July 11, 2020
As we left the top of the hill towards our next planned stop, Vale Wood Farms in Loretto, PA, Google told us that this business would be closed by the time we arrived. After searching for cell service, I called and confirmed that they, indeed, closed at 5:00, not 8:00 as I had thought. So we had to skip Vale.
After more tries to find internet, we found directions to our next stop, an hour and 45 minutes away.
Backtracking through Templeton, the rain finally stopped and the clouds left, exposing the beautiful blue sky. The temperature hung around 78 degrees at 4:45; a beautiful day.
A delightful drive through corn fields and dairy farms brought us to Ritchey’s Dairy around 6:15. We love the name; our friends and running/walking buddies are the Ritcheys.
We ordered from a walk-up window outside. Afterwards, I realized we could have gone inside and viewed the ice cream cases with 32 flavors. They also sold their milk and their packaged ice cream inside. It worked out for the best; I would have ordered something with coconut if I had gone inside. I’m glad I didn’t miss out on what I selected.
Gregg loves milkshakes and decided on a banana milkshake. It was refreshing and he enjoyed it.
I ordered a Dirty Monkey Sundae. It was hand scooped banana ice cream with nice-sized chunks of bananas. Curious, I always pulverize my bananas before making ice cream. I’ll rethink that next time. The sundae had hot fudge, peanut butter sauce, Nutter Butter cookies, and whipped cream, served in a clear plastic cup. The ice cream had a homemade texture. It was delicious!
Rather than eat in the car, as we did at all other stops, we enjoyed sitting at a table outside.
Ratings on scale of -5 to 5:
- Creativity: 2
- Flavor: 5
- Texture: 5
- Temperature: 5
- Selection: 5
- Type we ate: hand packed/scooped
- Worth the Drive? 3
