Thanks to Our Lady for a wonderful vacation.

Rocky and I just got home from vacation in Lancaster, Pennslyvania. It was great. We both needed to get away and thanks to the stuff going on at my job I was in a state of the jitters for most of every work day. I don't think I really calmed down until day three of the vacation.  We stayed in a Mennonite owned bed and breakfast. They were fine people. The Amish and Mennonites came about because of bad priests. I pray that one day a holy, brave priest will be able to get a serious conversion mission going there.  We took one day to go to Philadelphia and to visit the shrines of St. John Neuman and the Miraculous Medal Shrine.  We went to Mass in Philly and at St. Anthony's in the city of Lancaster. Both Masses reminded me of how blessed we are in the Arlington diocese. I think Pennsylvania's bishops must have gotten a deal on cheap vestments. All the poor priests looked like their chasubles would fall to pieces in they got caught in the rain.

 While, in Lancaster County, I did my best to sample ever farm wife's version of the Whoopie Pie that I could. I fed goats, turkeys, oggled peacocks, llamas, alpacas, ate eggs from the hens whose house and yard was a few feet from our window, bought a quilt, looked at farms and slept well each night. The only hiccup in the whole trip was that the car's engine stopped on the highway while we were on the way home. With 70 miles to go, Rocky was able to coast to jersey wall and we called AAA. With 20 minutes a tow truck driver from the Dominican Republic came to our rescue and drove us and the ailing car home. Thank God we had just come from the Grotto of Lourdes Shrine in Emittsburg. If we'd taken the shorter way home instead of stopping off to visit Mary's shrine we might've broken down in one of the worst parts of Baltimore or  in PG County. We had potential danger from bad drivers but had we taken the shortest route home we could've been in real danger from crime.