Running away from home, day one.

Ennui led Anna and me to throw all caution to the wind and run away from home this weekend.

We just headed north, to pretty and unexplored country, to go where the wind and whims took us.

It is pretty up here, rolling hills sometimes, flat sometimes, always fun. I'd never seen the giant Van Gogh in Goodland, so we took the interstate after Oakley to find it. On the way I saw a sign for "The Craft Peddler" so we took the exit and went to Brewster. We found a fun little shop with two sweet ladies and we got a few things for some projects.

Then we went to the elementary school in Brewster and played for awhile on the playground.

On to Goodland, (or, as Anna called it, "Goodlookin") with a delightful stop at the Van Gogh. What fun. There were visitors in the guest book from all over KS and MO, with a few from other states and one from Italy.

We made a stop at Wal-Mart to buy some hotel snacks, Anna chose Princess cookies with delight.

In Goodland we looked for a cheap hotel with an indoor pool. The Super 8 was cheap and nice, but no pool. Across the street there was a new Comfort Inn, with a pool. I stopped and asked the desk clerk if they allowed non-guests to swim, and he said that he would. So we are staying at the Super 8, and had a nice swim at the pool across the street. Here's the darling in a strange pose. We had a great time pretending to be fish and flowers. The flowers grew when the other person splashed and made "rain" and then we'd be picked and put in a vase on the table.

After our illicit swim we ate at the Harvester restaurant, chosen because it was on the same access road we were on, and because Daddy is harvesting and planting while we're gone. It was yucky, but fun. We were the only patrons, other than employees and strange town regulars who went into the kitchen to refill their coffee. Anna asked why the waitress was eating, shouldn't she be bringing our food? Back at the hotel Anna ate a few cookies and announced she was ready for bed. Here she is talking to Daddy about her day. Then we prayed all together as a family, with Daddy on the cell phone. It's been a fun day. I think tomorrow we'll head to Wallace Co. for the County wide garage sale. And then...who knows?