My wife and I are going to be spending a couple of days in the Lancaster/Amish Country area soon, and we’re going to be eating at the Shady Maple Smorgasbord, a massive American/Pennsylvania Dutch buffet restaurant with a 44,000 square foot gift shop in the basement. We first went there back in January 2017, and we’ve gone back every time we visit the area, with the exception of a pandemic-era long weekend in winter 2021.

The first time we went to Amish Country in winter, it was because we got a great deal on a motel. The other times, it was to visit the Middle Creek Wildlife Management Area, where migrating snow geese and tundra swans make a stop, with the peak usually in mid-February...