Rain, the Amish and Lancaster County

On Sunday we thought we we’d take it easy. We’d meander 25 miles through Lancaster County, PA, ground zero of Amish Country, along a route from Morgantown over to the city of Lancaster. Then we ran into the rain.

But it was okay. Actually we woke up to it, gray skies, puddles and light showers. Noon brought relief, still cloudy but no rain, so off we went. Half way to Lancaster, the drizzle began, light at first then a bit harder, and we settled in for a wet 12 miles. But we didn’t really mind. We had the proper clothes, and after all, it was a Sunday, and no one seemed to be in a hurry.

The biking experience in Lancaster County is a little out of the ordinary. Oh yeah, you have the lovely views, the combinations of autos and bikes, but there’s more, there’s horses and buggies. During our wet Sunday tour, we passed, and were once were passed by, dozens of tightly-sealed, modern, horse drawn carriages. And these were not your grandfather’s buggies. Yes they still had their red triangular signs warning motorists of their slow speed, but they also had multiple red and yellow LED flashers. They resembled modern vehicles.

And the horses were grand, even when soaked. They did leave their calling cards in the bike lane, which could get a little slippery, but in total, their uniqueness on the side of the road exceeded their nuisance. And their cadence was almost musical. Clickety-clack, clickety-clack, the countryside rang out with the sound of these elegant beasts. And the their owners must have treated them well. Most of the veterinary clinics we passed looked as modern, large and from what we could tell on the outside, as well equipped as their biped counterparts.

Finally we reached our hotel. Good and soaked, we did a bit of primping under the portechere, but we still looked like hell. No one seemed to mind. The nicely coiffed young clerk cheerfully made allowances for our damp signature on the credit card forms and asked us where we had been and where we were going. That was about all we could ask for.

To be continued.