This weekend the Yonder editors attended a rodeo in Bulverde, Texas, which is not as Yonder as it sounds. Bulverde is a small town just outside sprawling San Antonio. The folks at the Tejas Rodeo put on a rodeo every Saturday night through the summer and fall. It's kind of a mini-tour for the big professional rodeo. Lots of kids and horses and barbecue and beer.  It was a reminder how life can be tied up with animals in a way that's healthy, fulfilling and fun.

Then late yesterday we received a note from John Killacky of San Francisco. The newspaper there interviewed him about how he has revived a "youthful passion" for Shetland ponies. As Killacky tells it, he was the son of a cattle raiser in Illinois. In 1962, he says, "I witnessed a Shetland pony mare give birth to Raindrop, a beautiful roan filly. I had never seen anything so miraculous. For years afterward, I ran with Raindrop in the fields, groomed her in the barn, and rooted for her at county fairs. She became the best friend I never had."

Killacky grew up and left his love for Shetlands behind, only to rediscover the animals three years ago. He found Fog Ranch in Moss Landing, California, where he learned how to harness and drive a pony cart. Now Killacky (above) is entering competitions, which isn't easy for him. Spinal surgery 13 years ago left him a paraplegic. Shetlands don't care, of course, and Killacky has been accepted by ponies and those that raise them. "There is nothing like pony breath and velvet nose nudges," Killacky says — which is true in California and Texas. 

Thousands of poor Appalachian students have found a way to Berea College. I was just one of them.

Lists are lists. They don't mean much, but we all love to look at them. So today we look at Arthur Frommer's Budget Travel magazine's list of the country's 10 coolest small towns. These were chosen by the 100,000 people who voted at budgettravel.com. The magazine was looking for places with more art than country cooking and where you can get a good cup of coffee. (Our sense is that you can get good coffee anywhere in Yonder and that it's easier to find an artist in a small town than good cooking, but this isn't our list.) 

And the winner is: Owego, New York. No, not Oswego. And the rest of the top ten includes: Rockland, Maine; Grinnell, Iowa (photo above); Vevay, Indiana; Huntingdon, Pennsylvania; Onancock, Virginia; Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania; Mineral Point, Wisconsis; Silverton, Oregon; and Port Royal, South Carolina. Everybody has something to be proud of on this list. Grinnell boasts a dozen buildings designed by world class architects. Vevay, Indiana, has become an artists' outpost. Onancock (founded by Capt. John Smith) claims to have been a cool small town for over 400 years.

We have been to only one of these towns: Port Royal, South Carolina. A few months ago, we wandered over there to take in the town's soft shell crab festival. Beach music and fried crabs. Not to be beat.

Bill Bryson is president of the Campaign to Protect Rural England, but he's still an Iowa boy.