S.E. Nordwall's Photo Gallery from Otakon and the East Coast, July-August 2004, Page 4
These pictures from the Amish country of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, and of the Philidelphia Zoo... are completely out of order, random.
I'm not sure which pictures I took first for each trip, so, they're kind of in random order. My dearest Robert took me to the Amish Country
on the Monday after Otakon, and to the Philidelphia Zoo on Tuesday. Wednsday was spent in going to a job interview that Robert needed to do, and in getting
me packed and to the airport for the trip back to Arizona. I didn't want to go back! Why did I have to come back?!
The beautiful farmland of Lancaster County.
More beautiful farmland of Lancaster County.
Even more beatiful farmland of Lancaster County.
I have 7 pictures of just the farmland of Lancaster County. This is the 4th!
I wish I lived in a land so green...
Unfortunately, to start up a Pennsylvania farm, I'd need about 2 million dollars. That's just for a nice piece of farmland.
These farms and fertile hills are so pretty... so green. I live in a freaking desert - so excuse me if I spaz out over green.
A nice Amish barn on the roadside. There were a pair of Clydesdales housed in it. I didnt' get a good picture of them, though.
An Amish woman on a scooter. The Amish are allowed to use little motorized scooters. They are not, however,
allowed to use bicylces,I think. They are allowed transportation by walking, by horse and buggy, and by these -
fun little motorized scooters.
The perils of Amish country. Here, a buggy-driver is trying to cross a busy intersection. He did cross it, eventually.
There is one non-Amish man who manufactures buggies for the Amish equipped with electric signal and brake lights. The Amish don't work
with electricity, so they come to this guy. The man who does this has grown very wealthy from his business/service, and
has won numerous awards from the State of Pennsylvania. It is easy to see why this man is so awarded when driving Amish country at sunset, which... Robert and I were doing - this
bad timing was unintentional. Those buggies were hard to see! Those little red signal lights have, doubtless, saved many, many lives.
We kinda got lost on the way to where we were going, so we wound up there close to evening.
Sure, the Amish don't drive after dark, but they do drive themselves home from work around sunset - those dark wagons are
near impossible to see in the falling dark! What's more - every single one of them was pulled by a dark-colored horse. All the buggy horses were bays. There
were palomino-colored horses around the farmlands, but they were all draft horses, not buggy horses. I wonder if the Amish have some sort
of rule about what colors of horses can be used for certain things - probably.
Robert and I took an Amish buggy ride around the farmlands. The horse whose rear you are seeing
is named Bugsy.
Dead Legato suggested that I use this picture when I get mad at someone on a message board.
I can say "You, Sir (or Madame) are a (this picture)." Fun idea. I should try it sometime.
An Amish farmyard. Something interesting I learned about the Amish - the houses in the land with black
drapes were Amish houses. Since they do not use electricity, dark curtains help to keep the houses cool
in the summer. They also are allowed to have telephones, but outside the house. Some of the houses had little phone booths
outside the houses. This is to keep the house "pure."
A man cutting his grass with a horse-drawn thresher. The motion of the horses turned a noisy engine as they walked and pulled.
A neat old little Presbyterian cemetary in the Amish country. Yep, non-Amish people live right
beside the Amish and they don't mind.
Another old Presbyterian cemetary. Old cemetaries are cool.
Mules in Amish country. Farmyards.
Alright! On our way to the Philidelphia Zoo! It was the nation's first zoo, and,
well, Robert and I didn't know what else to do, and... I like zoos. Maybe I should
make it my life's goal to visit every zoo in the United States, or every zoo in the world!
The desires of the heart of an animal-lover... Oh, I wore one of my animal skull necklaces to the zoo -
I wore my chicken-skull. ^_^... Yes, I wore a dead animal to the zoo! Sadly, later, I accidently stepped
on my chicken-skull necklace while I was packing - and crushed it. *Cries.* At least I still have my
rabbit-skull necklace. Oh... on our way out to the Amish country, speaking of morbidity and weirdness -
I brought along my Hellsing manga and was reading it. Yes. I read Hellsing in Amish country and wore
an animal skull to a zoo. Long live morbidity!
Our "child" is securely belted in. I brought my Dark Vash action figure along with us,
and here he is, enjoying the truck-ride. He's a very well-behaved kid, he is.
