Laura Day 12

Blogger is being a pill.
Today has been an emotional roller coaster.
Little House on the Prairie is wonderful! They are trying very hard to get it all together in a realistic way. They didn't know what was where but worked very hard to find the original place. They have. It was on a person's farm. They found the hand dug well that Pa dug. They found the corner of one of the foundations. They built a replica of the cabin using Laura's book and historians as guides. It is beautiful. They have 2 other old buildings from the same time frame. We stood and talked to the owner for a long time. She really has embraced the history and has a passion to have it be a great place.
My pictures will not load of The Little House. I will try another time.
We found the grave of Dr. Tann. The black doctor who helped save the Ingalls family when they were struck with Malaria. We also found the grave of the person they believe to be Mr. Edwards. We were on such a high then as we were driving out of the cemetery we saw a headstone with pictures engraved on them. As I was reading Auntie realized all 4 of them died on the same day! It was a family. Mom/Dad and 2 children. It was gut retching! It was just a shocking feeling.
We did see LIVE squirrels.
A HUGE snapping turtle - on the highway though so not a lot of hope for his tomorrows.
Dead raccoons. We decided we should have started stopping and collecting the tails of the raccoons. We could have made a fortune for coonskin caps. The smell might have gotten the worst of us though. And we still probably wouldn't be out of Wisconsin by now.
On our way from Kansas to Missouri. Our route took us through Joplin Missouri. The town that was hit with a devastating tornado on May 22, 2011.
When we first got to town we saw flower pots hanging from street posts and everything looking just normal. We both thought Wow, we thought it was suppose to have been hit hard, things look just fine. As the highway went through town we came around a corner and saw it! We both gasped! It was like a bomb. Some streets are still closed because of debris. Whole blocks of homes - gone. Tree's stripped of leaves. We both had tears and shaking voices. I turned trying to get out of it and we ended up right where the worst of it was. These few pictures do not give it credit.

The high school. When we drove closer you could still see kid's things hanging on the walls.


I think brick would have given me a false sense of security.

The leaves just gone.

It's all just gone.

It's kind of a sad day to end our day but we both are still feeling the shock. Tomorrow will be better and I will try to get the Little house pictures up.

Peace