A Small Planned Detour

As we headed to meet my brother and family in Arkansas, we took a little detour into Kansas and Missouri. Kansas, because the kids have never been to Kansas and needed that notch on their state belt, and Missouri, because we needed to pick up a bike wheel for Alexis' bike. Somewhere in AZ, someone stole her entire bike wheel off the top of our car! Bummer. The biggest town for us to stop in was Joplin, MO. When we pulled into town, we realized why that name sounded so familiar. Joplin was hit by a devastating tornado in May that destroyed a large part of the town, including the hospital. This was definitely one of those times that we made the kids stop what they were doing and look out the window! I remembered seeing the images on tv of entire neighborhoods gone, but to see the destruction in person was heartbreaking. What was so amazing was that on one side of the street everything was normal, trees grew tall, businesses were open, lawns were being watered. But on the other side, everything was gone! Bare tree stumps stuck out of the ground surrounded by the debris of the decimated buildings. I have never seen anything like this before. Mother nature has given us some amazing landscapes and National Parks, but she can also take it all away in the blink of an eye.