Frequent readers know that I’ve written about all kinds of adventures on this blog. There’s no doubt about it, I am VERY fortunate to have found a job where I can travel as much as I do, that I have leaders who encourage us to take a vacation day or two to explore the cities in which we are doing business and to have a partner who is supportive of my travel schedule.

The truth of the matter is, not every trip is exciting. Every trip is an adventure of sorts, but not every trip is, “fun”. Such was the case on a trip to Kansas I had last year. Now to my friends and readers in Kansas, please allow me a moment to explain myself before passing judgment. The story has a happy ending.

I flew into Kansas City and had a 2-hour drive to a small town called Junction City. Junction City was a small town. You can always tell what kind of a town you’re in by the restaurant selection. Day 1 was a hole-in-the-wall Chinese restaurant. Options for Day 2 included Denny’s, Arby’s or Subway. The citizens of Junction City were excited because an Olive Garden was coming into town. Are you serious? An Olive Garden? Does that give you an idea on how small this town was?

I don’t eat fast-food. I also don’t care for Chinese food. One night of it is enough. We desperately needed help for meal selections for Day’s 2 and 3. We asked as many people as we could and finally someone suggested a restaurant in the town of Manhattan called Harry’s.

Harry’s was a delicious restaurant in an old hotel – rumored to be haunted by the ghosts of a ghastly murder decades ago. I didn’t find any ghosts, but did enjoy their meatloaf, wine selection and desert.

Except for our diversion to Harry’s, which was 20-minutes down the road, there wasn’t much else in Junction City. Having cabin fever, on the drive back to the Kansas City airport we vowed to find something exciting and adventurous to do. Aside from the Wizard of Oz Museum, which was too far out of our way, the only other diversion was the Russell Stover Candy Outlet. The signs from the road bribing us with free chocolate was all that it took for my travel partner and I to take a break from driving.

One of these boxes is not like the other. Can you find it?

There were all sorts of candies in the shop. They had little squares of mint and mud pie, crumbles of candy bars and those little finger chocolates found in boxes. The one piece of chocolate I wanted to sample was not available for sampling, only purchasing. I wonder why?

It’s not like anyone would have noticed if a small bite was missing from the giant bar, right?

So what’s the moral of today’s story? Don’t lose hope. In the most remote of situations you can find an exciting adventure with a little persistence. Even if it’s just for free chocolate. Have you ever been stuck in a small town with nothing to do? How did you respond? Comment below.

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