Little Excursions

Big-time trips are fun.

They can expand our horizons. They can show us new ways of looking at life. They can expose us to kinds of foods we never imagined existed.

Going to far-away places is a good, good thing.

But for many of us, those types of trips are the exception, not the rule.

Because of that, we need to take advantage of day trips, places and sites that are close by. Little excursions can do the same thing that our "big" trips can, just on a smaller scale, on a different level.

When I lived in Fort Worth, a friend and I had always talked about going to Archer City, a city literally in the middle of nowhere. Archer City is about 100 miles northwest of the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. Traveling there makes one feel as if they are really stepping out onto the western frontier.

The reason we wanted to go to Archer City was to visit an enormous bookstore. At the time, this bookstore filled four or five buildings in downtown Archer City. The bookstore had just about anything you could imagine wanted to buy.

Why was such an incredible bookstore located in Archer City? That is where famous American author, Larry McMurtry (of Lonesome Dove fame, among other great works), lives and runs his store. Up until recently, his bookstore, there, filled an entire city block. I read that he recently auctioned off and sold many of the items, though a good many still remain there.

My friend and I had always wanted to go see it. So one day we did. And while there, we had the most incredible discovery:

McMurtry, himself, was there that day. I had read that he did not like to bombarded at his store, by visitors, but that he was okay with taking the occasional picture or two (he's the one on the left, by the way!).

The chance encounter with McMurtry was nothing spectacular, in and of itself. He wasn't particularly friendly, didn't invite us over for coffee or tea, or anything like that. But simply meeting him was such an incredible surprise and treat.

The great experience did not happen on a trip to a far-away land, though it surely could have. It happened about less than two hours from home.

Those are the types of things that can happen . . . when we're open to them . . . when we take the time to step away, outside of our normal day-to-day lives . . . and travel.