What would your mom do?

My mother is a character. She raised me to be quite a character myself, but she still wins. Last July my friends got the chance to see her in her "natural habitat" of Omaha, NE. You haven't seen my mom till you've seen Omaha Mom.

One of her things is stopping at Russell Stover stores. Did you even know that Russel Stover has it's own stores? And some of them are outlets. Good outlets, not like clothing outlets where they make special lower quality crap to sell. Where they actually sell "Oopsies" in bags you can't see through. Sometimes you know what's in the bag, like the Mint Patties we bought. But sometimes it's just marked obtusely, like "nut clusters". What kind of nuts? Cashews? Pecans? What kind of clusters? Caramel? Nougat? And you thought the normal mixed boxes were a surprise every time. The bags are where it's at.

At the beginning of the latest road trip my husband and I took, he told me that if we saw a Russel Stover, we would stop in honor of my mom. Because that's what she would do. I didn't know of any in Minnesota (yes, this does imply that I know the general location of other stores on the east coast...) so I wasn't optimistic that we would stop. We were almost out of Minnesota, in a torrential downpour, and he sees a billboard on the other side of the road as we go by it. I check our GPS, brand new technology when I got it in 2007, but lacking some crucial information 8 years later. The Russel Stover was listed, with an address, that directed us to a farm about 2 miles off the interstate. The phone number was still good though, so we were able to call and find them. Crisis averted.

This was my husband's first visit to a Russel Stover store and I hope it was everything he imagined. There were free samples, 50% off Easter candy, and bags of "Oopsie" chocolates in the back. It was magical. After much debate, we selected a bag of "Candy Kitchen Values" Mint Patties. We paid, using my mom's frequent shopper account. When the cashier saw the Florida address, she asked if we had been to the Wildwood, FL store. I haven't been recently, but that may have been the store that started the tradition. If you're ever in the area, you must go. Or if you're ever in the area of any store, check one out!