Day trip to Joplin, MO

We're about an hour and a half west from Joplin, MO so we decided to take a road trip over there to see the area and check the rebuilding progress after the tornado.  I have to go to work so I'll let Isabel take over the blog post to describe what we saw from her perspective.  

ok, so, this is joplin missouri after the tornado this spring

most of these were houses,

some were old so they are just tearing them down

but some were brand new

the tornado only covered about two miles

some houses were destroyed

and some just had walls ripped off

i think only three or four had foundations left

houses weren't the only things ruined in the storm, 

many buisnesses were destroyed too

and the occasional power pole was bent over

this one might be hard to tell but there used to be a building or two there

that was the temporary homedepo 

and what used to be a sign

                                       
                                                         in the end..there was alot of damage,
                                        the pictures may seem bad, but its worse (and almost depressing)
                                                                              in person.              

Yes Dorothy you really are still in Kansas...

OK, so back in the early 1900's the town of Independence decided its youth were pulling too many pranks during Halloween so they turned Halloween around backwards and invented the Neewollah Festival.  It runs for 2 weeks right around Halloween time and the entire community gets involved.  It's also billed as THE biggest event in Kansas each year.  Among other events, they hold several parades two of which we attended.  I always thought that Kansans were a reserved conservative group, but the parade we attended proved me wrong!

Here's most of the town lining up to take parts in one of the parades.

Here's the loyal fire dog, which it seems most everyone knew by name waiting patiently for the festivities to begin.

Let the weirdness begin!

I can't really describe it so I'll let the photo speak for itself. These are both Kansas farm boys

Where in the world would you go with your new scooter?  A parade of course!

Guys in bras raising awareness for breast cancer

They may have gone a little too far in this case though.  Consider yourself lucky I didn't show the front view.

Of course every parade has an egg transporting chicken on a lawn mower

The award for the most normal float went to this group.

The sign reads "Extra Ketchup hot flashes and rum"

Sadie's favorite group

Second to the end

The end (except for the street sweeper that followed).

Mom couldn't stop laughing and Isabel was clearly affected by all she saw.

Happy Neewollah everyone!

Sadie Update...

Our internet connection here in coffeyville has been less than optimal so it's taking a while to upload photos... so I figured I'd upload just a few photos to see how long it's actually taking--and who better to upload than Sadie?  Sadie now gets her daily exercise by chasing her favorite ball around the field near the trailer.  When she gets tired she runs to the side of the field by the hay bales and lays down to sniff the breeze and enjoy the fresh air and sunshine.  Here she is taking a break in the action.

Home at rest thinking about chasing her ball...

This is her "ready" position.  "OK, go ahead and throw it already!"

and here she is bringing it back.  She does this several hundred times a day and would do it non-stop if we let her!

That's it for the Sadie update.  Now let's see if I can upload some other photos...