October 9-20, 2025

My brother and I went on an overnight bus trip to Lancaster, PA sponsored by St. John Lutheran church. The main event was at the Sight and Sound Theater for a musical production of the biblical story of “Noah” (Noahs’ Ark and the great flood). They did not allow photos but it was quite a sight to behold in a 2000 seat theater with actors and animals running up and down the aisles.

We had dinner at the Red Caboose Restaurant and Motel. The motel rooms are in authentic railroad caboose cars! The restaurant was a railroad dining car. We did not stay here overnight.

During dinner I hurried outside to catch the setting sun and was able to also photograph two Amish buggies. See how enclosed they are because they do not like having their pictures taken.

The next day we boarded the Strasburg Railroad for a leisurely tour through Amish country.

We saw many Amish farms with their iconic silos. For those that do not know, the silos hold chopped up green cornstalks which are blown into the top. The resulting silage ferments and keeps from spoiling by the lack of air deep in the silo. This is the feed for the cows in the winter time.

I was able to photograph at a distance some of the farm activities. They are allowed to have tractors if they have steel wheels. Then there are chickens in small coops. The fourth photo I do not recognize the type of equipment. The final photo is a “drill” used to plant winter wheat in rows that are closely spaced.

The final stop was at the farm barn art studio of Elva Hurst. She did the Chalk talk art work in about 25 minutes. It was quite an experience to listen to her story growing up as a Mennonite and becoming an artist. The first photo she did “live”, the second was in the studio.

On the way home back to Arizona, I first stopped to visit friends in Delaware, OH. As we contemplated a fun day trip we ended up visiting the Honda Heritage Center in Marysville, OH. It was quite interesting as it chronicled Honda’s manufacturing in America. They had examples of many motorcycles and classic cars. The second photo is part of a robot demonstration on how they assemble a car. The third photo is a cutaway of an engine. The fourth is an engine with “exploded” views of the engine parts.

The above photo is the 2004 Honda Valkyrie Rune limited production power cruiser developed by Honda to showcase its engineering and styling.

After seeing quite a few signs, I decided to check out Patti’s 1880’s Settlement which was really a resort with a restaurant, many gift shops, recreated buildings and many outdoor activities for children in Grand Rivers, Kentucky. From the name it wasn’t really what I expected but was fun anyway. How about the pink tractor gift shop and the bird houses?

I did not stop very often on the way home but did stop at two places along Route 66 in Oklahoma. The first was the Oklahoma Route 66 Museum in Clinton that was not open but I had been there before. I took a couple of pictures outside.

The second stop was at the National Route 66 and Transportation Museum which also was not open but there are many exhibits outside.

In the above photos, I had some fun trying to capture the motion of the spinning windmills. On the iPhone, I used Live View and post processed to long exposure on the phone.

This is a unique artifact from the dawn of the nuclear age. The photo, from a museum window, is not very good because of the reflection through glass. This was called a Shoe-Fitting Fluoroscope (1920-maybe up to 1940 or 50?). The idea was to use X-Rays to see your foot bones and how well they fit in the shoe. This was an age when they did not understand the dangers of radiation from X-Rays. Ultimately they realized this was a terrible idea since the instrument is most likely exposing unknown and large amounts of radiation to the shoe salesman as well as the customers. (As opposed to today when you are wrapped in a lead lined blanket and the technician leaves the room when you get dental X-rays). Here’s a complete 3 minute story of the machines on YouTube.

There are now two places where there are buried old cars and graffiti is encouraged. Cadillac Ranch west of Amarillo, Texas where I have never stopped. I stopped on the east side of Amarillo at Slug Bug Ranch, newly recreated and featuring some VW bugs as well as Cadillacs.

Almost every time I’m on I-40, I divert to Route 66 in Tucumcari, NM and stop at the Blue Swallow Motel which is still in operation. The second mural photo is from one of the garages attached to each room of the motel. I bet you never heard of that before. There are also quite a few other vintage motels in the town as well.

I like the perspective of a low photo shot that includes the Route 66 sign above.

I have stopped many times at the Enchanted Trails RV Park and Trading Post a little west of Albuquerque, NM. It has quite a number of vintage RV trailers and cars.

Above is an in camera self portrait creative reflection photo.

The final photo stop of the trip is at the Wigwam motel, also still in operation, in Holbrook, AZ just off I-40. You can spend the night in a tepee.

The last photo is an in camera creative reflection photo that captures the essence of the motel with the old cars and the tepees.