Ohio - Comstock family and Amish country

Our campervan got a good "tune up" at Airstream -- a new side panel to replace one that was cracking; the heater is working again; a new skylight remote was provided by a fellow Sprinter Westfalia owner and an Airstream technician helped us program it so we can open the skylight again; plus the tighting of a few loose parts and the loosening of few parts that had tightened up. We had thought we'd have all this spare time to catch up on website updates, home schooling, etc. Luckily we got the home schooling done -- but not so much of the other stuff. Hard to say where the days go! Work was complete on the van by noon on Tuesday but we had already decided to stay that night and use the time to re-organize the van and trailer, doing some re-packing. We had earlier received an invitation from the Comstock family to visit them while we were in Ohio. We'd met the Comstocks in De Smet, SD at the Laura Ingalls Wilder Homestead. Traveling with their 5 children -- age 13 years to 18 months -- Rose had made friends with Abbie, their 10 year old daughter. Jason and Pam (the parents) were self-employed and home schooling so there was plenty to discuss. Now that we'd spent a good few days driving through endlessly flat corn and soy fields of Indiana and Ohio, we were curious how families might spend their time in Ohio. Part of the attraction of the visit was the promise of meeting 74 chickens owned by the eldest girls -- Katie and Abbie -- and run as a small business by them, selling the eggs. As it happens, the Comstocks lived just 50 miles from the Airstream factory. After being in one place for 3 days, this felt like the right level of stamina required for our first day of driving again. We pulled into their driveway around Noon on a sunny and warm Wednesday. Within minutes Ruth and Rose were getting a tour of the chicken coop. And soon thereafter they appeared with freshly collected eggs. Although Rose would go off and play with Abbie around the house and yard, Ruth was transfixed on the chickens and the eggs. Along with the younger Comstock children she collected eggs for the rest of the day, rounded up chickens, played with them and did all manner of farm-girl activities not readily available to us in Seattle. She was in heaven!

Later in the afternoon we treked to the back of the six acres where a small creek ran through as a border to the property and the kids splashed around to cool off. Later that evening we shared a delicious barbeque outdoors with 6 kids (including ours) at one table and the adults (plus little Rebecca) at another table. The adults were even able to chat a little after dinner. Rose ended up doing a "sleep-over" inside the house (meaning, not much sleep) while Doug, Denise and Ruth slept in the van Wednesday night in the Comstocks long driveway. The next morning a home cooked breakfast greeted us! Today was Thursday, September 25th -- we'd been on the road one month and decided we'd make this a special day to celebrate. Denise and Doug grabbed showers then we made our farewells and departed with plans to visit the nearby Amish country so we could experience the rural, horse-and-buggy lifestyles of the second largest Amish community in the US. We arrived mid-afternoon in a little touristy town of Berlin and went out for lunch. The Amish-style home-cooked meal was wholesome and traditional -- meat, potatoes and greens. The fresh baked pie for desert was excellent! We looked at some shops and decided to camp in the general area with a goal to get to Lehmans Brothers Hardware store in Kidron because of it's fame in supplying a lot of the non-electrical appliances to the local Amish farmers. We checked in at an upscale RV park (upscale for us, at least). It had pool, hot tub and all the hook-up amenities for RV's included in the $44/night price -- power, water, and cable TV and free showers. We quickly set up camp, grabbed our "beach bag" and went for a swim. Dinner was a simple affair with Doug cooking while the girls watched some TV -- the first time in a month! We ate together then packed off some very tired girls for an early night. Checking out around Noon on Friday, we had decided it's time to push on toward Niagara Falls as our main destination. We figure it will take 2-3 days. We stop at the Lehmans Brothers Hardware store just 5 miles up the road from our RV park and are all captivated by the store. There is a nostalgia about the hardy, craftsman design of the fireplaces and heaters that look like appliances of yester-year but are available for purchase today. Incredibly stylish and looked like they would last a lifetime. Amidst all the household goods for sale are high quality, handcrafted furniture and work tools provided by local Amish. The store goes on forever and we easily spend more than an hour there. Doug gets a leather belt, the girls a puzzle game and Denise an apple slicer and spoon. It's time to hit the road so we grab a quick lunch in the van and head toward Erie, Pennsylvania as a possible overnight place.