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My husband’s off days are Wednesday, Friday (*hahahaha!) and Saturday. On Wednesday, I was not called into substitute so about 8 a.m. we decided to go on a road trip. I looked at the map of Arkansas and had a look around. I wanted to go somewhere we hadn’t gone before, but was still close by, and had things to do that we would enjoy (and were cheap).

Luckily, a place stood out right away. Keo, Arkansas. I’ve dabbled in genealogy before and have always run into a roadblock with a branch in Josh’s family. I knew that there was a place close by that might have some answers, it’s just not the sort of thing you pop into do and check off your list. You have to plan it.

Scary toad eating alligator! Ack!

And next time I swing through Lonoke, Arkansas, I’ll remember that. I decided Wednesday that it would be fine to drop into the history society spontaneously with only a name and two dates. So Lonoke was the first place we dropped in to. Now, not only is the historical society, it is also the house of evil stuffed animals! While I was picking the brain of the genealogy volunteer, Josh kept himself busy taking pictures of all the stuffed things. I think it even scared him for a minute.

He did get a little antsy and even helped me poke in some of the archives material, but when I left, I didn’t know any more than when I came in. The spooky thing was that the volunteer was working on a family with the same name that I was looking for! So maybe she’ll call me in a few days and figure out how they are connected.

After the genealogy side trip, we headed down the road to Keo. That part of Arkansas is very flat and with spring here, it’s easy to see all the yellow flowers/weeds that are covering the ground. There were also a MULTITUDE of Pecan Trees! This area is ripe for pecans and they ship them internationally from this area. It made for beautiful photos!

So when we got to Keo, we stopped at a flea market and then at an antique place. They had a GinOrMous wood thing that was about 9 feet tall, and 20 feet long, with a huge mirror and cabinets, lots of carving. They were only asking $79,995. So call Morris’s antiques to place it on layaway because I’m sure you have room for it!

Caramel Pie

Next on my agenda was to eat!

We went to downtown Keo to eat lunch at a place called Charlotte’s Sweets and Eats. The fact that they put the word ’sweets’ before ‘eats’ should tell you something. They are all about the desserts at that place. They had a list of 6 pies, 5 cakes, and cheesecake. All homemade, naturally, like you would expect anything else in a small town. I can’t even remember the name of the sandwich I ordered but it was delicious! It had smoked turkey, tomato, red onions, avocado with bread coated in a poppyseed/parmesean cheese dressing and then fried.

Coconut Pie

Since dessert is best first, we ordered it along with our entrees and she brought it with our drinks. It was too hard not to take some nibbles of it before the meal was brought.  Magnificent!

Josh ordered a rueben on rye and for lunch, we switched half our sandwiches with the other person, so we had a good sample of what the restaurant was famous for.

On the way back home, we took the scenic route and saw even more pecan farms. They are so pretty! The trees are full and mature, neatly lined up like pine tree farms with wonderful yellow flowers underneath.

To top it off, a quick jaunt into Barnes & Nobles where Josh bought a poetry book, I bought the latest “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” for Ethan, and a Charlie and Lola book about picky eaters for Suzanne. I left the store empty handed because there were too many good things and nothing that really shouted “bUy ME!”

All in all, a great spontaneous day trip with Josh.

If you could take a spontaneous day trip with someone special, where would you go? Go ahead and be wild, it doesn’t even have to be somewhere you could drive too or have the money for, dream big!