As TomTom Says, "We Have Reached Our Destination!"

Boy, was that a long trip! We traveled from coast to coast.  The last day was the worse because I was injured.  Don't worry, I am almost all better.  I had stepped on something.  We thought it was a foxtail.  Mom pulled it out of my foot but I was limping badly and she thought something was left behind.  I had a hard time walking because it was my driver side foot. That is what Dad calls it. 


So, as soon as we got set up, we rushed to the 24 hour vet.  They looked at my foot and couldn't see anything wrong.  They showed us foxtail and we all agreed it wasn't what was in my foot.  The doctor kept touching my shoulder and then she pinched it. Well, I cried.  What would you do if you haven't slept in over 12 hours and someone is pinching you?  She said x-rays were necessary. X-rays were done and they were fine.  Then, the doctor looked at my feet again and discovered a bruise.  Why don't they listen to Mom when she tells them 1) there is something wrong with my mouth - a bee got me, look in my mouth  2) I had a thorny thing in my foot, check it again?   Anyway, $311 later, I was sent home with my x-rays and instructions to wear my boot for a few days and take my Tramadol as needed.  I am much better today.

Our campground has terrible cell phone service and the Internet is not great either.  It is a pretty campground with lots of activity. 

We will tell you more about our trip later this week.  We cleaned this morning and now we are chilling.  Dad is at work.

Joey,
The Greyhound Who Is Spending Lots Of Dad's Money At The Vet

Have You Noticed....

....that we haven't been around?   Yep, we have been on the road since Sunday and we won't arrive at our destination until this coming Sunday.  Gulp!   We have taken two days off to rest, but it has been a long drive.  Any guesses where we are headed?  We left Maryland on Sunday.

I've been seeing a lot of things.

A buffalo.

A teepee.

A fake buffalo.

Alligators

Nope, he's not real.

Retrieve this!  BOL!

Catching up on my sleep.

Tomorrow, we begin the final leg of our trip.  We will fill you in on our adventure next week after we get settled and rested.

Joey,
The Greyhound Who Is Really Tired

Another Pet Peeve

Mom was in a mood yesterday.  She is irritated with the world, I think.  She says the world is going crazy with police officers being shot and killed.  She is upset with The View.  She loved it last season, but they got rid of the good people and hired people who talk over each other and make stupid comments.  She watched it twice last week and said no more. She said it makes her blood pressure go too high.  BOL!  We watched the presidential debate last night and I thought that would send her over the edge, but she just laughed a few times and yes, even cheered. 

So, do you want to know what really sent her on a rant yesterday?  She was reading a blog that she hasn't visited for a while.  The woman is very proud that her dog is now certified as a service dog.  No, she doesn't need a service dog.  She just wants the dog with her.  I could be a service dog.  That's right!  I could go with Mom everywhere she goes.  Mom just needs to pay $149.95 plus $10 shipping and handling and then I am a service dog.  Service Dog Certification   Mom was still ranting about it when Dad got home.  She wonders what will happen when some of these dogs start biting or misbehaving at places.  Do you really want to eat in a restaurant with a dog that is not properly trained?  Mom says it is just not right.  I bet the people who really need a service dog are not happy about it either.  What do you think?  Is Mom way off base on this?

Tomorrow, the folks are headed to Hershey, PA for the largest RV show in America.  We have watched it on TV for several years and finally, we are going. Well, I am not going.  I could if I was a service dog, but since I'm not, I am going to be at home on the couch.

Tomorrow is my last day of medicine!  I don't mind it because I like the peanut butter that comes with it.   I am doing good.  I even played a song for Dad the other night on my bunny.  My bunny has three squeakers.  It was a good performance.

Mom and I have been enjoying the cooler weather this week.  We sit outside in the mornings. Sometimes we watch our neighbor who is a real newbie to RVing.  He was really entertaining the first week he was here.  We talked to him once.  He is different. 

Exciting, right?

