I kept waiting for the dogs out in the grass to realize there was a walking snack in the vicinity, but they, too, were there for the rest stop and not interested.

The fact is that if you are looking for characters for your book, just lean up against your car at the rest stop and pick a few for your next novel or short story.

Go to Fred’s, or heaven help you, Walmart at midnight.

Once we got in late from a trip, stopped at a KFC around 9 p.m., and my husband and senior partner got into a fascinating conversation with a 94-year-old veteran and widower, who liked to go to restaurants late. This veteran had created groundbreaking technology during WWII. Yes, we checked him out. He was a walking legend.

Some years back, I recall a retired English teacher who dropped by my editor’s desk to share a photo of her Scottie sitting in a high chair having supper with her. “Here,” she said, handing me a painted rock. “I just wanted you to have this. I like to share these with my friends.” The rock read: “Time and tide wait for no man.” Geoffrey Chaucer.

I kept that rock for 10 years. Now I can’t find it. So I may have to go find a nice flat rock and paint it myself for my desk in our new office.

She should be in my novel, and in fact, she probably will be, along with a guy walking his pet rat. Life is just strange the way it offers up characters who are treasures like the people we just run across every day — if only we take the time.

And if we don’t, well, you know. A moment that passes never comes your way again.