Finding Romance Down a Gravel Road

Romance exists down a gravel road

While visiting our place in Southern Missouri last month, my partner and I decided on a rainy, and rather chilly, day to go driving around. We were less than 50 miles from Arkansas. Why not go? Then we could say we’d been to Arkansas. Since it was too cold and rainy to stand on our land and discuss where to put things, or hang out and read, and a drive sounded lovely. So, since we both like long drives, we went, and discovered a very beautiful lake and more gorgeous Ozark scenery.

However, on the drive down, imagine my surprise when I passed a road sign that said “Romance 2 Miles.” Funny, I thought, looking at my partner, we have romance back at the hotel in the Jacuzzi suite. Given that I write, and publish, romantic fiction, I knew I had to get a picture of me (and maybe even my car with the magnetic signs advertising Pink Petal Books) by the Romance city limits sign. So, on the way back, we found our sign for Romance (after thinking we lost it, because we thought Romance could be found closer to the Arkansas border than it was) and turned.

Romance, it seems, exists down a gravel road. (And no, Lex, not with two farmers and a couple of pigs as you suggested. Unless that’s something they don’t tell the locals.) Not wanting to go down a gravel road in the middle of nowhere with no signs, we turned around, and alas, didn’t find Romance, Missouri, that day. (I did find out later, from some friends who are locals, that yes, Romance does exist down a gravel road, and there isn’t much more there except a church (inspirational romance?) and a couple of houses (contemporary romance?).

But it got me to thinking, how many other states have a town named Romance?

Well, it turns out three. And, looking at the geography of them, I can say that as far as I’m aware, Pink Petal Books is THE closest publisher to Romance. Missouri. Arkansas. And Wisconsin.

Further research revealed that all three towns are unincorporated, so there’s a good chance that if the towns aren’t on a gravel road, they’re probably near one. And I suppose that’s a metaphor for life. After all, most of us don’t know where romance is. It’s not on any major maps. And we have no clue how to get there. We just happen to stumble across it one day and decide that we rather like the destination. And maybe, just maybe, we find it on a drive to Arkansas.