the Civil War burning of the Columbia Bridge- with his family playing a key role. So, we had to visit the “Columbia Bridge Burning Diorama” in Wilkensburg. Only open from 1:00-4:00 on Sunday afternoon, we were the only two visitors, paid our $4.00 fee, and got a personal presentation. This man has been doing this presentation for 10 years. The diorama wasn’t the typical audio presentation with lights to highlight the specific battle scenes. No, this was very low budget, with an audio feed and our guide standing over the diorama with a laser pointer, pointing to each battle scene to correspond to the audio. 10 years…. Imagine that!

One morning, we took the Philadelphia Pike, trying to avoid the Route 30 traffic and stumbled upon the Whitmer Inn. With a limited number of families in the area in the 1700-1800’s, it seems that one or another of John's relatives had married into all of these families. We pulled into the driveway and were met by a very strange looking man- short, scrawny, cigarette smoking in dusty jeans and an old t-shirt- who appeared to either be on drugs or high on A LOT of caffine. He welcomed us into the house/inn, thinking that we were incoming guests to the inn. Once we explained that we were just interested in getting some history and information on the Whitmers, he started pulling out books and pamphlets on the inn and the family. He sat us down at a table still littered with food—cantelope slices, small boxes of sugary cereals and one of those grocery store coffee cakes still in plastic wrap. It took us a while to realize that this spread was his B&B offering for his guests. The room was packed with stuff- old newspapers, magazines, books lying in stacks all around the room.

We actually found the family connection in one of the genealogies that our new friend gave us. After trying to take notes on the lineage, we realized that we needed a copy of the document. Leaving me behind as “collateral”, John went back to the motorhome to make copies. While I sat and poured through the other documents, Grant would bounce in and out of the room. I got stories about his father, the archeological digs in their backyard and details on his various “antiques”. He’d leave for awhile, go into the next room and I’d hear him talking to someone or something- I assumed it was an animal. After a while, I started having visions of Grant as a serial killer, holding a hostage behind the door. FINALLY, John came back. I was ready to leave- but Grant wanted to give us the tour of the house. We got the full tour of the rooms, an explanation of his “renovations” and a request to “put in a good word with the tourist bureau”. Evidently he gets a few complaints.

In between all the research and encounters with strange and wonderful characters, we made a trip to York, PA, home of the largest Harley Davidson assembly plant. Here they assemble the touring and soft-tail models as well as doing custom work. Their list of products is a bit like a Starbucks menu….fat boy electra glide, heritage soft-tail classic…. The plant was huge-with over 1.5 million square feet under roof. Interestingly, most of the assembly work was done by women-with robots doing a lot of the other work.

After the tour, we stopped at the Eastern Market in York- and chowed down on a typical Pennsylvania style meal- a huge chicken pot pie. Nothing like chicken and gravy in the middle of the day to make you feel completely lethargic. Add to that, the horrendously hot and humid weather, and you have quite a combination.

To make the Amish seem normal, we went to the Ephrata Cloister. Founded in 1732, this was one of America’s earliest communal societies. The community- composed of “households”- families living on nearby farms- and the 80 celibate Brothers and Sisters. They came together following a charismatic leader from Germany, Conrad Beissel. Beissel believed in Saturday as the main day of worship and a God with a male and female side (the female side was Sophia)-and a desire to unite with god- leaving no room for earthly marriage. The Brothers and Sisters led an austere life- eating only once a day- and then only eating bread, fruits and vegetables. Their nights were spent sleeping on narrow benches with a block of wood as a pillow. From midnight to 2:00 a.m., they were rousted up to watch for Jesus to return “as a thief in the night”. So, without much sleep or much to eat, they spent their days farming, milling and running a printing press.

They were known for their style of calligraphic writing called Frakturschriften.

At night, those who could sing practice for the choir; those who couldn’t sing, would spent their time doing large calligraphic wall hangings. Beissel promised the second coming of Jesus in his lifetime- so when he died, the community declined and in 1813, the last celibate died.

Pittsburgh - "From Hags to Vomit Bags"

Pittsburgh was a pleasant surprise. We found one of the old family houses in Wilkinsburg (just outside the city). It was a beautiful old house- now a 3 family. John managed to take a brick from the house (yet another blonde brick house) – the house where his father was born.

We spent time at the Heinz Historical Library and the Carnegie Mellon Library doing research on the family. With the information we gathered there, we were able to search for some of the houses they lived in and places they worked. It gave us a chance to see a lot of the Pittsburgh neighborhoods. One side of the family worked and lived in an area called the Strip. Once it was filled with factories belching smoke; now it’s become an “it” neighborhood filled with old warehouses turned into lofts and bars, funky little shops selling cheeses, veggies and meats. (We even got to see some of Pittsburgh’s cuties dressed up for a hot Saturday night—chewing gum and drinking beer- at the same time!)

We had one of the many Pittsburgh “originals”- a Primanti’s sandwich. Their claim to fame is the “all in one” sandwich- meat, cheese, coleslaw and French fries on thick slice white bread. The restaurant was filled with sturdy Pittsburgh people. The men (John calls them “meatballs”) are all stocky and beefy. The women are absolutely huge. We watched in horror as these huge people ordered their all-in-one sandwiches with French fries covered with nacho cheese sauce as an appetizer. We found that other Pittsburgh originals include: the Big Mac (invented by a local McDonald’s owner in 1968), Heinz Ketchup, Chipped Ham, and the Klondike Bar. (Sandwich Photo courtesy of Flickr: )

The Carnegie Library was lovely –much like the Cleveland Public Library—a grand old building with marble floors and filled with people playing games on the Internet terminals. Our downtowns appear to be dying. Across from the Library was the “Cathedral of Learning”- a breathtakingly ugly Stalinist looking 42 story building that houses classrooms and offices for the University of Pittsburgh. (They call it a “meeting of modern skyscraper and medieval cathedral”.)

We spent one morning at John’s grandfather’s old factory- Columbia Steel and Shafting Company. On our way back through the city, we found our way to the top of Mount Washington and got some spectacular views of the city and the three rivers converging. We made our way down to the South Side. Once home to Eastern European immigrants who came to work in the mills in the early 20th century, today they’ve restored to a 20 block area with coffee houses, restaurants and funky shops. We stopped for a huge corned beef Reuben sandwich- which served as lunch and dinner.

We couldn’t leave Pittsburgh without visiting the Andy Warhol Museum—mostly because it was featuring an exhibit on John Waters, called “From Hags to Vomit Bags”. It was a collection of photos done by Waters – including such memorable collections as “12 Assholes and a Dirty Foot”- or photos taken from his TV of movie clips showing people on the toilet or vomiting. It was quite an insight into the mind of a very strange man. Even more interesting was the stream of people being directed to the exhibit by the stringy X’ers at the ticket booth. They recommended that everyone start with the Waters exhibit- old and young. We saw a 70 year old woman wheeling her 80 year old husband through the exhibits- looking at photos of assholes! Or women with children in strollers wandering past the “porn” section.

We spent a Sunday afternoon driving to Conneaut Lake Park. John’s great-grandfather got started in the amusement park business there- with a small boat business to ferry people across the lake. The amusement park was charming- a little bit of the past still alive. The old rides – the Tilt-O-Whirl, the old wooden roller coaster- were all still operating. The park was packed with families- enjoying the old rides and the lake.