Historic Smithton Inn, Ephrarta PA
We seem to be taking our time to get going -- which is good. We stayed in a very nice bed and breakfast, the Historic Smithton Inn in Ephrata, PA. This is a very nice old house from the 1760s. The proprietor, Rebecca Gallagher, is a native of the area, who moved back to Lancaster County from Texas in one of the more positive effects of the recession: Houston had not been particularly hard hit by the recession when she and her husband decided they wanted to move back to be closer to their families. So, they didn't have much trouble selling their house in Houston and were able to buy the bed and breakfast at a relatively reasonable price in the harder hit area of Pennsylvania. This little bit of arbitrage allowed them to land in a very nice area and to start running a very nice "authentic" B&B. We enjoyed our stay.
Very nice room with a signature carving on the headboard of the bed
Rebecca alerted us to an interesting place to visit along our way towards Pittsburgh, the Cornwall Iron Furnace. It was indeed an interesting place, although it was closed. So we took some pictures and made a note to come back sometime.
We poked around Cornwall which featured some very nice stone row houses. Sadly I didn't take and pictures of these houses. We were a little sad to see that there were no restrictions about what the owners could do with their properties. Living in Lexington MA where there are strict rules about what you can do to houses in the Historic District, we are quite familiar with both the difficulties created by such restrictions, as well as the benefits, as shown by this negative example, of such regulations. It's not too late for Cornwall and they should make an effort to control wires, satellite antennas, etc. Sorry to sound like the old guy I have gotten to be...
Once on the road, I took some pictures of the scenery.
Once on the road, I took some pictures of the scenery.
At around 2:30 we arrived at the Boyds and were greeted by the always cheery Ann. See, I told you we were taking it easy at the start. We had a very nice dinner with Don, Ann and 16 year old Alexis, the last of the 5 Boyd children still at home. We talked about their upcoming trip to Ethiopia to visit their daughter who is in the Peace Corps -- a second generation Peace Corps volunteer.
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