Did I just give you an earworm? It’s a familiar song, and I’m sure for many it brings up images of that iconic ride at Disneyland or Disneyworld. But I needed to travel to Hillsboro, New Mexico, to discover just how small a world it actually is!
Kelly and I have been looking for a home for our camper, a place where we could park it and leave it, and have the convenience of a ready getaway for a weekend. Yesterday we went on a road trip with our friend Bonnie, to visit her friend Kirsten, owner of Hillsboro RV Village.
After a lovely drive up I-25, and then a drive along the winding and very scenic Route 152, we arrived in the tiny village of Hillsboro. It has a fascinating history, if you care to look it up, all the way back to Gold Rush days, and is currently a vibrant community of artists and ranchers and assorted others. With a tiny farmers market, which we just missed by virtue of their hours (closing at 1-ish, which equated to noon yesterday!), an active community center, a self-funded and maintained museum, and a lovely general store restaurant with the best taco salad I’ve ever had, it’s a wonderful and greatly under-appreciated place! Let’s hope it stays that way!
Because Hillsboro RV Village is about to be the new home for our Keystone Hideaway Camper! Kirsten has a single lot, available as soon as she can find a trailer hitch to remove the 5th wheel camper currently sitting there, and has agreed to rent the space to us on a long-term basis. Our timing for this exploratory trip couldn’t have been better!
But what has this to do with a ride at Disneyworld?
As we sat at lunch in the General Store Café, the conversation naturally turned to origins. “Where are you from?” As usual, I told Kirsten I was from Virginia by way of Texas. “Where in Virginia?” was the next question, telling me immediately she was familiar with the state.
Kirsten’s roots lay in the Mennonite Community of Harrisonburg, VA. This realization immediately brought to mind Hurricane Camille, 1969, and how it decimated Nelson County – and how the Mennonite Community immediately responded to help. The Crady family was fortunate. We were on vacation at Lake Gaston, NC. We were not present on that terrible night. Had we been home, we might have attempted to flee the floodwaters, or worse, to recover possessions from our basement. Who knows what the consequences might have been. When we did return home, we found two feet of nasty, thick muck left behind in our basement.
I’ll never forget the day the Mennonites arrived, cleaning our basement completely, and – a long-held memory – handing Daddy a sparkling clean and polished pair of pliers that had been recovered from his workshop.
The wonderful people who arrived to give aid that day were volunteers with Mennonite Disaster Service, or MDS. Back at the cafe, though, and small community that Hillsboro is, Kirsten’s sister stopped by our table to say hello. And it was Kirsten’s now-deceased brother-in-law who actually participated in the MDS team who responded to Hurricane Camille! He could have been the man who handed Daddy those pliers!
Talk about a small world!
The Mennonite Community has always held my respect and a warm place in my heart for the aid they provided that day, and it is pretty special to have made that connection with our new landlord at the RV park! I had met Kirsten before. She has house-sat for Bonnie in the past and her son lived in Bonnie’s spare room for a while. But now she feels like my friend as well, and more than a simple acquaintance. She is far from her roots these days, as are we all, but that connection is real.
It truly is a small world, after all.
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