Along the Way

This past weekend Lyle and I made a quick trip to Kansas. And while I consider that drive (between Denver and Wichita) to be one of the most unscenic areas of the country, we did manage to find a few interesting things along the way.On Saturday afternoon my niece, Kendra, and two of her children went for a walk down Main Street in El Dorado. This is where Lyle and I lived for the first 13 years of our marriage, when Kendra herself was a small girl.  I used to take her and her sisters for walks down that same street before I had children of my own. It was fun to peer in the (mostly abandoned) store windows and talk about what used to be there. When we got to the railroad tracks we turned down a side street to visit the Little Acorn Flea Market. Kendra found a lovely vintage globe for a bargain price. She homeschools, so naturally I assumed she was getting it for teaching purposes.

“Better check to make sure it’s current,” I told her. “It might have the USSR on it instead of Russia.”

“Oh, I don’t care!” she said. “I just like the color of it. I’m going to decorate with it.”

But then we were curious, so we checked the countries. Yup. USSR and other countries that no longer exist. Well, actually, they do still exist. They’re just called something different.Then we stopped at a coffee shop in one of the old buildings. We admired the exposed bricks and retro decor.

Sometimes a walk down a small-town Main Street with good company is a perfect way to relax.

On Sunday when we started home we decided to get off the Interstate and follow Highway 24 for awhile.We smiled at the happy barn along the way……and stopped to gawk at the World’s Largest Ball of Twine in Cawker City……and were interested to notice the brick pavement of the highway in one small town.Storm clouds were gathering as we crossed the prairie in eastern Colorado and turned toward home.

It was a lovely drive.