A day in Amish country

Holmes County is home to one of the largest population of Amish people, a very traditional sub-grouping of Mennonites, known for their simple life style, plain dress and avoidance of many modern conveniences, including electricity and motors. So they drive around in horse-drawn buggies and use horse power for their farm machinery. After a picnic lunch in Millersburg, we went biking on the Holmes County trail, which is being developed along a former railway line. It is a rather unique trail, as alongside the paved part for bikes, roller blades, walkers, there is a track for the Amish horse and buggies. We had ridden it a couple of years ago, but we discovered they had opened another section, doubling its length. This new section runs through beautiful country, much of it wetland and marsh. In the mid to late afternoon we went driving some of the country roads, past many of the Amish farms.