We're all about adventures . . .

Take a road, a path you've taken a hundred times, two hundred times before.
Deviate, just a little.
Stop.
Look around again.
An adventure is waiting.
According to Dictionary.com, adventure is "an exciting or unusual experience."
We had an adventure today.
The boys and I went to Joplin with Patty.
It started out like any ho-hum outing. We hit some places in our recent regular repertoire (searching for things for the house): Trade-X, out to lunch. It was looking a bit identical to the morning we spent there on Tuesday (also to get things for the house).
On Tuesday, though, as we were passing Connie's Antiques, I said to Patty, "Let's go there right now!" and abruptly turned into the parking lot at just the last second it was possible to do so. I'm pretty sure at some point we had only two tires on the pavement.
I always want to stop in at Connie's, an antique mall/flea market type place the size of three football fields!
I want to, but the one and only time I was there, Isaac was not yet a year old as I strolled him in and out of the maze-like aisles.
We spent the next two hours browsing, meandering, admiring, considering and, I am not a bit sorry to say, ridiculing could be treasures and other people's trash.
We had such a good time, and it was a joy watching the boys discover all kinds of crazy things in the various booths, their eyes wide and shining with the wonder of it all: samurai swords, horse saddles, rusty egg beaters, old toys, baseball cards, things too strange and numerous to list here.
And I left the store with only one item! An old horseshoe to nail over the doorway in Josiah and Daniel's new cowboy room.
It wasn't a grand adventure or an exotic adventure, but it was an adventure, and that is all that mattered.
That was Tuesday. And I fully believe that it was this impromptu excursion that lit a spark in the tinder of my soul.
TODAY, after lunch I said to Patty, "Let's just go looking around and see what we can find. We'll stop wherever we want."
Then, we spent the next twenty minutes looking for an impromptu place to go, quite un-impromptu-ly.
As we were heading down Main St., there it was.
Painted on a storefront window, I saw the words "coffee", "deli", "pastries".
I caught a glimpse of the store's name "Columbia Trading . . .something."
It was that old "two tires on the pavement" story again, as I hung a quick sharp left in search of a place to park so we could explore.
Columbia Trading is a restaurant/deli/coffeeshop with a menu that would make any blue-plate-special joint in town green with envy.
And it's just so . . . cool inside.
I'm pretty sure Patty and I stood and read the entire menu, glancing at the display case and commenting occasionally, "Look! They have baklava!"; "It smells like a deli in Jersey in here.";
"This place is great!"; "Don't look, but that man over there is wearing a skirt."; "Mmmm. Too bad we just ate. The sandwiches look so good . . .".
Finally, we were ready.
The boys each got a single dip cone, Isaac's chocolate and Josiah's birthday cake flavored.
I got a Coconut Java (espresso, chocolate, almond, coconut, steamed milk) and Patty got a French Kiss (vanilla mocafe, caramel, vanilla and half and half -- cold).
We sat on couches and dreamed of future writing conferences to be held in that very spot (hint, hint Joe).
The boys took turns wheeling Daniel around the colossal dinning area in his stroller, and he got a few licks of ice cream and a few sips of Patty's drink. As he would say, "Mmmmm, Mmmmm!"
We took our time.
We talked and watched the boys and we approved of the bathroom facilities.
When we left, we were fueled up and ready for more.
We stopped and checked out some campers and RVs for sale on a corner.
Awesome. The boys and I had fun thinking about which ones would fit our camping needs best, and dreaming about camping trips to come in one of those sweet babies!
All I can say about that is . . . one day.
We were off again.
On the way home, I poked my head into this crazy little antique/furniture store called The Yardstick. Patty and the boys waited in the car, crashing from the sugar rush and the heat, and I had always wondered what exactly was in there, so I took the opportunity to make a quick dash in.
Three words.
Old Curiosity Shop.
It's the kind of place you see in movies.
I will definitely have to have that adventure on another day.
By the time we got home, we were hot and ready to be home.
The boys had a camp out at the church later in the evening, and I had to feed them before they headed out with their dad for a guys night under the stars.
It is an adventure they will have without me.
But I will hear all the tales they have to tell when they come home.
Adventures don't have to be complicated, or dangerous, or take place in a country far, far away.
Sometimes they are waiting on a known path.
They just have to be recognized in the moment, and taken.