May 19 – “Creating surprises”

Our hotel was right on the freeway, and every road around it was under construction.  As a result, when we left to go explore beautiful downtown Solado, we ended up on a circuitous route through the countryside.  I followed my short cut instincts and Chris tracked us on a map (a map made out of paper, mind you), and we finally made our way back into town.  Not sure what we were looking for other than antique stores, we actually drove through without stopping the first time and ended up back at the hotel we just checked out of.  Since we were there anyway, I went in and asked what there was to do in Solado.  Best move we could have made.  The receptionist pulled out a town map.  Should have asked before we left in the first place, I guess, but then, where’s the fun in that? 

We discovered that the frontage roads under construction were actually two-way roads.  Kind of confusing, but we avoided the winding countryside this time for a more direct route.  The first antique store was pretty high class.  Very high end furniture.  Lots of oak. Some walnut, though.  Pretty stuff.  Pushy owner.  The next ones were more my style.  Just a bunch of stuff all crammed into a small space.  It was all carefully marked and very clean, though.  Chris discovered and purchased a few of those corning ware dishes.  I scored an unopened pack of baseball cards from 1988.  Gum still included.  Haven’t opened it yet.  Don’t really plan to.  I’ll leave that to my kids. 

Driving back through town we noticed a sign for the wedding Josh was doing.  On a whim we decided to follow it and see if we could find Josh’s car and take a picture of it to send him.  Or maybe we could find the Winkle’s car and tag it somehow.  Follow it we did, but apparently not far enough.  That wedding was way out in the country.  We found out later that it was beyond the dirt road we turned around on.  Ah, well, we had some more country to see.  We had some lunch there in Solado at The Shed, a tavern in town, and headed out for our next stop.

Somewhere out in the middle of nowhere (That’s beginning to sound like a broken record, I know, but that’s the whole point.  Everything is out in the middle of nowhere when you don’t know where you’re going) was a town called Rogers.  Several miles outside of that town was a bee farm that made and sold honey and honey mead.  I did some honey tasting, but we avoided the mead.  We did learn all about how the way a honey tastes is determined by the type of flower the bees frequent.  Makes sense.

Next we went on into Waco, perhaps our only real “ultimate destination” of the trip.  After all, we have to see some grandchildren every week or so or we will explode.  Chris scanned through her new smart-aleck phone, and we decided to go tour two of the historic houses there.  We pulled up to the first one and discovered it was only open on Sunday afternoons from 2 to 5.  On our way to the next one we saw the Dr. Pepper museum so we stopped there.  Kind of interesting, but honestly the one in Dublin was much better.  Besides, in Dublin they gave you free samples.  After the quick tour we went on to the other house, but no one answered the doorbell.  So much for old homes tours in Waco.  We went to eat at Texas Roadhouse. 

That key task completed, we then drove by Josh and Christi’s to see if we could find a hotel near there.  The original plan was to surprise them at church the next morning.  But plans change on a vacation like this one.  I texted Josh and asked how the wedding went.  He assured me it went well, and asked where we were landing that night.  I replied, “We haven’t decided.  Looking for a short cut.”  He then encouraged us to stay the night with them if we were anywhere close to Waco.  I told him to watch what he wished for, then said “Now, if I can just figure out where we are …”  I really wasn’t sure in the grand scheme of things.  We were already in Waco, just not sure where, but I didn’t tell him that.  So revisions were made, and we decided it would still be fun to surprise them.  We stopped at a Hobby Lobby and walked around, and then killed some more time at WalMart.  At some point in there we texted them a picture of the sign we saw to the wedding.  That was to establish that we were in Solado.  Finally we drove over to their street and parked to wait for them to arrive.  I texted them and said, “Well, we’ve found a spot to land for the night.  How about y’all?”  I didn’t mention that the spot we found was their house, though.  Christi said they were just landing as well.  About five or ten minutes later, just as we decided we better move before the neighbors called the police, they did indeed pull up.  Apparently Zak saw us right away.  Josh didn’t believe him, though, until we pulled into the driveway.  Lots of fun. 

Psalms 17:7-8 says, “Show the wonder of your great love, you who save by your right hand those who take refuge in you from their foes.  Keep me as the apple of your eye; hide me in the shadow of your wings.”

Father, thank you for surprises, especially when I can be a part of creating them.  Amen.