From the title of this post, you probably started singing the song “It’s a Small World After All.” Plus, you probably thought this post was going to be about Disney World in some way.
It is not about Disney but it is about the fact that you can be thousands of miles away from your home on a trip but you come across someone or some people that take you back home in some way.
There have been two times that this has happened and both times it happened when my wife and I took our daughter’s on trips in honor of their grandma.
My mother-in-law, Linda, decided that when her grandkids graduated from high school, she would take them on a trip. She was able to do this with our oldest daughter, Maddie. They ended up going all down the coast starting in North Carolina and finishing in Georgia.
At the end of Kenzie’s junior year in high school, Linda found out she had cancer. She ended up going through chemo and the cancer went into remission. Kenzie and Linda were going to go on their trip after Kenzie graduated but the cancer came back.
Linda went through a second round of chemo. She ended up passing away the following March when Kenzie was a freshman in college and Cassidy was a senior in high school.
So, Kenzie and Cassidy never got their trips with their grandma. Tonya and I decided that we would take the girls on their trips in honor of their grandma since they did not get the chance.
After Kenzie’s sophomore year in college we took her on her trip. Kenzie decided that she wanted to go to California. We started in San Diego and then we went to Los Angeles, Yosemite National Park, Lake Tahoe, and finally San Francisco. It was a great 10 day trip.
It was when we were at Venice Beach taking in the sites when the world seemed to get smaller. We were taking in the shops and watching people perform. I even got sucked into one of the performances. I am hoping that the video to that has been lost or erased.
We were having a good time and coming the other way was Steve and Diane Yoder. At the time Steve and Diane lived less than a quarter mile from us on the same street. We went to the same church and were in a small group with each other at one point.
They told us that they were on vacation and were going to be in California for a week or so. We caught up with one another and talked about things that we have done so far on our trips.
It is one of those things where I had not talked with them for quite awhile. So, it took being nearly 2,400 miles from home to actually catch up with them. It truly is a small world.
The next time that the world seemed small was when we took Cassidy on her trip. She wanted to go to the Northeast. We ended up going to Newport, RI, Nantucket, Boston, Portland, ME, Rockport, Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park.
It was the first time that I had been to the Northeast. It was beautiful scenery and we made some great memories.
While we were in Acadia National Park we took a horse drawn carriage ride with Carriages of Acadia. On a side note, if you are ever in Acadia, it is well worth taking a carriage ride. You get to see some great scenery and you get to learn about the park.
I digress. As we were on the carriage ride the girl who was driving the team of horses said that the horses come from Ohio. That piqued my interest since we live in Ohio. I asked her if she knew where they got their horses in Ohio and she said that she did not know.
Where we live in Ohio is the largest Amish settlement in the world. If you know anything about the Amish you know that they use horses a lot.
Plus, the town of Mt. Hope, located in Holmes County, where I taught, had a very popular auction house for animals especially horses.
They sell horses every week but every year they have a couple of huge horse sales. I thought that I would ask the owner where he got the horses when we were done with the ride.
I found the owner after the ride and I asked him if he minded telling me where he got his horses in Ohio. He said I sure will. He told me that he gets them in Holmes County.
I asked him where in Holmes County and he said in the Millersburg area. He then told me that he gets some of them at Mt. Hope Auction.
I just had to chuckle. I asked him if he came in for the big horse sales that they have. He told me that he did.
I told him that I live in Sugarcreek and that I teach in Mt. Hope. He told me that when he comes to buy horses they stay in Sugarcreek at Dutch Host Inn. I told him that the inn is a mile from where we live.
So, here I am nearly 1,000 miles from home and I am talking to a man who goes to a small town that I taught at and he stays a mile from my house. It truly is a small world.
