To Pittsburgh through the rolling hills of Ohio…..

So after another night trying to record Jens and Lars snoring i awoke around 8am. I've tried several times to get a recording of them but every time i wake up and get the camera they stop! my last chance is in Boston and i WILL let you all hear what I've had to put up worth for the last two weeks!

Jens, Lars, Maria and Thomas are driving over to Boston, its nearly 700 miles and i had already booked my flight before they had decided to drive over. I did however have to book my flight from Pittsburgh as it was half the price as flying from Cleveland and i had a spare day in between shows so thought nothing of driving back to Pittsburgh for the flight.

Lars, Jens and i went across the street to a little deli type cafe for breakfast, this was the first time id seen oatmeal on the menu in the places we had stayed to eat! I have it more or less every morning when I'm home in the UK and had been missing it while i was here. I forgot how good it tasted!! it was probably the 2nd best (next to the steak at Joe’s) meal id had so far  while I'd been in the US. For the three of us for orange juice, coffee, oatmeal, toast for all, two huge hot breakfasts with ham, bacon, sausage etc etc it was $17!!!

 

We headed back to the hotel to pack our things and met up in the lobby around 12. I headed out towards Pittsburgh not knowing where id go in between and the guys headed out for their drive to Boston. They were gonna try get as far as they could and crash in a cheap motel overnight then carry on to get the rental car back in Boston for 12 noon on Thursday.

Lars had shown me a picture of the Cherry pie he had had at the Amish restaurant the day before at Mrs Yoder's kitchen.  It looked fantastic and Lars said it was the best he’d ever had. I had nowhere today to go and as long as i was at the hotel tonight to check in and then for my flight in the morning i had no rush to be anywhere so decided to make the 50 mile or so detour to go get some pie!!

I've driven around Ohio a few times before and love the countryside it has and the roads through the rolling hills and the beautiful barn houses and farms spread around. Its so quiet out there and so peaceful, I’d live anywhere around there in a heartbeat but I'm not sure if there's any physicsy jobs for Lauren there!!

   

There's a huge Amish community in the area around Millersburg, I've been before and went round an Amish farm once which was real interesting to see how they live and all the things they can and cant do. i couldn't remember exactly where it was otherwise i would have gone around again.

Jens made me laugh as he said when they came all they saw were Amish people driving around in Hummers!! i didn't see any of those but it made me smile when i saw an Amish person on the road in front of me driving one of the buggies and then looked in my rear view mirror and saw an Amish person sat in the passenger seat of a minivan!!

 

I had a rough idea where the restaurant was, or at least i thought i did! it had been 10 years since id been in the area! After driving to Millersburg and then driving round for 20 minutes and thinking they must have moved the restaurant i found it listed on my tom-tom! tapped the screen and i was all set, yay, all was good, no it wasn't!  After the sat nav announcing i was 4 miles away i followed the directions and ended up at a cross roads in the middle of no where to the sound of the tom-tom voice saying “ you have reached your destination”  there was nothing around me at all but a couple of houses. I drive straight over the crossroads and headed down the road for a mile, nothing at all. I turned the car round and drove back to the crossroads. This time i turned right and drove for another mile, again nothing at all! i turned around again and went down the only road i hadn't been down yet.

I went for at least 3 or 4 miles till i realised i wasn't gonna find the place and gave up!, i did see the following at the side of the road though and have no idea why it was just there in a parking lot! also saw a house with more than its fair share of bird houses in the garden!

   

I put the Pittsburgh hotel into my tom-tom where i would be staying tonight and it told me to do a u turn and turn right after 3.2 miles, i knew this turning, id just driven a mile down it twenty minutes before.! What i didn't know though was had i driven 1/4 mile further then just around the corner i would have seen the restaurant I'd been looking for!,

You know how they say you can tell its a good restaurant if all the locals eat there ? well this was the parking lot outside!

   

It was a family type restaurant with light wooden tables and chairs and looked to be overrun with people in Amish dress! it turned out however that most of these were the people that worked there and the “tourists” were the people sitting at the tables!

A nice family of four came and sat at the table beside me, what looked like a Grandpa, a wife and a son and a wife, however the more i looked the more i got confused. The mother looked like the wife of the son and the son looked like the mother and i then realised they all looked like each other!! They looked just like people from the film Deliverance!! I have no idea what the hell was going on with them but they destroyed their food like that hadn't eaten for a month! they then proceeded to pick their teeth with the chicken bones that they had stripped totally clean with their hands mouths, teeth and table wear! I was only there to get a slice of Cherry pie and ice cream but i was informed by the waitress that it was Buffet day and they have a $10 buffet with ham, beef, lamb, and more vegetables than I've seen in my life. I asked for just a slice of pie and a lemonade and sat and watched as the “Squeal piggy's” on the table got up and down for the buffet at least 4 times each within a space of what cant have been more than 5 minutes! I heard one of them telling the other that he could skin any type of animal he wanted if he had a sharp knife and 2 minutes to spare! I was truly frightened for my life!!

It took me a while as i didn't want to get caught and skinned alive but i managed to get a few sneak pictures of the savages!

    

The pie was unreal, it was home made, the crust was light and sweet and the cherry filling was amazing. The ice cream again was home made and it was THE best cherry pie and ice cream I've ever had! it was definitely worth the 50 mile detour and the one hour of trying to find the place!!

I stood up slowly and waited till the inbred’s went for another plate full of food and i left and headed to the cashier! As i walked out and got into the car i saw a rabbit in the hedge just at the front of the car, i shouted at it and told it to run for its life if it didn't want to be in the stew tonight!! I'm not been nasty to people or making fun but they really were strange and scary and not the sort of people I've ever come across before in the US!

I headed out to my hotel for tonight and got held up by a few of the Amish buggy's but it gave me chance to look at the houses and farms as i drove along the roads. There's lots of Amish furniture stores at the side of the roads and lots of places that sell al the home made wooden barns, sheds and out houses. There were lots of farm produce places selling fruit & veg  as well and lots with huge displays of pumpkins outside, i guess getting ready for Halloween in 4 weeks time!

   

 

Maybe i should get one of these to ride at home, i wouldn't have to pay $11 for a gallon of gas that were now paying in the UK!!

Amish buggy

 

 

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