I wondered if you had experience around the Amish.
Thank you for your quality content 
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Yes, I have had interesting encounters with them, living most of my life in southwestern PA. During that summer in Lancaster County, I discovered that the best way to interact with them for us âEnglishâ is to wander the roads around their farms solo on an old bicycle.
That year (1985) happened to be when director Peter Weirâs âWitnessâ (where Harrison Ford plays a police detective hiding with an Amish widow to protect her son who has witnessed an execution murder) had just opened â much of it had been filmed in the preceding year on location in the area where I was staying.
So the Amish were already wary of carloads of tourists driving around searching for the movie locales. I noticed right away that if a car rolled to a stop along a fenceline or front yard that any Amish who were nearby would shun the visitors and move away into their property.
But when I would roll up to a farm and pause on my old Raleigh 10-speed quite often any residents who spotted me would walk down to greet me (and I often stopped, needing to catch my breath or a swig of water from my bottle since that area is super hilly and that old Simplex derailleur did not afford a lot of mechanical advantage for me, even fit as I was back then). I would always first wish them a âgood dayâ and compliment them on how beautiful and robust their farm, crops and animals were. Having come from traditional family farms on both sides of my family (in Michigan , NY and Wisconsin) and having spent summers staying on those and sharing the chores, I could remark specifically on what stock breeds and crop varieties they were propagating.
The men were surprised and particularly pleased when I would tell them that my motherâs cousin Merle was still using a quartet of Belgian draft horses rather than tractors to farm in an area of Wisconsin near the Iowa border which is as steep and hilly as Lancaster County. Merle and his wife had no kids and farmed alone and he worried about having a tractor roll on him (a source of many injuries and deaths for farm workers), also loved the horses and said he would have felt silly talking to a tractor all day while he worked. Plus, he could fall asleep in the seat while doing boring cultivation or manure spreading tasks and the team would finish following the familiar furrow patterns and head back to the barn for dinner, then whinny to wake him up. The Amish found that tale pretty funny.
Several of the Amish invited me for tours of the barns, to see new lambs, foals or litters of kittens, given carrots or apples to feed the heifers and horses. The Amish farm wives and young girls often offered a glass of lemonade or a piece of pie or fresh bread and butter. One young girl joined me for a short ride to the next farm, where she was headed to help out a neighbor â she was riding an ancient fixed gear coaster brake Schwinn but, standing on the pedals in her flowing dress and apron, she cleaned my clock on the hills.
I did ask sometimes if they were bothered by all the tourists who were coming by that year due to the popularity of the movie. They agreed it was tiresome but they did report with enthusiasm about their interactions with the film crews. They confided to me which of the farms was the one used for the setting (and I did ride by it on the bike eventually) â this was not something they shared with the motorized tourists, so as to spare that family from having looky loos invade the place. At one farm where I got to meet several of the family, both the paterfamilias and two of the older sons had worked on the set for the barn building scenes in âWitnessâ. They reported having been impressed that Harrison Ford was a âvery able carpenterâ and that he had served very well on the framing crew.
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Great tales. Iâve only driven through and bought jellies and things on the stands at the side of the road but I find them fascinating. My SIL and BIL just bought a house in Amish country (Atglen?) so I hope to hear more. I did follow them (statistics) during the pandemic and they did very well.
We are taking our electric bikes camping at the lakes next week and Iâll try and begin to like the heavy bike by getting some practice. Im not used to the weight.
Yesterday we rode at some altitude to avoid the heat and I so appreciate just throwing my carbon fibre in the back of the rig.
Looking towards the Swabian Alps and the Black Forest.
the e-bike should do better in gravel because it has fatter tires. If I lose my balance on my road bike, I donât crash but the e-bike feels so heavy 
going down steep hills.
Itâs mountain bike terrain where we are going and mine isnât a mountain bike so I hope it doesnât get away from me.
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My wife and I just rode 280 km in 4 days on the Camino de Santiago Portuguese Coastal route, and she rode an electric mountain bike. It performed flawlessly and made a tough trip possible.
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I just looked up the route in case we ever get over thereâŚlooks amazing.
A route we want to do is around the Bodensee. We have only done short pieces of it.
(Trail runs around Lake Constance, through beautiful villages)
We have a dog trailer but he doesnât love it. He wants to be running next to us and itâs not possible.
The views from the bike trail:
We are dying to do it but need to find the time and figure the dog child problem out.
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Looks like a beautiful trip.
The Camino was a great trip and more challenging terrain then we expected. Thereâs spots youâre pushing your bike if you stay true to the Camino. If we did it again, weâd take 5 or 6 days.
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So you need a mountain bike then? We have Cube
Kathmandu (touring bike?)
You stayed in hotels I guess?
I wrecked mine the first day. Did you guys have any wipe outs?
What would be an easy âspillâ on a road bike is an intimidating experience when all the weight comes after you.
I canât carry it up all the stairs either.
I hope I can learn to like it.
So far, I hate it 
I need to slow down but my partner rides too aggressively and I blame him.
Didnât Harrison Ford start in show business as a set carpenter?
That bike would work, but there are parts youâll have to push the bike. But, you would have to anyway, if youâre not an experienced mountain biker. Of course the weight of an ebike makes that more difficult.
We did stay in hotels, and since we were coming fron the states we used a booking agency for itinerary planning, hotels and bike rental.
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A while back a co-worker brought his bicycle in. He had installed a motorized front wheel that came with a control that attached to the handlebars and a battery and battery holder on the frame. I donât remember the brand but similar: https://www.ebikekit.com/collections/bike-systems-lithium It allowed you to quickly detach the wheel and battery to avoid thievery.
To me the advantage was you didnât have to buy some heavy steel bike; you just add the wheel to your favorite bike.
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Could be something like this:
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FYI
Technically we are supposed to have a bike rack with brake lights. Part of the problem is we canât find a rack for a US spec hitch on our rig.
Not exactly, he taught himself carpentry after he moved to Hollywood to support his wife and child by doing that on the side while awaiting and between small roles. He did kind of luck out at being able to try out for Star Wars because he was doing carpentry work at Zoetrope Studios when Lucas came for the auditions, though initially he was just being used to read lines for other actors. His agent was somewhat responsible for him getting that break.
Close enough!
On my bike commute to downtown (9 miles one way), Iâve been noticing a lot more e-cargo bikes, with young parents hauling one or two kids, presumably to day camp. Also, seeing more elderly as well as some big/heavy ebike riders that I donât recall seeing before the pandemic.
So, itâs not my imagination, if the growing numbers of shared bike users for Boston and other cities are the tips of a larger icebergs.
I think itâs great to see the expansion of individual health/fitness routines. I think and hope we can also help slow a tad bit the global warming that we are experiencing across this planet.
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