We went for a mini-vacation

You might not realize how hard it is to take a spontaneous road trip after you've retired, when it seems one should have all the spare time in the world.  However, even if we plan something weeks ahead of time, things get complicated.  

Some time back, we decided to go to Colorado.  Cliff's asthma didn't fit in well with the thin air in the mountains, which makes no sense when you consider that some people with respiratory issues go to Colorado specifically for the benefits of the dry air.  But he was seriously having a terrible time, so we stayed for one night and came back home.

This week I suggested we just take one- or two-day trips every once in awhile.  Even with our doctor and dentist appointments, that should be possible.  We've come to the realization that we neither one can walk a lot, so that limits many things we'd like to do.  Even in museums, we can't walk very long before we are hurting.  It helps if such places have benches or chairs throughout the place, so older folks can rest a bit.  But the thing is, it's nice to have a getaway sometimes, and we'll do what we can.

Tuesday afternoon I asked Cliff what he thought about just heading out on Wednesday morning, getting a motel for that night, and coming home on Thursday.  I began searching for someplace we've never really explored, and came up with Carthage and Joplin, two cities in southwest Missouri that are only about one hundred fifty miles away from home; both towns are on old Route 66.  I googled points of interest in those areas and wrote them down, along with the addresses.  We arrived in Carthage around noon and secured our motel for the night.  I asked the guy who checked us in if he could suggest a good place to eat; he said, "Depends on what you like.  Do you like Cracker Barrel?"

I gave him a resounding NO, so he told us about a place called Granny Shaffer's Diner, his favorite place to eat.  He said they make their pies from scratch, and recommended the strawberry/rhubarb pie.  That sold us, and away we went; it was good food like my mother used to make.

Joplin is a friendly town of 51,800 people, with several places of interest.  The first thing we checked out was the Butterfly Garden, a park built where the F-5 Joplin tornado touched down in 2011; 161 people died, and there were 1,300 injuries.  Six people died in the hospital when it was hit by the tornado.  The hospital was right below where the Butterfly garden is now.  The building was demolished in 2013 and rebuilt in a different location.

"I just want people to remember that we (Joplin) are strong" 
Roger Carnish 

 

Next, we visited The Joplin History and Mineral Museum.  There were more reminders of the tornado there.

There were LOTS of minerals.

The portion of the museum that has the history of the town was interesting, although there was no place for old people to sit and rest their legs awhile; if there had been, we would have probably stayed longer.  

I had to take a picture of the exact type of refrigerator my parents had until I was around 5 years old.  I remember it well.  

These were manufactured from the mid 1920's to 1935; I was born in 1944.  GE made good refrigerators even then!  When I stood in front of it, my head didn't even reach the top of the door, and it was only 5'5" tall... even including the monitor on top.

I wanted to see a place where Bonnie and Clyde stayed for awhile, robbing the local businesses and making all kinds of trouble.  All you can do is read a sign and look at the outside of the place.  If you like you can spend a night there; just don't try to do the things Bonnie and Clyde did!

Read about it HERE.
  

More tomorrow.

A magical moment

Last week when I got out of the truck in Aldi's parking lot, a man got out of the car next to us, opened up his trunk, and began to rearrange things to make room for the groceries he was planning to buy.  As he did so, he was whistling a happy tune, and I couldn't help smiling; when he stopped for a bit, I asked him if he could whistle the Andy Griffith theme song.

He thought for a moment and said, "Yes, I can... but right now the tune escapes me."

So I reminded him, like this:

He smiled broadly and then whistled the tune for us.  Every time I think about this encounter, I can't help smiling again.  It was a magical minute or so for me, my husband, and that stranger.

Andy Griffith is loved by so many folks that even hearing his theme song makes us happy.

And now I'll bet some of you are smiling too.