This is yesterdays post…. but due to the internet having a hissy fit… I can only post it today…
The young man in the photo is serving us pie and icecream mentioned further down the post…..

There’s a huge thunderstorm raging outside….thunder claps are renting the sky and the rain is coming down in sheets.
The TV has been interrupted all evening with storm warnings…I don’t really know what neighborhood I’m in so it didn’t mean too much to me until it hit….. Now the power has gone out…. several fire engines and police cars have just sped past the hotel.
It’s sort of been one of those days…a day of reflection and surprises. !!!
I love being on the road, but the pressure eventually catches up with you and I have made a few decisions in the past few days to give myself a break….
I was just too tired to write last night… a day of teaching, a lecture at lunch, a rushed dinner and then the evening show where it seemed that 100’s of  ladies packed into the auditorium for show and tell….I fell into bed exhausted..
I finally had time to visit the quilt show this morning and it was just stunning…. I don’t really know how many quilts were there, but I estimate around 200+
I’m in awe at the beauty and artistry of todays competitive quilters… the standard just gets higher and higher. In particular I note that the quilts that are machine quilted seem to be getting more elaborate. The thread is fine, the stitches incredibly small and intricate…The standard is set when a quilt wins at a major show… then we see a number of quilts emulating the same style….. so it goes….
The BOS was machine embroidered, and quilted on a long arm….the quilting equal on the back and front forming a design in reverse.

I left the hotel mid morning amidst yet another storm…. my shuttle driver kindly waited while I picked up my rental car. I had rented a Toyota like mine at home…. ( I needed a mid size car for my extensive luggage)… imagine my surprise when I got to the car and it was a mustang!!!! I was so flustered I drove out the wrong exit and then I panicked when  I couldn’t find my way back to him…. poor thing waited patiently while I drove around.the entire airport trying to find my way back….
Then I  decided to drive to my hotel and dump the luggage.  Sometimes though, the GPS takes you on a little jaunt and I seemed to be going round and round in circles….. it was probably just that I was  feeling a little anxious in a mustang sports car…..
Finally I found it after I drove in the out exit and I went to book in…."Sorry Ma-m you have to come back at 3.00 this afternoon we’re too busy to do the rooms….
So what do I do now….I decided to drive back and look at the town of Hershey…. except when I drove through there I couldn’t find a main shopping area, although I believe there is a quaint town hiding in those suburbs some where….

OK so I put the words TAKE ME TO INTERCOURSE PA into the Tom Tom and he told me it was 40 miles away so off I went…..
I drove past quaint farm houses, fields of head high corn and houses that seemed too perfect to be real…. I’m sure I was on a movie set……
I drove through bird in the Hand, and I noticed there was nothing open….. I suddenly realized that of course it is Sunday and the Amish don’t work on that day….. I came upon a complex that I had visited many years ago with my Aussie quilt tour… and I turned my very nice mustang into the car park.
It was 1.00, and I had only eaten left over prawns for breakky so I figured I would treat myself and go the whole hog. The Restaurant is Amish and you sit at a long table with other folk and share a meal… it was just what I needed so I found myself besides a young Catholic Priest from Colombia called father Walter. He was accompanied by  two ladies from the Philippines who now lived in NY.. there were two other families with small children and we all began the meal together.
First it was hot fruit loaf with the icing running down the sides and fresh rolls with apple butter and pickles….. yes… sweet pickles…
The combination was delicious.
Next came, Turkey, ham, mashed potatoes and beans and sweet corn….. oooh and I mean sweet… how do they get it like that I wonder?
The conversation flowed as the food was devoured…. Father Walter was interested in everything…. I learned a little about Colombia…. and one of the ladies worked in publishing for Scholastic.
Next came sweets, shoo fly pie and home made ice cream…..
Now it sounds like I went crazy…. however, I just had a little of everything and savored it all.
As I went to leave…. I found Father had paid for my lunch…..
OOOh I was rather embarrassed….. but he just asked me to say a prayer for him….. he wouldn’t even give me his name so I could send him a thank you…..
But what a great surprise…

I have wonderful memory pictures of three young Amish men. Each had a different colored shirt, plum, blue and green and of course intersected by their black braces…..they rode side by side in an open buggy, their youthful expression of going hatless was noted and their distinctive haircuts were exaggerated by the breeze.

I peeped inside one buggy as it went past me…. it was lined in red velvet and the front interior was polished wood…. just like Keith and I had in our Cooper S in the 60’s…!!! A young man went by on a scooter and it seemed the entire congregation in that area was on the move after service….

What a privilege……

I arrived home and decided not to eat dinner but to do my washing and just have a diet coke…….
Then the storm hit…..!!!!

I lost all that I had written and I thought my computer had been zapped….. !!!! thank goodness it’s back online today….