Page 22 - AAA Magazine – AAA Ohio Auto Club – September 2018

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own and meet the resident artisans. The Amish Farm and House also offers bus tours of the Amish country- side and Amish businesses, dinner packages and goat yoga. Accredited instructors lead the yoga classes and then baby goats will join in the fun. Your session includes a T-shirt and a bar of goat milk soap.
Over the Columbus Day Weekend, Oct. 6-8, the Amish Farm and House will hold its Fall Farm Days with special activities for visitors who purchase one of its tours. Adults and children will both enjoy the Scavenger Hunt, the Pumpkin Launching and the Corn Maze. Other planned activities for the weekend include Apple Cider Tasting, Butter Churning and Pumpkin Painting.
That Columbus Day Weekend seems to be a popular weekend for events in Lancaster County. The 30th Annual Bridge Bust is set for Oct. 6 along the Veterans Memorial Bridge between Columbia and Wrightsville. Nearly 300 vendors will be lining the bridge over the Susquehanna River. Held as a fundraiser for the Susquehanna Valley Chamber of Commerce and Visitors Center, there is a small fee to take part in the festivities, but parking off-site is free and so is the shuttle. The bridge, which is on state Route 462, will be closed for the event, but don’t worry if your plans take you near the area since U.S. 30 to the north also connects these two cities. More information can be found at facebook.com/events/2040225746213087/.
The next day, head from the edge of the county to near the center, in Strasburg, and take part in the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania’s Garden Railways Tour. Tickets are $10 per person for those 6 and older and will provide guests a self-guided afternoon tour of 10 private homes that feature garden railways and working model train layouts. For more info and to purchase tickets, visit facebook.com/events/265723027540825/.
To fully immerse yourself in the Amish experience, consider a visit to Amish Farm and House in Lancaster.
If you are model train fan, you also need to check
out the National Toy Train Museum while you are in Strasburg. It has layouts of six different scales with trains dating from the 1800s. It is open primarily on weekends only, but in the fall, it has special events planned and has some weekday openings as well. For additional information, visit nttmuseum.org.
But if you are heading to Lancaster County, especially in the fall, heed this warning: Beware of the albatwitch. This small, about 4-foot-tall, manlike creature supposedly lives in the Chickies Rock County Park on the banks of the Susquehanna River, about a mile or so north of Columbia. Strange noises and sights were reported from the 1950s through the 1970s near the park, although some sightings also have been reported from nearby towns. The creature has a taste for apples and will, allegedly, steal them from people at the park or even throw them at startled visitors. The Columbia Creative Factory and Columbia Historic Preservation Society have joined together to hold an Albatwitch Day, which will be held Oct. 13 this year, in Columbia. It will feature lectures, live music, vendors, artists and, of course, an apple pie contest. For more details, visit albatwitchday.com.
No matter what you decide to do in Lancaster County, you are almost guaranteed to drive through a covered bridge. And when you do, you might want to give thanks to Robert James Waller’s book for giving covered bridges some much-needed attention.
John T. Garcia is the managing editor of AAA Magazine.
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