Click the arrows to see some photos from our trip.

At the end, I set the record straight about how people from up north really act, so read until the end.

In June, we hired a chicken sitter and took the crew up north to visit the Asper family in Pennsylvania. The weather was beautiful but hit record highs, yet not humid. The sun is awfully bright at 5. I couldn’t believe it, You could really get a lot done before work living up there.

We stayed at a brb in the country. It was so much fun to see the fields lit up with fireflies. I miss them! God’s own fireworks. It was like Christmas lights.

We got to see some Amish/Mennonites. No, in case you’re wondering, Aaron is not Amish.

We did have a couple children get earaches, one started the first afternoon, and as that one got better, the second child got a double earache…so that put a damper on the trip, for sure.

Besides that, we enjoyed good meals, fresh raw milk from a local dairy, some pretzels, pizza, and more.

I added some photos from a creamery we enjoy. The milk is sold in glass half gallons. You pay a deposit for the bottle, use it up at home, then you can bring it back for your next purchase. You get to see the baby calves at the dairy too.

We even went through Aspers, Pennsylvania. Yes, Aaron has a town. It’s where Motts is. There are A LOT of apple trees, and some peach trees on the hills. (BTW, an applesauce factory does not smell the way you think it would…but the potato chip factory UTZ does smell amazing.)

We went through Gettysburg, briefly, too. It is really big. You can tour on your own through all the different battles. It is a solemn place, but the outskirts are truly growing commercially.

However, you can just drive for free through the battlegrounds of Gettysburg. Each of the participating states has a memorial for the fallen soldiers. For those that like history, you can spend all day there and find South Carolina’s monument in honor of protecting states rights.

Setting the Record Straight…

Aaron gets a fair share of slack being in SC for being a northerner or a “yankee.”

Right when he moved here he got accused of “You’re not from around here…” (add a really deep southern accent and a slim woman with a cigarette.)

I can tell you that from being married to someone from just north of the Mason-Dixon line he gets picked on a good bit.

(You know, we biked to the sign marking the Mason-Dixon line divide years ago on the rail trail. It was a beautiful bike ride through the countryside. I highly recommend it. I’m originally a Dixon too, come to think about it,)

People who haven’t traveled in Pennsylvania have an impression that all of Pennsylvania is liberal like Philadelphia or Pittsburgh.

Actually, Aaron’s from closer to Gettysburg and you can see in these pictures what the countryside of probably most of Pennsylvania looks like.

Furthermore, people here in SC tend to think that PA is very liberal. Just from my observations being the passenger, there were a 95% more flags waving from homes in support of Trump than I see here around Hartsville and SC. I don’t think I saw a liberal sign at all driving around.

Plus, the people in PA aren’t rude as southerners assume, they seem to be very friendly and genuine.

(Except for that one driver when we first crossed the border into PA who made some very rude remark. We still can’t figure out what we did wrong, but well that can happen anywhere. He was probably from Maryland.)