ENID — It is time once again for a series of vacation snapshots, so settle in and get comfy.

Oh, and let me know if those restraints are too tight ....

The world is 24,901.55 miles around at its middle, but it is truly a small place.

In Montevideo Uruguay, that nation’s capital, a group of cruise passengers touring the city recently paused for a ride aboard vintage railroad cars pulled by a restored steam engine.

As the train chugged slowly through Montevideo it drew smiles and waves from passing motorists, stares from pedestrians and shouts from groups of children who ran eagerly along the tracks.

At the end of the line there were buses waiting to take passengers the short distance through the mountain range of shipping containers and the forest of forklifts in the bustling port area, back to their ship.

During the brief ride my bride struck up a conversation with the woman across the aisle. She and her husband were from Tennessee. They politely asked in return where we called home.

“Oh,” came the reply after we told them, “my husband is from Oklahoma.”

When asked what part, the woman replied, “A town called Enid.”

I think I’ve heard of it.

The man still has family here, as it turns out, by the name of Douglass. I can’t remember his name, sadly. Of course I couldn’t remember my own most days if it wasn’t stenciled on my underwear. Which may explain why I answer to “Fruit of the Loom”....

Some ports are not large enough to accommodate cruise ships, so occasionally some of the ship’s lifeboats must be employed to ferry passengers to shore, a process known as tendering.

It might be called that because, depending on the weather and the height of the waves, the process can leave passengers’ with tender tummies, but that is not confirmed.

At any rate the Falkland Islands’ shallow port requires passengers to tender ashore, a ride that can take nearly a half-hour.

After spending the day communing with penguins during a visit to that little slice of Britain off the coast of South America, my bride and I boarded a boat for a ride back to our floating temporary home.

We wound up squeezing into two seats in the bow of the boat, nearly rubbing knees with another couple. We made small talk before the subject of where we were from came up. So we told them.

“Oklahoma? So are we,” they replied. They were from Edmond as part of a group attending meetings for credit union managers. They are affiliated with Commercial Federal, which has a branch in Enid.

It was thanks to them that we learned of the 14-inch snowstorm that paralyzed Enid the second week of February. They had been in contact with their office and learned the Enid branch was closed that day because of the storm....

Among the activities aboard the ship, sandwiched in between the tango lessons, wine tasting, karaoke, towel animal folding demonstrations and the nearly non-stop eating, were daily team trivia competitions.

These were cutthroat, high-stakes affairs contested for such coveted and valuable prizes as pins, coffee mugs and shopping bags bearing the cruise line’s logo.

Our teams consisted of, alternately, two couples from Great Britain, one from South Africa, and us. We were the token Yanks.

The questions were an eclectic mix of everything from “What do you call a pregnant goldfish?” to “How many time zones are there in China?”

The competition was stimulating, thought-provoking and, on occasion, frustrating. But, above all else it was a chance to get to know some wonderful, interesting people.

Each couple had their strengths. The Brits knew instantly, for example, that it was British singer Vera Lynn who made the song “We’ll Meet Again,” wildly popular during World War II.

We handled the American questions, or most of them, that is. When asked what famous building appears on the back of a U.S. $20 bill, we were stumped. Who has $20 bills?

We guessed the Treasury. Wrong. It is the White House. Our teammates looked at us askance.

Of course our South African friend didn’t know the airport code for the airport in Johannesburg (he lives in Durban). We guessed JBG. It is JNB.

My favorite question was, which ship bears the registration number NCC-1701. I knew that one. It is the Starship Enterprise of “Star Trek” fame.

Some gentle arguments ensued, some about the trivia answers, some about which game is more incomprehensible to the uninitiated, rugby or good old American football.

“If you can understand American football, you certainly ought to be able to understand rugby,” our South African friend said one day.

Not so much. I did learn it is a penalty in rugby to hold on to a ball carrier after making a tackle, just as it is against the rules for that player to hold onto the ball. The rest of it is pretty much a blur.

During the course of the trivia sessions, we learned many obscure, totally useless facts.

But we learned something much more important — laughter is universal, a smile is the same in any language, with any accent, and there are nice people all over the world.

Oh, we also learned a pregnant goldfish is called a “twit,” and there is only one time zone in the vast country of China, in case anybody ever asks.



Mullin is senior writer of the News & Eagle. E-mail him at jmullin@enidnews.com.