Tornado Alley-Devastation in Joplin, Missouri

I grew up in Kansas, presently am living in Oklahoma and have no plans to leave the Midwest. Therefore, I am accustomed to and plan on spending many a night huddling in the closet with my loved ones, a radio at my side, while listening to the storm brewing. And praying.
This event has become so routine, that I often don’t think the tornado will actually touch down. Even though we are smack dab in the middle of “Tornado Alley”, I have yet to be affected by one.

Until now. The tornado that hit Joplin in May was the seventh deadliest tornado in all of U.S. history. I really couldn’t look at the pictures until now.

A short drive from Tulsa (my hometown) is Joplin, Missouri. When the tornadoes hit Joplin, the world as I knew it was rocked.

I waited several weeks before driving to the scene myself. I wasn’t sure my tender little heart could handle it.
This is not the scene of a construction site-this is the total annihilation of several businesses.

This used to be a neighborhood I would often cruise past on my way to watch baby brother play a basketball tournament.

What kind of unnatural force could curl a steel yield sign?

Debris was piled everywhere, next to the remnants of what was once a house. Thousands of people were instantly homeless, a 162 dead.

The outpouring of food, shelter, financial gifts and elbow grease from surrounding communities, churches and non-profits was tremendous for the people of Joplin. I was impressed with the quick response from so many and the practicality of what people were willing to offer and do. Some just came to clean up, others to offer counsel, others opened their homes to those displaced-even as far reaching as Tulsa.
It’s often the disasters that bring us together, reminding us of the preciousness of life, and of the finality of death.
I suppose the weighty-ness of Joplin was the reason I couldn’t talk about all of this until now. I usually reserve my blog for butterflies and rainbows.
But hey, life throws some crap your way from time to time. Let’s be real. ..

Touring Changes!

In case you haven’t heard…you haven’t heard from me. In awhile. Like 8 months.
I was an idiot and I’ll tell you why. I went El Cheapo and built my site in Iweb in the spring of 2010. Ah…those were the good months.

Around January 2011, all heck broke loose. My website-my carefully planned website-became unusable, unretrievable and unpostable. I am not sure if all of those are legitimate adjectives, but I plead the stressed-out case before you.

I continued on with life, saving up my money to hire a professional to build the template. And while I waited, life did not stop. Tours were to be tended to, family was to be visited-the life as I knew it, kept moving forward.

There are road side attractions that must be discussed. Like this giant blue whale on Route 66.

There were near-misses here in Tulsa as tornadoes touched down in Joplin, nearly destroying the city.

There were camels to be seen, new foods to eat, cities to explore…

…and of course my weird husband doing weird things in his hotel room. Like standing in front of a cow picture, bedecked in a zebra print bathrobe, holding a bottle of wine, posing and taking a picture of himself with his phone. Yep. Weird.

I’ll share with you my new adventures, like: places to eat, weird things that have been witnessed, beauty captured by my camera and stories that need to be told.
The world is a large place and I plan to tour it all. Welcome back.