Going to Arkansas, part 1

The week after visiting our daughter in Colorado, we took a trip to see our son in Arkansas.  It is nice that they are both just one state away, and not on the coast.  The drive is do-able either way.

The sunrise was beautiful.  We had just gotten in the car and were beginning to drive out of the driveway when our daughter Jill called.  She was on her way to Wichita for the day.  "Where are you?"    She was close to passing our house.  We pulled onto 135 and got right behind her.

We followed her all the way to the big city (and we talked on the phone the whole way!) and we met up at Starbucks!

Guess who else was at Starbucks?  

You can't tell from this fuzzy photo.  I was in a hurry to snap it so he wouldn't notice.   Jill thought I should have gone over and asked for a selfie with him.  

Larry Hatteberg, long-time news anchor for KAKE-TV who had the segment “Hatteberg’s People” is a frequenter of this Starbucks I understand.

After a sweet time visiting, we said our byes and she went on to her shopping.  We had one item to pick up at the store by Starbucks and then we were off to Arkansas.

At Webb City, we HAD to stop at Culvers, of course.  And who should we see but Jill and Kyle!  They used to live in our town and we went to church together, but they moved to Joplin many years ago.  This birthday boy (they were taking him out to celebrate) was just a baby back then.

They lived through the Joplin tornado.  This is from an article from Extreme Makeover.

"Kyle, the father and a Joplin fireman, was at work at the fire station during the storm and spent the first two hours after the tornado not knowing if his wife and kids had made it out alive. He made many stops along the way home, through the rubble, rescuing trapped victims and tending to injured members of the community. Meanwhile Jill and their children, Konnor, Korbin and Kaleb, huddled in a closet. A door landed on top of them, which they used to deflect the debris. This ultimately saved their lives. After the storm, they had no idea if Kyle was alive, but eventually the family, along with older son Keenan, who was out of town at the time, was reunited. Jill sustained minor injuries, but their home was completely destroyed."

Extreme Makeover redid their home, along with the entire block!  She said that they have since then sold the home and live in the country but what joy that they have no mortgage!

As we went further south into Missouri and then into Arkansas, we noticed that web worms were taking over trees and destroying them.  Very sad.

Many trees were gonners!

Five and a half hours later, we made it to Fayetteville and to our sweet little punkins!