Geocaching, Amish, Livestock Auction and MORE Adventure!!!

Carol and I had plans for me to meet up with her at the WALTZING HORSE FARM so I could take some short videos of her riding Mystique. We agreed to get together for this after I finished getting my hair permed at THE CUTTING CREW in Oneonta. However, as I was finishing up, one of the hairdressers told me that Carol called and wanted me to call her back when I finished up. When I called her, she said that she was too tired to ride, but that she was still interested in getting together if I could think of something fun to do. I told her that we could do some geocaching and we decided to meet up in New Berlin at 11;40 a.m.

We met up and headed up Route 8 to find a geocache in a small cemetery. Carol found this one quickly enough and I took some pictures. Besides having a geocache, this cemetery is pretty neat..........there is some neat "natures reclamation"....some trees have actually overgrown parts of the fence. Also, most or maybe all of the grave stones are made with something a bit different, a whitish stone, that appears to be very durable, since the graves are very old.

After that, we headed back to New Berlin, and I suggested to Carol that we explore an Amish area that I found not too long ago on a drive back home from Lockport. I quickly located it and the first place we passed was a Harness Shop. I was trying to figure out a reason to stop in and check it out when Carol asked to stop......she has horses! She purchased something from the shop and I purchased a dozen brown eggs. It is a very nice shop. Carol wanted to talk to the man who repairs harnesses. The Amish teenage girl told us that her father was "at the auction" and suggested she stop back sometime.

We continued down the road and came to a sign for a furniture shop. We located the shop, but nobody seemed to be around (maybe the carpenter went to the auction, too). The furniture is absolutely gorgeous.

A little ways down the road, I was VERY surprised to see what looked like an Amish one room school. There were some children out in front, so I said to Carol, lets drive on a bit, and then come back and drive down the road with the school, so I can take a picture of the school. (the Amish do not like having their pictures taken and I did not want to cause any problems). However, when we returned, there were MORE children hanging out in front of the school. We drove down and past them, anyways, all the way to the end of the road where there is a closed bridge. On the way back, several Amish children (mostly boys) walked towards our car as we approached, as if they wanted us to stop so they could tell us something. I stopped the car and Carol spoke to the children, but they did not respond. It was quite strange.......but we figure they have been told NOT to speak to strangers. There were children of all ages and a woman standing on the front porch of the schoolhouse who appeared to be older, perhaps the teacher. We told the kids to have a good afternoon and drove off without taking any pictures SO I have to return someday and take a picture of that little schoolhouse! After that, we headed back towards New Berlin, making a brief stop at the WELCHES AUCTION HOUSE.

April16_2012 035, a photo by JuneNY on Flickr.

We stayed about fifteen minutes. Then we went to New Berlin and stopped at Stewarts for ice cream. We both had the "make your own sundae" for $3.00.

Then we headed out towards Pittsfield to find a couple of GEOCACHING JEOPARDY geocaches. We were successful and then headed to Edmeston where we found a geocache in the Edmeston Steel Angel, and then to West Burlington where we found BURL BONES in the W. Burlington Cemetery. We kept driving and came to a small interesting winery: THE RUSTIC RIDGE WINERY: Carol wanted to stop because she had purchased hay from the owner in the past and wanted to talk to him about a possible future purchase. The owner gave us directions to another AMISH place we had been looking for BYLER'S. We decided to check that out another time and
headed back to New Berlin, where I dropped Carol off at her car and headed home.