A Small World

Yesterday I wrote about keeping your feet warm while riding in a horse and buggy. I got to wondering how far you could go in a day. Well,the answer it seems is about twenty five miles unless you have a change of horse(s). Further reading explained a horse pulling an average two seater buggy can trot at about ten miles per hour. The horse,however,must be walked up and down hills to avoid undue strain on its tendons and ligaments. So if you intend to return home on the same day you had best not go much further than ten miles. Remember you have to rest the horse for a good spell after the journey.
What a small world our ancestors lived in then. To travel much further than ten miles from home involved a overnight stay somewhere. More than ten miles and you are looking at two days at least. An experienced rider, on a very good road ,with water available along the route, and forcing his horse could go 50 miles. But that would be only done under extreme conditions.
The vast majority of the population stayed within 50 miles of where they were born. I come from a rural area and grew up in the fifties and sixties. I knew people then that had never been much farther than that from home unless they had served in the military. Even for me,a trip of 25 miles one way was considered going a good distance and not undertaken lightly ! My Dad would load up the car and go maybe once a month to a large department store. That was considered going out and a big car trip.
Traveling much further from home one encountered all sorts of new things. These people were Americans but they sure talk funny. A city was a wonder to the country folks and the country a wonder to the city folks and both pretty damn scary ! The terrain may be entirely different. Certainly the foods were different.
Of course now days what with television,movies,internet,social networking,etc etc etc  the world is a tiny place ! There is not too much new for us to see anymore. To actually experience the different locations that would be novel but we go into that with expectations. Our world is very small indeed. Perhaps we are just traveling too fast ! Maybe we should slow down to a trot.

Man has always sought ways to go farther and faster and most likely always will. The question does remain however, "Whats the Hurry?"