Black Friday in Imperial.

In Imperial, Nebraska on Black Friday there isn't a lot of special shopping. Instead, we watch the "Black Shirts" of Nebraska play Colorado.

Seriously. That's what people do here on Black Friday. And it's serious stuff.

My grandma didn't want me to post this picture because she is afraid that no one will ever want to visit Imperial.

I disagree. People like to have their photos taken in the middle of main street. You most certainly cannot do this in southern Johnson County or Fairfax County.

And it is beautiful and flat. Lauren and I ran yesterday and today, and there is no change in the elevation. If you get lost (hey, it happens to us city kids), then you find the grain elevator or the Imperial water tower and get unlost.

I spent a lot of days as a little girl walking down this same main street to the stores with Lauren. We felt amazingly independent and like pretty big deals. There were exactly four stores we would go to downtown. The fabric store, the drug store, the gas station, and the dollar store. Sometimes if we got really adventurous we would go to the library. All by ourselves.

It's nice here on main street. Relaxing and full of reminders about the lessons we learned about independence as little girls walking down main street. The same lessons that take us all over the world on grown-up adventures.

Thanks main street.