Amish Country

July 18-20; Visiting the Amish in Ohio. South of Canton, Ohio along Route 39 we visited the towns of Charm (no kidding), and Berlin. The largest population of Amish in the country live in this area. More than Pennsylvania or Indiana. We drove the entire scenic route, then toured the Yoder Family Farm. The tour was great. It included two homes, a schoolhouse, a large barn, and of course a buggy ride. The kids loved it and we learned about about the different orders of Amish, how they live today, and the history of how they arrived to the area. A highlight was the kitchen, where they were cooking and baking, and of course selling some of their goodies. We bought cookies, peanut butter made with marshmellow in it, and bread. Yum! After touring Amish country, in the town of Dover, we toured the former home and a museum housing all the carvings of a man named Warther (Warther knives) who is known as the world's master carver. This side trip was too amazing to have room to write about. This man carved perfectly accurate replicas of each steam locomotive designed in U.S. history using wood, and ivory. Incredible, with moving parts. Each one took about a year. He was offered large sums of money for them but turned it down and died a poor man. He said, "A man doesn't sell his hobby." He was also famous for carving small working pliers out of a small piece of wood just by making cuts in it, and made 750,000 of them in his lifetime, usually for children while he was talking to people. His grandson still works there and carved pliers for the kids. It was incredible.