Thursday, September 1, 2011

Amish Country in Marion, KY

We were able to take one last extended weekend before starting school.  I had a family reunion in Southern Illinois last weekend and we took Monday and Tuesday to do some exploring.  We stayed in Southern Illinois at Cave-in-Rock State Park and pretty much had the place to ourselves.  Other than the cave, there's nothing to do that is close to the campground.

The ferry is the only way across the Ohio River unless you want to drive for over an hour to get to a bridge.  You just pull up, drive on, and cruise across the river to Amish Country.




There's something so peaceful and still about the Amish.  The land is undeveloped.  The pace is slower.


The wagon's take you back in time...


The Amish folk here were extremely friendly and many opened a portion of their homes or a separate building on their property to conduct business.  They sold baked goods and furniture as well as supplies for use to those within their community, like farming equipment, overalls, boots, wagon/buggy parts, etc.  It was a very unique shopping experience. 

The "Family Foods" store was the local grocerie store.  Yes, I spelled that correctly, according to the Amish.  This place, as well as all the other shops, had low prices.  We were amazed at the prices of things.  I guess that's what you get when you cut out the middle man.  One example is that I bought 5 bell peppers for $1.00.  And I could have bought the entire box for $5.00, which contained at least 40 or more peppers!  The furniture was reasonably priced, too.  Most stores were very small, many couldn't even hold more than 10 people without bumping into each other.  But we were so far out in the sticks that running into others was a rarity.

I really wanted to take more pictures, but I also wanted to respect the Amish.  I was dying to grab my camera at every stop we made.  But I refrained.  They were so kind though, that I could have asked to snap a few shots of their land, flowers, and other interesting things, and they probably would have been fine with it.  As long as you don't photograph their faces.

Even the kids enjoyed that day. 

1 comment:

  1. I love going to Amish country! Hubs and I want to go back without the kids.

    ReplyDelete