Tornado

Lee's Summit, Missouri
Longview Campground
Site 73

How do I put today into words?  I'm not sure where to start.  
Last evening Ray Warner called to say they were in Independence for a day and wanted to know if we wanted to go out to eat.  It was hard to decline, but we had already made plans to spend the day with Linda and Jim Collins.  

We had some horrible storms last night around 2 am with heavy winds, rain and lightning. The satellite was out when we got up. It took awhile but we got it going.  After my shower, I just started to dry my hair and the hairdryer sent out sparks and quit.  Bill opened the basement door and the strut came loose.  

Jim and Linda came by shortly afterwards and we warned them that things hadn't been going well.  They said that didn't matter they were going to spent the day with us.  

Things went uphill from that point on.
  

Jim spent a lot of time in Kansas City in his working days.  He knew all of the neat places to see.  One of our many stops was the Kauffman Memorial Garden.  

The gardens were beautiful and tranquil.

One thing I noticed was that Kansas City has a lot of beautiful fountains.

Bill and Jim showed us the alcove where the Kauffman's were buried in the gardens.

There are flowers baskets everywhere in this area.  I believe this was called the plaza.

Jim told us that Kansas City is famous for its barbecue and suggested Fiorella's Jack Stack Barbecue for lunch.  What a great place!  Our service was excellent and the food was awesome.  I can't believe I finished it all.  I usually take a photo of the food, but I enjoyed the meal so well didn't even think about capturing it with a photo.  

We really enjoyed the lunch and the visiting with Jim and Linda.  

We waddled back to the car and Jim drove over to the National WW I Museum and Memorial.  Bill and I were happy to know that Jim and Linda had never been here and we had the opportunity to share it with them.  

The Liberty Memorial tower is 217 feet tall and the memorial covers 4 acres.  We could have gone to the top by elevator and then up 47 steps but our lunch was too heavy and didn't want to carry it that far.

Just to give you an idea how large it is, they issue a two-day admission ticket.  Out of 35,000 museums (no we haven't seen them all) this one is listed in the top 25 by Trip Advisor.  

I'm going to post a couple of photos and you'll just have to see this one for yourself.  

  

Here's a Bayard gun.  Our brother-in-law's name is Bayard David and we took this photo for him.  It's a 1908 Belgian pistol cal. 7.65. 

You should see the tiny slit they used to see out.

The docent showed us these papers.  Someone joined up in the morning, and was discharged seven hours later as the war ended.

Jim definitely knows his city.  He knew the names of all the buildings.

I believe he said Western Auto building was the largest in the world.

At this point we were all on overload.  You just get to a point that you can't take in anymore.

 Can you say "overload"?

I saw this KC Barbecue Tours bus and had to take this photo.  They really do take barbecue serious in this town to have tour buses.  

We stopped in Planters Hardware store.  Note the date on the building says 1880.  What a wonderful store and has stayed in the family since.

They had all kinds of seeds and spices.  I bought some spices and if you ever had a hard time finding one, it would be here and very inexpensive. 

Jim was such a good tour guide, he even stopped at Walmart so I could get a hair dryer.  The funny part about the hairdryer is, we've always carried two with us.  I finally said, we've carried this second one for 7 years.  I'm going to lighten the load and just take one.  

Jim and Linda left and we just relaxed for a short time before Linda Ward called and asked if we were okay.  I said we were fine.  She mentioned that Lee's Summit was under a tornado watch.  We talked a little bit and then someone knocked at our door.  It was the park host advising us to evacuate to the bath house.  You didn't need to tell us twice.  We heard sirens going off.  I don't know how long we were in there, but they did move us to the storage area room in between the bath houses.  

The park ranger stayed with us and he had his radio on and reported the activity.  He said a tornado hit about a mile and half from us.  We had about 3 inches of rain and a little hail.  After a few hours, we were told we could leave.  

The TV has had storm reports on for hours.  We're due to pull out tomorrow.  Looking at all the flash flooding and damage I'm wondering what kind of adventure that will be. 

Jim and Linda really showed us a great time but we could forget the tornado adventure.  

Turtle Safely......