Shady Maple Grocery, East Earl, PA…

While driving through the Amish country of Lancaster County Pennsylvania you will likely pass by the Shady Maple Grocery in East Earl, PA. This store in the middle of the Amish country features locally grown produce and they specialize in “Made From Scratch” or “Home-Made” food items.

Their bakery inside the large store has wonderful treats from homemade apple fritters to some fresh out of the oven breads. A bargain can be had on their day old products as well. They have an interesting array of local meats, vegetables, bins of grains etc. and other food items. The prices are dirt cheap and the quality of the produce is as fresh as it gets.

I have no pictures of this place or any of the sections in the store because our hands were so full of produce, baked goods, cheeses and other various and sundry items. Never did I thing a grocery store would end up on Road Treats but this one does… Check it out!!!

Pennsylvania’s Grand Canyon…

Nestled in the Appalachian Mountains of the Allegheny Plateau in the northern part of the state of Pennsylvania is a spectacular canyon known as the Grand Canyon of Pennsylvania. Not to be confused with the Grand Canyon of Arizona but this canyon offers a level of beauty all its own.

There are two places you can go to view this geologic wonder: one is to go to Leonard Harrison State Park and the other is to visit Colton Point State Park. These two state parks are dedicated to preserving the area around the Pennsylvania Grand Canyon. Leonard Harrison State Park is on the eastern rim of the canyon while Colton State park is on the west rim of the canyon. Both of these parks were originally built by the CCC back in the mid-1930s and they both offer extensive hiking and biking opportunities appealing to all levels of outdoor enthusiasts.

     

From the rim you are treated to various scenic vistas that each offer a different spectacular view into the glacially-carved canyon. At its deepest point the canyon is 1450 feet deep and but is only 800-foot deep between the rims of the state parks.

Stay for a while and enjoy the lighting that ever changing as the sun peaks from behind the clouds and then retreats back for a while. Immerse yourself into the history and geology of the area and transcend yourself back into time to truly enjoy your time spent here.

Originally known as Pine Creek Gorge, it is the home to the Grand Canyon of Pennsylvania where it took thousands of years of erosion by active glaciers for Pine Creek to carve the wonderful Grand Canyon of Pennsylvania.

Heyduke says check it out!!!

Bullfrog Brewery - Williamsport Pennsylvania

Williamsport Pennsylvania, where every little league player dreams to end up playing baseball or softball in the Little League World Series. However, there is more to Williamsport Pennsylvania than little league.

Williamsport is home to many people of wealth and their abundant million plus dollar restored homes. These homes and their varied architectural styles are can be found along fourth street but something else can be found on Fourth Street – the Bullfrog Brewery – a Road Treat.

Bullfrog Brewery, on 229 West Fourth St. was founded in 1996 and was named small business of the year recently. This award winning brewpub is more of an upscale microbrewery than I generally like but it does sport some nice brews.

We sampled three of the beers. First we tried the Billtown Blonde ale. This is a lightly colored ale with a smooth clean and crisp flavor at about 5.5% alcohol. We both liked this brew and my bride decided to have a pint of it. Next we tried the the Apricot Wheat beer since we had one in Spartanburg that we both loved (it was actually peach but close enough). The beer had no real flavor of apricot (a negative) and was a bit bitter. So this one was not to be a choice for a pint. The third one we tried was my favorite. The Edgar IPA is a hoppy and lively beer with just a hint of bitterness (8% alcohol). The beers went really well with a Rueben sandwich we ordered to split which came with a side of sweet potato fries. The sandwich was great!

The place is a bit pricier than I would prefer it to be but on this day we splurged since it was International Beer Day . In case you didn’t know International Beer Day is a worldwide celebration of beer held annually on August 5th at local pubs, bars and breweries all over the world.