Intercourse, Amish and No Tax

Okay so the title is somewhat risque, others may view it to be somewhat nefarious, but here's the thing: I am no perv. In my earlier entry, I to failed to mention that I took my parents to Lancaster, PA which is about an hour and a half away from where I live here in Camden. Mom and Dad wanted to see Amish Country and seeing the wonderful tour guide that I am, we headed west yesterday for the day. Of course, our trip was a little delayed resulting from my wonderful navigating skills - somehow, I managed to forget which exit to take to get us to our ultimate destination and so we ended up driving for an extra half hour on the freeway. I ultimately relented and humbled myself into stopping at the Lancaster Visitor's Center for directions. Let's just say that I was feeling a tad bit embarassed. The kind old man at the visitor's center then pointed us towards the correct direction and we were on our way. Finally upon our arrival to Amish country we stopped in the town of Bird In Hand at the farmer's market for some fruit and a light lunch. At the edge of the parking lot there was this huge advertisement for Intercourse, PA . I am sure that you can already see where I'm going with this. Ha! After mom and dad saw the ad, the conversation somehow went south. Mom and dad starting coming up with all these dumb jokes pertaining to the town's name - Intercourse. Of course, I was in the car just absolutely mortified with my parents' conversation. They thought it was halarious! Can you believe that??? Of course upon our arrival to the town of Intercourse, mom and dad had to get their picture taken with the "Welcome to Intercourse" sign which was situated on the side of the road. A few minutes later a couple who looked to be around my parents' age, parked their SUV in front of our vehicle, for what I assumed to have their picture taken with the sign as well. N ow you can imagine the jokes they exchanged with my parents. Now myself? All I could do was shake my head and roll my eyes at all four adults. ADULTS I TELL YA!

The excitement over Intercourse (no pun intended ;) ) was soon replaced with the horse-drawn buggies driven by the Amish people on the shoulder of the road. It was halarious watching dad trying to take a picture while I was driving by a horse-drawn carriage! And of course, you can also imagine my parents reaction to seeing real live Amish people walking around the town! Heheheheh! When we were in the farmer's market ordering soup from the Amish girl, my dad actually wanted to take a picture of her behind the counter! Can we say "ULTIMATE TOURIST"? It was nothing short of embarassing!

We ended our day shopping at the outlet centers in Lancaster, which is obviously antithetical to the Amish way of life. After mom purchased a pair of running shoes at the Nike outlet, she discovered that PA does not charge sales tax in shoes and clothing. And so of course, with her halarious experience with Intercourse, the Amish and no tax, PA went up a notch in her books. Go figure.