Something Summery (giveaway!)

I know what you're thinking.... "Lois has finally lost it... she thinks it's summer." Wrong! I lost it years ago. ;) So why "something summer"? Sheila at Book Journey is calling an emergency Summer-Cation, asking people to write a post about a great summer experience. I am honestly thrilled about this because as you all know, I hate the cold and I am much looking forward to warmer weather. I am also doing a giveaway to go along with this. I will be crocheting and giving away a mesh beach bag! Now I have your attention! ;) You can enter by commenting with what you are most looking forward to this summer! Like the blog on Facebook and you get another entry (link in sidebar). Follow my blog and you get another entry yet! Follow me on Bloglovin and you'll get ANOTHER entry (link at bottom of post or in sidebar) and finally, become my friend on Goodreads and you'll get another entry. Just comment and let me know which ones you did. This is open until Monday at midnight. I'll announce the winner next Tuesday (and contact you) and as soon as I get the bag made (hopefully sooner not later as you guys know my crazy school schedule) then I'll get it sent to you.

So back a few years ago, my family had a Japanese exchange student staying at our house for the summer. To give him the true Kansas experience, we took him for a tour of the flint hills. Not the nice highway 177 scenic route that's clearly marked. No... we took the real scenic route.... gravel roads, no signs, truly out in the boonies. It is gorgeous out there. Pictures just don't capture it. There is nothing for miles but the rolling grassy hills, oil pumps, and cattle. We spent quite some time driving along out there, stopping every once and awhile to snap a picture. It was quite awhile before we realized that we had not clue where we were. Did I mention we were in the middle of nowhere? No houses, I'm not sure about cellphone coverage (I don't think anyone tried that option at least), no GPS, nada. My Dad, who knows the area more as his grandparents had lived in the area, took the wheel and started driving. He was trying to make light of the situation as he didn't want us to get worried, especially not our exchange student. We drove for quite awhile longer before he finally said, "I recognize this place!" Oh my were we excited! It still took us a length of time to get into an area where we really knew we where and then finally we made it home.

The moral of this story is not don't go visit the Flint Hills and it isn't even don't take the real scenic route. No, the moral of the story is take some sort of GPS system so if you get lost you can find your way out of there. However, if I was going to get lost anywhere, I'd want it to be out in the Flint Hills.

Note: None of these pictures are mine... I found them off the internet but I felt they captured as well as it could possibly be captured, the beauty of the Flint Hills.

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