For the second year in a row, the Tour & Rally Committee of the Porsche Club of America's Chesapeake Region offered the "Covered Bridges Tour." In July 2016, 44 people in 24 cars joined the tour. A year later, 69 club members and guests came in 35 cars.

A 35-vehicle caravan would have been impossible to keep intact over the 66-mile length of the tour. So we split up the cars into four groups, each with a lead car and a sweeper. My wife and I led the first group of 10 cars. Three other couples kindly agreed to lead the second, third and fourth groups of cars. Randy M., my fellow Tour Committee co-chairman, supervised the formation and orderly departure of the four groups from the Parkton Park & Ride Lot near Hereford, MD. He and his wife then served as the sweeper team for the entire four-group caravan.

The two-and-a-half-hour driving tour was a scenic and delightful drive through the Maryland and Pennsylvania countryside. The route consisted of twisty, undulating and enjoyable back roads, as well as old-fashioned highways. It went through Maryland's Baltimore and Harford counties, and Pennsylvania's York and Lancaster counties.

In Pennsylvania, the route meandered through Amish farm country and passed through or alongside four covered bridges – the Coleman Covered Bridge and Baumgardener’s Covered Bridge in Pequea, the Lime Valley Covered Bridge in Willow Street, and Herr’s Mill Covered Bridge, aka Soudersburg Bridge, in Ronks. Restored over the years, the bridges date back to the 1800s.

The driving tour ended at the Plain & Fancy Farm Smokehouse and Restaurant in Bird-in-Hand, PA, where 64 of us enjoyed an eat-all-you-can Amish Farm Feast consisting of 11 items, plus beverages: “Rolls with Apple Butter, Cole Slaw, Golden Fried Chicken, Plain & Fancy Signature Sausage, PA Dutch Chicken Pot Pie with Homemade Noodles, Mashed Potatoes with Gravy, Browned Butter Noodles, Vegetable of the Day, Chocolate Cake, Warm Shoo-Fly Pie, Vanilla Ice Cream and Bottomless Beverages: Lemonade, Brewed Iced Tea, Hot Tea and Coffee.”

The Lancaster County section (about 30%) of our 2016 and 2017 “Covered Bridges Tour” route was based on an April 2016 tour conducted and kindly shared by the Vintage Chevrolet Club of America. The VCCA tour was recommended to us by Doug E., PCA-CHS Concours Committee co-chairman and former VCCA member. To come up with our own tour route, I replaced the VCCA’s mostly straight roads in Maryland with twisty and scenic ones, and improved some of the road choices in Pennsylvania.

As in 2016, we received very positive and encouraging feedback from this year’s participants. We are, therefore, not ruling out a 2018 edition of this tour.

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