Day Fifteen- Burton (Bonus Post)

4.5 miles- It was late yesterday, Sunday afternoon, and the campground was empty except for me. Or was it? There were no campers, but there were still a few Amish families around. Not far from Middlefield, OH, an Amish enclave, there had been a dozen or more Amish families at Headwaters Park when I arrived earlier. They were walking the trails and chatting and having a nice time on the sunny day. Now that all the other campers had left, there was only me and the Amish.

The adults and younger children seemed to have congregated at the picnic pavilion. There were a hundred yards of woods between my campsite and the pavilion. The younger kids were having a great time riding their scooters down a short hill trail near the pavilion. The area over by the campsites seemed to be the dominion of the older teens/young adults.

It was pretty interesting to watch their interactions. There was one group that took over a campsite fire pit about 100 yards from me. There were three boys and three girls, maybe high school age. The boys built a small fire of sticks and then they all stood around the little blaze and talked and laughed and whispered for the next couple of hours. Meanwhile, on the road that went around the campsite area, a few slightly older couples walked together or rode their Amish bikes together. It was all very modest and charming.

Twice a pair of adult women sauntered around, but it was unclear if they were checking or just getting away from the crowd at the pavilion. A couple times an open carriage filled with preteens drove around the campsite circle road and it was obvious they were having fun. At another point some junior high aged Amish boys walked by, talking and laughing too loud and one of them had a small radio that was playing Rap music. Seemed a bit incongruous.

And there I was, “The English” as they would call me, in the middle of it all. I felt like an anthropologist. I guess I kind of was.

Around 8:15PM as the twilight was deepening they all disappeared. I had stopped paying attention to them earlier and when I finally looked around they were all gone, taking their hushed conversations and earnest looks with them.

I will now sound like the old guy that I am, but it was nice seeing these young people phoneless and truly engaged with each other. Of course many would say they pay a high price for their old fashioned ways. But I am not going to judge. Are you?

This little event all happened after I had posted my blog yesterday, but I wanted to write it down. So consider it a Bonus Blog.

Until next Sunday, Happy Trails!