Years ago my mom gave me a little ceramic plaque – which currently hangs happily in my kitchen at home – that has a picture of a goat and the words “Don’t forget to stop and eat the roses”. It’s always been a lighthearted reminder for me to enjoy the moment I’m in, which of course is not an easy or natural task. Case in point: for literally years, every time we drove on Interstate 80 between Cheyenne and Omaha – at least 12 times, I have looked longingly at an antique store on a service road near Lexington, Nebraska. Each trip past I’d say, “I’d really like to stop there sometime” and each time we’d decide it would be the next time. Now that we are ‘gypsies’, we have the time and inclination to do just that, but we certainly are not in the habit. It is surprising to me how difficult it is to actually follow through and stop to enjoy.
We spent one day longer at Hillary’s than we had expected to. I say that with pride since twice now since we got back to the mainland we’ve changed our original plans – evidence that we are honing our gypsy skills! Our oldest granddaughter is in a community band so we stayed to watch and listen to a lovely outdoor performance on Tuesday evening. The extra day was terrific. When we left Kansas City, we traveled only a short way to Abilene, Kansas and met two dear friends for lunch. I hate to admit that even though we love this couple, we have blown by Abilene a couple of times before and not stopped. This time we stopped. When we left Abilene several hours later, full of a yummy lunch and the dessert of laughs and good conversation with dear people, we had a decision to make. Should we take I-70 all the way to Denver then hit I-25 up to Cheyenne – which would be faster but would take us through lots of traffic, or should we go north on highway 81 until we ran into I-80 across Nebraska? Hmmm.
Then I saw a sign. A sign the likes of which I have often seen – an advertisement for a local tourist attraction that we’d never stopped at but talked about before. This sign invited us to Rock City, Kansas. Decision made. We turned north and in just a few miles we were getting off the highway and onto a byway, then a gravel road leading us to Rock City…a field with large, odd shaped boulders, a small gift shop, and a bathroom (very clean!). The boulders are apparently made of sandstone and are called concretions. Who knew?
In all honesty, the most memorable part of this side trip was that we were lunch for a myriad of flying bugs. We didn’t stay long, but we enjoyed walking around the rocks, and the lady in the gift shop was sweet and kind. Then we headed north, slept in a Cabella’s parking lot in Kearney, Nebraska (- thanks Cabella’s, for welcoming campers!) We had a good night – though we were only a few yards from a very busy train track. In the morning we headed west on I-80. I’m happy to say that we didn’t drive by the antique shop this time. We stopped. Yay! We spent an hour or more just enjoying the kitschy garden art and cool antiques. We didn’t buy anything, and while there were some interesting offerings, it wasn’t anything too out of the ordinary. But. More than anything, we are reveling in the plenitude of time that we have been afforded to stop and eat the roses!
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