Hitch your buggy to a barn star
Friday, July 6 (Day 11) — Tonight I am sitting in our hotel room in the heart of Washington, D.C., making barn stars. One would think that being less than half a mile from the nation's capitol would inspire something patriotic in me, that I would be playing the national anthem or thinking of the founding fathers and presidents and all that political history that our son seems to care nothing about at this stage of his life. But no, I am surfing the Internet in search of templates to make Amish barn stars.
My first three attempts were fairly successful. Essentially, you take a square of paper (or whatever material you happen to be working in), fold it in half, fold it a couple more times at angles, cut off a piece you don't need, then unfold it to see the star-like thing you've created. Why this sudden fascination with something as simple as making paper crafts? Because our wanderings through New England and, today, Pennsylvania Dutch country have drawn our attention to the Americana that is seemingly all around us. Many of the houses are decorated in colorful tin stars that are supposed to symbolize good luck. In olden times, the stars were placed on barns to identify a building's manufacturer. We grew curious about them in Massachusetts, but today we found a few antique shops that sell them in various sizes and color schemes. Now we have fallen in love with the things and are trying to figure out how to incorporate them into our emerging garden at home.
Our day began by departing King Of Prussia a bit after 10 a.m. The rain that dampened our stay there had disappeared overnight, and was replaced with slightly hazy skies and warm temperatures. Roni was very eager to see the Amish country and had mapped out the route we needed to take. We followed Highway 202 east until we met up with Highway 30, then eventually Highway 340 that took us through such Menonite towns as White Horse, Salisbury Heights and Bird In Hand. We stopped at a couple of antique and craft stores along the way, ogling the barn stars and other Amish crafts.
In Intercourse, we found a place that sold postcards and other souvenir items, then we went to an Amish market for lunch. Naturally we took tons of photos of the farms and people working around their homes and driving through the community in their horse-drawn buggies. Such a different world. It was sort of funny, however, to see Amish men using gas-powered mowers to cut their lawns, or driving cars around town. I had always thought the Amish lifestyle was to avoid use of modern machines in daily living. It also seemed ironic that here we (and hundreds of other tourists) were enjoying the simple country atmosphere, yet you could spend serious money to tour a working Amish farm or hop on a buggy for a ride. The Amish may profess a simple lifestyle, but they know how to make a buck.
Lunch at the marketplace consisted of hotdogs and sausage links. Afterward, Roni and I were lured into one of the craft stores where we found the barn stars in several sizes ranging from less than 5 inches up to 40 inches. We liked the idea of getting one of the larger sizes. The prices were excellent. But getting it home on the plane would be problematic. We might have to have it shipped back home, and the man we spoke with at the store cautioned us that it might cost as much as the product to ship it. We decided to think on it for a bit. We did buy four of the smaller sized stars that will transport home in our luggage.
Space in the car is starting to become a problem. We have added a lot in the way of souvenirs, brochures and maps, not to mention the fact that our neat packing job for the plane trip has long since been undone. We will either have to add another checked piece of luggage or mail a box of stuff home — not a cheap or easy prospect.
We passed through Lancaster and then got on 222/272 south through Willow Street. That is where we stopped to see the Hans Herr House, which once was the home of my 9-greats grandparents. At least that's the version of history I've learned from Grandmother and Grandpa. I had hoped to get a tour of the house as I did 30 years ago, but sadly we arrived at 3:55 p.m., and the place closed for the day at 4 p.m. We couldn't take the tour, but we did get to look around the grounds on our own.
Pressing on, we finally made it to Maryland and stopped at a couple of service plazas along the way. I satisfied my postcard habit and we bought ice cream to tide us over until dinner. We stopped at a raunchy Greyhound bust terminal in Baltimore where we got more souvenirs. The evening was dragging on and we decided it would be best to not stop anymore and go straight to Washington.
We were lucky to have beat the rush hour traffic. I had a little trouble getting to the hotel — the Best Western Capitol — on the city's one-way streets. Traffic was light, thankfully, so when we got to the place I was able to pull into the taxi turnaround while Roni checked it at the front desk. We're in Room 339. We are off of 6th Street, which is literally two blocks from Capitol Mall. Our car is parked (expensively) at a parking garage attached to the hotel. Tonight we went up to the pool area on the 9th floor roof to get a sneak preview of the Capitol dome all lit up. I can't wait to see it tomorrow closeup.
For dinner we ate at Smithson's restaurant located in the hotel. The food was a bit pricey, so I only had a bowl of New York clam chowder, while Roni had a salad and Ben ordered chicken strips. We're all a bit tired tonight.
