Road Trip Destination: Lancaster PA

Located in the picturesque Susquehanna River Valley Lancaster was incorporated as a borough in 1742 and as a city in 1818 and in 1777. The city served as capitol of the United States for a day in 1777 after the Continental Congress fled Philadelphia after it was taken by the British and as capitol of Pennsylvania from 1799 to 1812.



There is a lot to see and do in the city of Lancaster, such as the Central Market, the oldest continuously operating farmers market in the nation and a great place to get Amish goods along with other locally produced foods including a wide assortment of interesting ethnic foods.


Above picture courtesy www.discoverlancasterpa.com

Lancaster has a wide assortment of museums including the North Museum of Science and History, the Lancaster Historical Society, which includes President Buchanan's "Wheatlands"and the Tanger Arboretum.

If you are a fan of trains the Railroad Museum alone would be worthy of a road trip, the fact that it is literally across the street from the Strasbourg Railroad makes it even better.

The core of the collection is the Pennsylvania Railroad Historical Collection, trains and related equipment that the late, great Pennsylvania Railroad felt was historic and worth saving. But that's just a part of this museum's display of over 100 locomotives and a vast collection of other railroad related artifacts.

They do restorations, you can see an antique train being restored, find out a bit about how the technology worked, and even go into a (clean) grease pit underneath a steam locomotive.

Looking at the rail cars you can get a glimpse into how the rich of years past used to travel in their private rail cars, and get an idea about how the average citizen traveled. The museum also has a simulator so you can try your hand at driving a freight train (I didn't do well at all!), plus several model railroad layouts and of course an extensive gift shop.

Pennsylvania Railroad Museum

The Strasburg Railroad is not only one of the oldest tourist railroads in the world it's one of the oldest RAILROADS in the world. Founded in 1832 the railroad bought it's first passenger car to carry President Lincoln and operated until 1957 when storms damaged the tracks. The Railroad was purchased by a group that wanted to save it and they succeed, in 1958 the Strasburg Railroad started carrying passengers again.

You can just take the 45 minute train ride, you can also have lunch or dinner on the train, or even go on a murder mystery ride! There are also other attractions at the railroads East Strasburg Station starting point, including a miniature train and of course train and souvenir shops.



It can be really surprising who (and what!) you might meet on the train!




Above pictures courtesy www.discoverlancasterpa.com

The Amish, also sometimes called the "Pennsylvania Dutch" are a fascinating group of people. They are hard working, family oriented, deeply religious people who endeavor to maintain something like a 18th Century lifestyle in 21st Century America.

These are NOT backward people, many of them do use electricity, usually generated by their own windmills, and they use refrigeration. Their farms are clean and well organized and can most easily be identified by large clotheslines, small windmills, and no power lines going out to the road. You might also see someone plowing a field being using a team of horses.

With their love of each other, their faith, their belief in hard work, cleanness and taking care of the land there is something we could all learn from these interesting people.

Oh, and they aren't Dutch, they are of German descent, if you want to visit someplace settled by the Dutch check out Holland Michigan, or even New Amsterdam... better known as New York City.


Picture courtesy www.discoverlancasterpa.com

I'm a fan of road trips, this Squidoo Lens one the of a series on interesting destinations. If you are a fan of road trips please visit my website, RotoRota.com.

See you on the road!