Joey,
The Greyhound Who Is Happy He Doesn't Have Human Problems

Amish Country - Lancaster, PA

Saturday, the folks drove to Lancaster, PA.  Dad wanted to tour an Amish home and school, see a film about the Amish and eat at an Amish restaurant.  Mom wasn't all that thrilled.  She thought the price for seeing the film and the tour was high.  It was $17.50 a person.  You can check it out here: The Amish Experience.

The film is shown in a room that looks like an old barn. There are five places where the film pops up on the barn.  It is one of those type of theaters where if there is a high wind, you feel it.  There was rain and they felt mist.  The film about an Amish teen who wasn't sure he wanted to be baptized.  You see, the Amish must choose if they want to be baptized and they normally do that between the ages of 18-22.  They can leave the community and come back and visit, if they choose not to be baptized.  However, if they are baptized and then leave, they are shunned.  Mom thought they were shunned if they left, but didn't realize they had a choice.  When the Amish are teens, they are allowed to test the waters of the English life and decide what they want to do. In the film, the teen had a car which surprised Mom.  Amish do not drive, but since he wasn't baptized yet, he was not considered Amish so he could drive.  Very interesting!  About 90% of the teens do decide to get baptized and remain with their family and their community.

After the film, the folks toured an Amish school and home.  The Amish attend one room school houses. The grades range from grade one to eight. The tour guide explained that while one grade is being taught, the other grades work on homework.  Mom's grade school class was small, so they were put in with another class.  It is really not hard to do work while the teacher is teaching the other class and you actually learn things by listening to the teacher teach that class.  Anyway, the Amish only go to grade eight.  The teachers are usually about 18 when they start teaching and they quit teaching as soon as they get married so that they can start their own family.

An Amish teacher set up this school house so that it is authentic.

The Amish do not use electricity because they want to be self sufficient.  They do use generators, propane, batteries and solar.

This is an old washing machine.  The house dates back to 1950's, so they probably use more update to appliances now since they use generators for power.

A boy's bedroom.

They do play sports, but not organized.

 The tour guide warned the group that they would be seeing a coffin, so that they wouldn't freak out.

Funerals are held in the home. Burial is in a cemetery.

Play kitchen in a girl's bedroom.

The tour guide showed all the different clothing that the girls wear.  It all depends on the age by the colors and type of dresses that they wear.

Buttons are starting to appear on more clothing.  Buttons used to be banned because they drew attention to the clothing.  They do not want to draw attention to themselves.

 

Girl's bedroom

Still talking about the clothing.  This is the teen clothing.  Brides do not wear white. They normally wear blue and their two attendants wear the same outfit.

They can wear any type of shoes that they want.  They even wear Crocs and flip flops. 

The living room.

Crafts, such as quilting is popular.

Notice the green shades.  They choose green because it easier to keep clean than the white.  They are allowed to have curtains in the bedroom and more recently, some have started putting curtains in their downstairs. The bishop decides the rules and he said that you have to choose your battles.  He is allowing curtains in the district we visited.

The kitchen - the stove is propane as is the refrigerator.

There are no dietary restrictions.  They drink soda and coffee. They shop in regular stores for things they don't grow themselves.

The folks both thought the tour was great!  Mom learned a lot even though she has read a lot of books on the Amish.  Okay, the books she has read have been romance novels, but they all talk about the Amish lifestyle.

The Pennsylvania Dutch speak both English and German.  Their church service is in German.

The Amish do not drive, but they are allowed to be driven in a car, train or bus. They are not allowed to fly.  They cannot have a phone in their house.  They can have a phone in the barn.  They are not allowed cell phones, but that is an increasing problem with the teens.  The do not have televisions or radios.  More and more of the Amish are working with the English (us) because there is not enough farmland in the Pennsylvania area for them.  Some own their own shops and sell their wares.  The Amish in this area are not allowed to ride bicycles, but they can ride scooters (not like Buddy).  They feel that they can get too far away on a bike.  When we were in Indiana, we saw a lot of Amish on bicycles.

They do not pay into Social Security or receive it.  They do not have commercial insurance policies.  They do pay taxes. They do not serve in the military.

