April 29, 2021 Brunch - Gracie’s on Main St., New Holland, PA. Dinner - Grilled Hamburgers and Hot with Pasta Salad and Sautéed Asparagus, mushrooms and onions.
We had to shuttle Jean to work at 8:15 so we could drive her car because the van was in the shop again.
She drove us to Primative Patch in Lancaster and we met her bosses and saw her warehouse that she runs with antiques and junk stacked up 30 feet. We bought several pots and hangers.
The most interesting photo of the trip so far was taken in Jean’s parking lot that is shared with two other businesses. It was a truck that had the largest cross I have seen in a vehicle. It reminded me of a penitente procession to the stations of the cross in motion all the time. But I would still not go to the owner’s house to ask to borrow a cup of sugar for fear of being shot.
We then drove to Costco and shopped for food and equipment for the van.
Then we drove to Walmart and bought several other items.
I had eaten only 1/2 orange and Suzette had eaten nothing all morning, so we drove to Gracie’s on Main St. in New Holland, PA.
I am not sure how Suzette found it, but Gracie’s was a really nice combination of a restaurant and a bakery that had an extensive and fancy menu. We were hungry so we ordered full breakfasts at $10.00 each. Suzette ordered Chipped Dried Beef in cream gravy over home fries with two over easy eggs and coffee.
I ordered two eggs over easy witht a slice of scrapple, a slice of whole wheat bread, a slice of banana nut bread with cinnamon whipped butter and a small salad instead of home fries. I also ordered a glass of fresh squeezed orange juice.
Gracie’s reminded me of Maribeth’s in New York that makes their own jams and specialty breads. I tried the dark cherry preserves on the whole wheat and the strawberry basil jam on the banana walnut bread, which contained more walnuts than bananas. Both were delicious. I liked Gracie’s and would go back, but I found the scrapple a little too grainy, rather than meaty.
Suzette’s Creamed Chip Beef in gravy with two eggs
After lunch Suzette took me back to Jean’s and we unloaded all of the things we had bought. I rested until 4:00 when the book club met. Suzette picked Jean up at 3:00 and returned home at 3:30, just in time to load the zoom meeting on her computer so I could use it to zoom.
Beginning at 4:00 I recorded the book club notes and ate a bowl of nuts while Suzette and Jean left for the auto repair facility to pick up the van.
Unfortunately, they returned a bit later without the van. In a complicated explanation that included an incompetent unsupervised mechanic, the vehicle was not fully repaired and still needed a steering mechanism and petal motor that would require another week to ten days to obtain the parts and repair.
So our trip plans went out the window.
In the midst of this Luke called to tell us he was buying a new truck and needed to go to Saratoga Springs to pick it up, so we started looking at places to stay and things to do in Saratoga Springs. Suzette made some reservations for a massage for us at the bathhouse in Saratoga Springs for Monday afternoon and rented a car from Hertz, but most of our plans for the next week are still in limbo.
Forty five minutes after the book club meeting ended I meditated by zoom with my zen sitting group and afterwards felt great, so I walked around the block.
The walk was lovely because there were so many lovely trees, bushes, and flowers in bloom. This is my favorite time to visit PA because this is the time when the dogwood trees bloom. We are lucky that Mrs. Lindemuth’s birthday is at this time of year and not in the middle of winter.
Here are several photos I took of this amazing Spring foliage.
A beautifully manicured yard with peak color
When I returned home I was able to access my accounts and determined that the day ended with a small gain thanks mainly to a $22.00 increase in Facebook shares, which took my portfolio to yet another all time high.
We decided to cook the two hamburgers and four all beef hot dogs left from the birthday party and Suzette adopted my suggestion of sautéing some of the mushrooms and asparagus we bought at Routs Market with some leftover minced onion from the party. Jean also put some of the leftover pasta salad out and grilled the hamburgers and hot dogs on the grill. The sautéed fresh local asparagus and mushrooms were sensational. Perhaps the best I have ever eaten in their buttery sauce.
Jean and I drank a Magner’s Apple Cider and Suzette drank a Corona and we enjoyed a quiet dinner.
After dinner Suzette and I ate a few chocolate nibs with cognac and I made an Earl Grey tea and Jean ate some chocolate ice cream for dessert.
We all went to bed at 10:00.
I awakened at 5:00 to blog.
It feels like the real adventure of this trip is just beginning as almost everything in the itinerary has gone out the window and we must invent a new itinerary for the next few days without the van on the fly.
Bon Appetit
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