This is just one thrilling example of the kinds of hijinks that the locals get up to around here (and which then makes the newspaper: This is from the Shippensburg News-Chronicle, 12/30/08, page 2. It has a color photo too, but I’m too lazy to scan it in. You can’t see that much in it anyway.) All grammatical and spelling errors are in the original.
“Runaway Buggy
“A runaway horse and buggy was involved in an accident with a vehicle late Sunday evening near the intersection of Middlespring Road and McClays Mill Road, Southampton Township. According to the female owner of the horse, name withheld, the horse and buggy was tied at a friend’s home in Pinola. It somehow became loose and started toward her residence on Gephart Road, miles away from Pinola. They were trying to catch up to the horse and buggy, riding their bicycles, when the horse and buggy collided with a vehicle near the intersection. The horse and the buggy went up over the hood of the vehicle and the buggy went onto its side before coming back upright and slowing down. They were able to catch the horse. The vehicle sustained moderate damage, and the horse also was injured, but the female owner thought the horse would be okay.”
That’s about 5.5 miles from where it got away to where the accident happened, and it’s very hilly terrain. The mental picture of exhausted bicycling Amish chasing a runaway buggy is definitely what makes this story exciting.