We slept much later than usual. It had to be a combination of a couple of things. First, we were beat last night and second, the site we have at Western Village RV Park is under a lovely canopy of trees so it stays a shaded (overcast) level of light all day. Then, we had a leisurely breakfast and spent some time pouring over the 4 maps of the area we have. The plan was to drive over to Lancaster County and photograph some of the 30 bridges in that part of the state. Before we left NH I had bookmarked a website with 5 driving routes to help us enjoy the countryside, experience some of the Amish charm, sample bits of the local fare and get those photos I’ve been thinking of for a long time. So, I’m wondering why I didn’t print these directions out. After using Carl’s planning skills one more time, we roughed out directions to Lititz which is where the starting point of one of the driving tours began. We hoped the Visitor’s Center would either have the printed directions or would be able to print them for us. In fact, they couldn’t help with anything other than to give me a printed list of the bridges with their GPS coordinates. Armed with another map, Carl plotted a route to 4 bridges and I wrote the directions out longhand. So, off we went and found the first bridge with no problems, the second one proved a bit more elusive and we got lost looking for the third one. The map wasn’t proving as helpful as we thought. Not all roads were represented and others didn’t exist. We were told to go to the end of Farmersville Road and turn left onto Gristmill but when we got to the end the road was Sykes. We accidentally found a bridge we hadn’t been looking for. The day trip fell into a rhythm. I would jump out take the photos of the bridge and whatever else was in the area while Carl sat in the truck and plotted what he hoped would be our next move. Then we’d drive to the next destination, miss a road or find the road wasn’t there and then I’d have to set the camera down and try to figure out where we were on the map. It was all very frustrating. By the third time we were “not quite aware of where we were” , we were pretty frustrated. We found our way back to one of the major routes and the Oregon Dairy Restaurant and Ice Cream Stand for lunch. It was 2:30. After lunch, we set off to try to find one last bridge. It was on the edge of a campground on Red Run Road and was in really bad shape. It was twisted, closed off at both ends, missing side boards and wasn’t over any water that I could see. I passed on this one. Carl worked out how to get back to our RV Park and we immediately couldn’t find one of the roads. After another frustrating few minutes, the highway was in sight and we discovered we were 20 miles further away from the camper than we thought. Once more, poor Carl was beat. He fell asleep sitting up during the first couple of innings of the Red Sox Yankees game. No supper for either of us tonight. The photos we took today were not bad. We did see the classic horse and buggy trotting down the road. After 5 bridges, I realized they all look alike and that’s because they are all Burr Arch Truss construction and built by the same type of craftsmen. Today’s travels took us through Lititz, Manheim, Brownstown, Farmersville, New Holland, Goodville and Blue Ball. Perhaps, tomorrow will reveal a different type of bridge in the Strasburg area.
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