Mom finds their lifestyle very interesting.  One man on the tour asked if he could become Amish.  The tour guide said he could.  He would have to give up his car, cell phone, electronics, etc.   Mom would have a hard time giving up air conditioning.

After the tour, the folks walked to the Amish restaurant, Plain and Fancy. They decided to have the "family feast".  This is a family style dinner where you sit with people you don't know and share a dinner.  Mom wasn't thrilled with that.  She was seated next to a nice man from South Africa. She found him to be very interesting and loved hearing his tales of visiting America. He said the worse place was New York.  He came across some rude people and since it was his first day in the U.S., he wondered if he made a mistake by visiting.  He thought all Americans might be that rude, but thank goodness he left New York and met some nice people.  He visited Philadelphia and loved the Philly cheese steak. He ate at a Waffle House and said it was just like on TV.  BOL!  He compared a lot of things to seeing them on TV.  He really likes the Boston accent.  He was hoping to take a ferry to New Jersey just to say he had been there.  He is spending one more week in America and is then headed back home.

The food was good. They had fried chicken, sausage, roast beef, mashed potatoes, chicken pot pie, buttered noodles, veggies and pies for dessert.  Mom said she enjoyed it, but still prefers to eat with people she knows instead of strangers.

I guess the folks must have really liked their day in Lancaster because they were still talking about it on Sunday.

Joey,
The Greyhound Who Bets He Would Have Chores If He Lived In An Amish Home

I Finally Made It To Gettysburg! Lots of Photos

Friday, Dad was off so we drove to Gettysburg.  I was very excited!  I had heard about it from all my greyhound friends who have visited during Greyhounds In Gettysburg.  We packed up my meds, my peanut butter, my frosties, my bed, and two bowls of water and off we went.

Gettysburg, here I come!

Mom had purchased The Concise Audio Tour of the Gettysburg Battlefield from Amazon.  It was a used version so it was just a few dollars.  A new version at the visitors center in Gettysburg is $25, I think.  We followed the map and the man on the CD told us about each stop.  He also pointed out different things as we drove. I thought it was boring. The folks enjoyed it. There are other ways that you can see the battlefields.  You can hire a private guide and we saw several couples who did that.  You can take a bus tour, a Segway tour, a bike tour or a tour by horse.  Mom said the private guide tour is probably the best, but since there wasn't room in the car for him, we chose the audio tour. 

Mom was hoping to get some really good photos of me. She was hoping to submit some to the Celebrating Greyhounds calendar.  I have never been in it.  Jack and Scout both were.   I didn't cooperate. I don't like to stand still for photos. 

Here are some of the photos that Mom took:

 

I am refusing to look at the camera.

Here are people on the Segway tour.  There's our Jeep in the background.

Here is one of the many buses used on the tours.

On top of Little Round Top.  You could see pretty far from here.  Can you imagine seeing soldiers trying to make it up the hill?

Which is my better side?  This one?

Or this one?

I am tired of picture taking.

Pffft

Still on top of Little Round Top

Devils Den

I am not going to smile.

How's this?

 

Notice my muscular back-end?  I gets lots of compliments on it.

 

Mom's final attempts to get a good photo.  This is on top of Cemetery Hill.

 

I was anxious to get back in the car after Cemetery Ridge.  Could it be because I sensed some of the spirits that they say are here?  Maybe I was just tired.  I don't remember.  It was two days ago.

We went to McDonald's for lunch and I had a cheeseburger minus the bun, onions and pickles.  It was good.

It was a nice trip, I guess.  There are lots of memorials all over the place.  Mom said I couldn't mark them. :::sigh:::  I didn't sleep the entire time we were on our trip, so I was happy to get home.  I met a few people while I was walking around.  They said I was soft and handsome.  I already knew that.  :::wink:::

The folks visited Gettysburg four times this past year.  They probably won't go back unless we go to the Greyhounds In Gettysburg gathering sometime. 

Joey,
The Greyhound Who Can Mark Gettysburg Off His Bucket List