Bold times on the Odyssey, folks, bold times. Like the song goes in my personal favorite movie, "Smokey and the Bandit," we've got a long way to go and a short time to get there. That's the first Smokey and the Bandit, by the way, not Part II. Smokey and the Bandit Part II was ruined for me by Dom Deluise's ham-handing "acting," if you can call it that, cruelly overshadowing the command performance turned in by Burt Reynolds' toupee. A crying shame, I tell you. Dom oughta be ashamed of himself.
| We had big goals for today. Not only did we want to see the Amish country and the Gettysburg National Monument, we also wanted to see if we could check out Frank Lloyd Wright's architectural masterpiece, Fallingwater, in southeastern Pennsylvania. Then, to top it off, we wanted to drive the seven hundred miles or so to Chicago so we could meet Extreme Fellow Traveller Steve bright and early the next day. Fortunately for us, we had agreed to drive Karl and Kristina to the airport bright and early for their departure to St. Croix. That's Karl and Kristina there at the right, far too early in the morning, ready to sleep on the plane. We don't show the corresponding picture of us, jaws set, ready to take on the beast of a day before us. |  |
| We dropped Karl and Kristina off at the airport about 6:30 AM and said our goodbyes. It had been a good visit -- really wonderful to meet such nice folks on the road. We left each other with promises to stay in touch and headed our separate directions. Our direction took us to Lancaster County. This is the area where Pennsylvania's Amish and Mennonite populations reside, living simple farming lives as they have for hundreds of years. The Amish and Mennonites do not use machinery, avoiding automobiles, and tilling their fields with horse-drawn plows. Sort of like one of those men's adventure outings you see advertised at the back of lifestyle magazines, except the Amish do it all the time -- not just for crazy kicks, or to "find themselves." | |
| At first, we took some out-of-the-way roads through Lancaster County. This afforded us an uncluttered look at actual working Amish farms and folks. A much different view, I assure you, than the view provided in Lancaster itself. There, billboards inviting you to partake of "Real Amish Style," ride in "Genuine Amish Buggies," or "Come Milk Cows with the Amish," seemed to outnumber the Amish themselves, crowding the highways with their pleas for the almighty tourist dollar. There's something a bit odd about the commercialization of a group of religious folks dedicated to a simply pure relationship between man and God. "Come look at the Amish, Bobby! Ain't they cute!" | |
 |
Of course, it's hard for us to act too holier-than-thou when we're out there taking pictures of those same cute Amish in their horse-drawn buggies. That one at the top of the page is moving at normal speed, like a buggy usually does. The one at the left, however, is showing the effects of being tailgated by Kristanne. She hates to drive slow, I tell you. "I'm gonna smoke this Mennonite punk," I heard her say as she laid on the horn. "Just smoke him!" |
| We moved on to Gettysburg and checked out a few battlefield sites and memorials. Very interesting, but time was tight. We hit the road again, bound for the Frank Lloyd Wright masterpiece, Fallingwater. After snaking down some adventurous roads, we finally pulled in to Fallingwater about 3:56 PM. This was bad. Our book told us that not only did Fallingwater close at 4:00 PM, but we also needed reservations to get on a tour. We decided to chance it. Boy, were we ever glad we did. We managed to get on the last tour of the day, making it by the skin of our teeth. |  |
I should really let Kristanne describe our tour of Fallingwater -- she used to sketch it from memory, taking pleasure in its cantilevered design and myriad nooks and crannies. She was practically giddy with delight as we took the tour, her excitement carrying on over to me. However, since Kristanne is watching the Sharon Stone opus, "Diabolique" on TV, I'll have to try and do the tour justice.
Wright is probably America's most famous architect and Fallingwater is considered the best-designed private home in all of America. The hallmark of Fallingwater is its unity with nature. It is built into the landscape rather than on top of it. Straddling a waterfall, Wright used the boulders and rocks of the streambed to form actual walls and floors of the house in places. In certain rooms, the stream's water actually flows inside the house. Wright also used horizontal lines to blend the house with the surrounding landscape. Even for someone like me who doesn't know a heckuva lot about architecture, this tour was fascinating. Highly recommended to one and all!
Our tour of Fallingwater complete, there was nothing left to do but drive until we could drive no more. Kristanne did the bulk of the dirty work as I sat in the back, pounding out six web pages to get us caught up from our abominable period of apathy. There was only so much driving we could do, though. Even though we gained an hour by passing back into Central Standard Time, we still had to settle down for the night at about 2:30 AM CST, about 60 miles from Chicago. We were just too tired to drive. Even so, we worked for another hour on the web page once we stopped, getting everything up and at 'em. Then we toddled off to bed for a well-deserved three and a half hours of sleep. Sometimes, the Odyssey is actually pretty hard work!
Of course, it's also Extreme Shots of the Day. Today, we hearken back to the legendary "Testy Festy" Extreme Shot of the Day for inspiration. Again, we must caution you that not all Extreme Shots of the Day are suitable for all readers. If you are easily offended, or have felt threatened in the past by some of our Extreme Shots, we urge you to look no further. That said, we can only guess at the services provided by this banking institution in Pennsylvania's Amish country. Is there a dark side to the Mennonite religion that we don't know about? Only the loan officer knows for sure, I reckon.
That's it for today! See you next time on the Odyssey as we head for the Quad Cities -- four times as much fun as a single city.
Total Miles for 7/31 = 826! A new Odyssey record!