There's nothing like going on a buggy ride. It's Serenity: Pure and Simple.
My Amish girl friend decided to take me and my English friend (The Amish call anyone who is not Amish English) on a buggy ride, which was super nice of her, especially since it took a lot of time to harness the horse and hitch the buggy up to it.
This is the inside of the buggy. It has room for two people comfortably and three uncomfortably in the front. One of the seats folds down and there's the equivalent of a trunk in the back, but we had my Amish gril friend's little sister in the back.
Now there are differnet kinds of buggies, ones with back seats, but we only needed the small one today. Plus, the horse we used was smaller and could pull less.
This is the foot break on the floor. A Buggy is a different than a car in a lot of ways but the biggest is that it has a brain and the car doesn't. This can be a good thing: The horse won't run into anything. But it can also bee a bad thing: The horse can get scared and run away. That's when the foot break is absolutely necessary.
These are switches on the buggy's wall. In some Amish districts they allow buggies to have lights on the back so that at night a car doesn't come upon them unawares. Some districts are also allowed to have turn signals.
Well how do they power those lights anyway?
It's all powered by a battery that sits under the seat. This buggy seat is empty right now though.
We kept warm with lots of blankets
This was the first time my friend drove a buggy on the highway (of course this isn't the highway in the picture), and she did an extremely good job. I think i was scared more than the horse was whenever a car passed us.
There is a log right at the bridge's entrance that all visitors sign. I wrote my name, the date, and "The Gospel Is True ... mormon.org" in the note section. I love leaving a trail behind me.
Indulge me for a moment. I took a lot of pictures on the bridge, but i only put six or seven on here, so don't let me scare you away.
This is me and my English friend ... she's also a member of The Church Of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (A.K.A Mormon :) She's headed on a mission in just a few months and will be gone eighteen months. In The Church Of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, girls can go on missions at nineteen and boys can go at eighteen.
I'll miss her, but I'm glad we were able to spend some time together before she left. She doesn't know where she's going yet, so we're both anxiously waiting.
This is a buggy that I saw off the bridge. Just like English people can recognize their friend's cars, Amish people can recognize their friend's buggies and horses. We were too far away to tell who it was though.
As we drove home I snapped a picture of The Bridge Of Dreams as we went under it
What a beautiful afternoon. It was cold, but just beautiful!
