Rideabout: Quarryville, PA

If you don't know where you are going, any road will take you there. – Lewis Carroll (1832-1898)

This quote was the theme of our afternoon on Sunday. Every once in a while when we feel cabin fever, we pile in the car to go on a "rideabout" - with no specific destination in mind. We strike out on in a direction we are not entirely familiar with and see where we end up. While we have lived in this area for quite a while, there are still many unexplored areas, and we love finding new places. The main draw in our rideabouts is the journey itself - seeing new towns and areas, and leaving a mental trail of bread crumbs so we know how to get back home.

We drove about 35 miles away from our town and wound up in Amish country in Pennsylvania. We enjoyed seeing the rural life - lots of farms, horses and buggies and cute little towns. We wound up driving through Quarryville around dinnertime, so we decided to stop and eat. After driving around town scoping out the restaurants, we chose the Quarryville Family Restaurant right in the heart of town.

The Quarryville Family Restaurant lived up to what everything a family restaurant should be: casual, cheap, huge menu, friendly service and delicious. Diva ordered a kids' portion of turkey and mashed potatoes with gravy, and it was a huge plate. I figured she'd be taking home leftovers, but she ate the whole thing, to our astonishment. JV got chicken cordon bleu, and I had broiled shrimp and scallops with mash potatoes and some fresh cole slaw. All delicious. Daredevil ate his standard hot dog and french fries. #3 was an angel and slept the whole time, so it was a delightful dining experience. Our family gives the Quarryville Family Restaurant a double thumbs up - I think we will travel back to Quarryville just to eat there again.

After dinner, it was time to feed #3 before traveling back home, so we headed to Son's ice cream stand down the street. JV, Diva and Daredevil enjoyed some ice cream while #3 had her dinner. (I did not partake in ice cream as I thought I was going to explode from dinner!) By then it was getting dark so we headed home.

It was a dark ride home though, as the Amish farms that dotted our ride there were completely dark. Many Amish do not use electricity. Diva and Daredevil could not believe this. Daredevil asked "How do they watch TV?" and was incredulous when we told them that well, they don't. Diva asked what they do after the sun goes down. We figured the answer to that is that they either use candles or simply go to bed for the night. She was astounded by this.

Then JV and I got to chatting about how much TV our kids watch: way too much. We have discussed limiting our cable to basic (we have expanded basic now), getting rid of cable altogether, or keeping it and limiting the kids TV time. I'd be fine with getting rid of cable. It would be one less bill to pay, and I can watch my favorite shows and see news online, so no big deal. When we started tossing these ideas around, the kids were HORRIFIED.

For now, we decided that the TVs will remain off starting Sunday night through Thursday nights - school nights- during the school year. I unplugged the TV in the kids' playroom. We decided the kids should be doing homework, reading, playing board games, or playing outside after school. And if the kids complain they are bored, they then get to dust and vacuum.

It was no big deal last night, as Diva had dance and we were busy with dinner/homework and taking her to dance. It will be similar tonight as Daredevil has karate. We'll see how it goes the rest of the week!

All in all, we thoroughly enjoyed our rideabout and discovering Quarryville, and the kids learned a bit about Amish culture. Good times!