Driving the Emmings

My in-laws, squished into the back, quickly reconsidered the seating arrangements.

Instead of hiking up to KC as usual, we were delighted to entertain the Emmings for an afternoon. They hadn't stopped by since a few months after the move, so they wandered around the house oohing and aaahing — always a nice pick-me-up. We drove them to Iola to see our old rental house, George's work, the town square, grab the best Mexican lunch around, browse an antique store and then stop at the candy store.

Iola is home to a large Russell Stover factory, now partially hidden by an enormous Walmart facade. I've taken my parents there, so it's something of a parental visit tradition. Unfortunately this trip was ill-timed for two reasons. One, it being directly after lunch, everyone had a post-mealtime sweet tooth. Two, we accidentally visited during the Factory Bloopers sale. It's a real thing. All of the factory's mistakes are packaged under generic white wrapping, so for $1.99 your box of chocolates is 3# of surprise. Jerry purchased four of these surprise boxes, and we hauled one home, which George took to work this morning. Whew.

Dale's slogan comes from El Charro, my favorite local Mexican restaurant,
where it's part of their decor. Once I saw it, I knew it belonged to him.