Six Degrees of Hugh DeBurgh?
Dear Friend,
During our journey we have had a surprising number of connections to random people we have met and we have discovered that friends had connections to the random places that we have visited along the way.
These connections were discovered through off hand conversations and always came as a surprise to us.
To appreciate the degree of coincidence it is important to note that we live in a very rural area that “no one” has heard of.
While traveling outside of Chicago, our friend who was then traveling with us met a couple who knew just where we lived, the tiny town where our friend worked, would be in that town within the month and would stop by the shop that she worked to visit her then.
Next we stopped in a random town in Minnesota during our journey north. It turns out that our friend had stayed in that very same small town twenty five years earlier while biking across North America. She had no idea of this when we arrived.
In northern Montana, we met a couple who were also from Virginia, who were on the same journey path that we were.
In Glacier National Park, we visited Apgar, Montana, a very tiny place, only to discover that a Chicago-based business associate of ours grew up there.
While touring Yellowstone, I heard from an old classmate. I thought that she was living in California, but it turns out that we had just driven right past her house outside of Yellowstone park, without realizing it.
In Whistler, British Columbia, a neighboring camper just happened to make small talk while we were hooking up. It turned out that he grew up about five miles from our home in Virginia, and knew some of our friends. I had never seen this man before in my life (he was single and we tried to hook him up with our single friend). 😉
On the ferry from Vancouver, we met a couple the husband of which was born in Iowa City, where we had stopped on our way out and where some of our good friends live. He noted that he had last been in the States twenty five years ago, and at that time had made a trip to Virginia, staying about twenty minutes from our home.
As we were departing our campground at Hoodsport, Washington, in the middle of nowhere, with practically no other campers nearby, a couple pulled up next to us in an RV. Turned out that he had been in the service and at that time lived just 20 minutes from our home. He knew exactly where we lived.
Just this evening, the same classmate from Wyoming noted that she and her family would be visiting a museum in San Francisco this Wednesday, the same day that we had already arranged to tour the city and visit that same museum. Neither of us knew of the others’ plans or scheduled locale (we have no schedule).
Yes, these are just coincidences I think. But it does continue to surprise us just how many connections we find to people and places that we have never known before.
It really is a small world.
All the best,
Hugh
