Small Town America

Over the weekend, a friend and I traveled a couple of hours west to a small town called Clarks, Nebraska to visit another friend we grew up with. I get out there two or three times a year just to hang out and get caught up with my friend and his family.

The day always flies by, but we always have great time. After sitting around and talking for an hour or two, we piled into my friend’s truck and headed for Grand Island – about a 30 minute drive. I love that drive because it’s a beautiful representation of small town life.

We had lunch at a sports bar, and watched a little NCAA basketball and talked a little more.

Couldn’t help but snap a photo of this napkin while we were there.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I didn’t get too adventurous with my food order. I had 12 wings with BBQ sauce, but I did try the fried green bean appetizer one of the guys ordered and it was much better than I expected.

Since it’s a sports bar, one of its novelties (which sort of grosses me out) is a cleat on every table. It serves as a holder of sorts.

After lunch, we went to Hastings bookstore. I love going there – especially since we don’t have one in Omaha. I picked through used CDs and found a number of them I ended up purchasing. Then we stopped in the store’s coffee shop and relaxed in throne-like chairs.

Afterward, we made the 30 mile drive back to Clarks where my friend’s daughter, who is 9 I believe, had the Wii set up and waiting for us. She cleaned our clocks in Mario Kart and then in most of the other games we played.

Finally, my friends and I posed for a couple of pictures:

Pepper, the family dog, posed for a picture as well.

About that time, the aroma of homemade pizza began filtering it’s way to the living room from the kitchen. My friend’s wife was nice enough to cook dinner for all of us. The pizza was great and we scarfed it down pretty quickly. No word on whether Pepper had a piece or not, but I’m hoping he did.

The day was as close to perfect as possible.