We went into the Carnivora House at feeding time. Here are some of the lions!
Whee! Big kitties!
I love lions.
Siberian Tigers!
Here is an animal I never thought I'd get to see a living member of right in front of me.
This is an okapi. They are a relative of the giraffe - and live deep in the jungles of Africa.
They are an extremely rare animal, and shy in the wild. I didn't know a zoo in the United States even
had one! It was so beautiful. Too bad I had to zoom in for a picture... the critter wouldn't come close
to the fence.
Another extremely rare animal - an Indian Rhinocerus. Their armor-skin is different
from African White and Black Rhinocerii.
Another animal that doesn't appear in any Arizona zoo (because of the hot climate), a polar bear!
This guy just wanted to hang out, though. He didn't swim for me. (There was a below level to this exhibit whereby
people can see him as he swims underwater, but, he didn't want to swim while I was there).
A secretary bird on the African Planes exhibit.
And, here he is again... or his mate, or something.
Antelope on the African Planes exhibit.
A giraffe with a goiter!
Zebras! I joked that I would have loved to see these pulling those Amish wagons.
Another animal I thought I'd never get to see in person - a snow leopard!
This is one of the rarest cats in the world. They live in the Himalyas.
They are almost extinct. I bought a little snow leopard plushie from the
zoo gift shop. I loved Mr. Kitty good! However, when I got back to Phoenix,
I accidently dropped him in the airport. I looked all around for him. I was informed
by fellow passengers that someone had picked him up and TAKEN him. That pissed me off.
Loosing him wasn't the thing - it's the principle! If I saw someone's dropped plush,
I would ask around if anyone had dropped it. If I found no one who claimed it, I would have given it
to the baggage people to hold in case the owner looked for it. I would NOT just STEAL it.
Whenever I gain a little bit of faith in humanity, some dipwad's gotta come along and ruin it. There are not
enough honest people in this world.
Here's something for you "Kim Possible" fans out there! Naked Mole Rats!
Penguins!
A jungle-bear.
Canadian Lynxes.
The Philidelpha Zoo's famous Zooballoon. We couldn't go up in it becasue the zoo was closing...
and a storm broke. We got drenched with a big dump of 6 inches of rain. We had to run back to Robert's truck!
Wet, wet, wet!
The day I had to leave, Robert and I took a walk in his neighborhood. This
is the amazing GREEN along the roadside.
The woods in Robert's neighborhood.
Robert in the "suit of lights." He had to go to a job interview the day he was
supposed to take me to the airport. Here he is, dressed for it. He hated wearing that tie,
said it was like a noose. My poor baby! We got lost on the winding streets due to bad directions
to the interview locale. We were late, and he missed his interview. I hope the new one he scheduled went well.
A shot of Philidelphia on our way to the airport.
Another shot of Philly.
Traffic in a tunnel on the way to the airport.
This, was quite possibly, the best week of my life! I want to go back! Why did I have to come home?
Anyway, my plane home got delayed 2 hours because of a storm. I played phone tag with my sister and a neighbor, via
an overpriced pay phone and a cell phone I borrowed from a fellow passenger. Then, when I got to Phoenix, my snow leopard
plush got stolen, and... one of my bags got lost (my bag with important cosplay stuff!). Argh.
To top it off, my brother in law, who picked me up, refused to help me carry the heavy bags that I did have,
and cussed at me when I was frantically trying to find the rolldown for his truck window because I was hot. -_-.
When we got to my house, neither of us knew whether the front door was open or locked. I told my brother in law
to please wait until I got to the door to make sure I wasn't LOCKED OUT OF MY HOUSE, and he started to drive off.
I yelled at him to wait. "WAIT! WAIIIIIIIT!". He screamed at me something along the lines of "I took you this far!" - clearly
irate at having to pick me up at all, and drove off. Lucky for me, the door was not locked, and I could get inside my house. -_-.
Everything was saying - "Welcome back to Arizona! You won't be treated like a princess anymore! People might be better
off if you dropped dead! Welcome home to Hell!"
With lots of phone tag, I got my lost bag back two days later. I got my stuff back, so I'm happy about that.
Now, I must job hunt... find something to survive on, perferably a job in Philly so I can go back!
