So, we decided to stay another day. The idea of going to share a little about our trip with the kids sounded like it would be fun, so that's what we will do today- go to school! We were up nice and early and had a quick bowl of cereal before jumping in Les's new truck to head to school. The middle school that he teaches at is in the little town of Granby, which was around 10 miles away. Joe and I brought the memory cards with our photos on them so we could show the kids some pictures. If we had known about this earlier, we could have put a nice little presentation together that would have been nice, but we will manage just fine. For the rest of the day, we went through some of our photos with the kids, told them stories of things that we saw/that happened, explained how we camp and cook on our stove, etc. It was pretty fun. As the kids were listening, some of them looked amazed. During the "break" period, or "hour" as they call it here in MO, I was able to go through all our memory cards and just pull a few pictures out and copy them into another folder so we didn't have to look through all of the photos on the cards, which made it a LOT easier and more efficient. For those classes, we were able to cover a lot more things. It really goes to show just how preparation is so vital in the classroom. That little bit of time to get things organized made all the difference! The best classes were the 7th graders. They were very interested in what we were talking about and asked a lot of great questions. The 8th graders were a little "too cool for school," so they mainly kept to themselves. For lunch we each got a HUGE salad, some tater tots for a side and of course no school lunch is complete without chocolate milk! It was a very fun day going to school, I'm glad that we ended up staying. On the way back to Neosho from school, we stopped at "The Worlds Largest Flowerbox," which was right at the city limits of Neosho. We also made a quick stop at Amy's workplace to say hi. When we got back to the house, the boys were already there with their grandma. A little while after we got back, the boys had to go to wrestling practice and do their weigh in for the week. I can't imagine having to keep the kids on such a strict diet so they were at the correct weight come the weigh in on Friday. It has to be such a challenge. Les ordered a couple pizzas for dinner when everyone got back home. Right after we ate, the 6 of us headed off to Joplin to go to one of their favorite places, Andy's. They said that we just had to have some Andy's frozen custard before we left because it was simply the best. The ride there was a lot of fun because the boys were singing along to all the songs that were playing, and at one point were both "bobbin' their heads to the music." It was pretty funny and just too cute. Well, Les and Amy were right- Andy's Frozen custard was absolutely incredible. I don't think I've ever had anything like it, even though I am an ice cream-o'holic. I went with Les's suggestion of having the Snowmonster, which is vanilla custard blended with strawberries and melted chocolate chips and I'm SO glad that I did. It's unexplainable just how good it was. If I ever come back through this area, that will definitely be a stop. After our Andy's stop, we drove over to the Academy sports and outdoors store to get a couple things, including a new pillow for me since mine no longer stays inflated and is completley flat by morning. As we were driving through Joplin, Les pointed out what was destroyed by a tornado last year, and what had already been rebuild. He said that this entire area was pretty much flattened. He also told us that the tornado happened on graduation day and that one of the graduates was sucked out of the skylight of their family's truck on the way to/from the ceremony. I just can't imagine how horrible that must have been. Les also explained that although it was an absolutely horrible thing, the only good to come out of it was that the cameras in the school halls and around the building were running. He said that after the storm, they were reviewed and that they learned that the amount of debris that was flying around the hallways, and the force that it was going would have been deadly. They used to have a plan to put all the students in the hall away from the windows if there was a hurricane, but now they know that is definitely not a safe place. When we got to Academy, Joe and Les did a good job of looking for what we needed to get there. Amy, the boys, and I on the other hand were completely distracted. One of the customers was walking around the store with a little tiny huskie puppy that they had just gotten that day. It was too cold to leave her in the car, so they brought her in. All 4 of us got to hold the little puppy and give it lots of love. It was SO adorable and even still had that puppy smell. Joey found a pillow that would work. It wasn't as nice as the one that I had from REI, but it was a heck of a lot cheaper, and as long as it held air, it was much better than having no pillow. On the way back to Neosho, Les swung by a popular motorcycle/bicycle stop called the Undercliff Grill and Bar. It was literally a restaurant that was built right into the side of a cliff. He wanted to show us this place just because it was a neat, and it really was. They were still open, so we just peaked our heads inside to get a glimpse of what it looked like inside. The back wall of the restaurant was actually the cliff itself. It was so nice that Les and Amy were so interested in showing us things in their area. When we got back to the house, we played with their cute little dog, Holly and Joey played a little bit of video games with the boys. Later, we watched some videos that Les had made of Marcus and Nicholas wrestling, running, and playing soccer. Man these boys are some talented athletes, that's for sure! It was amazing to see just how good they were for their age. When Marcus was in 3rd grade, he did a mile running race with the 4th graders and completely crushed them, and that's just the start of it. Although we didn't ride today, it was worth taking the unexpected day off. That is the one thing that I love about this tour- we have a rough time schedule, but are not under any extreme pressure to get somewhere by any specific date, so if something comes up that we want to do, we can usually do it. I'm glad that we decided to stay for an extra day here. Somehow we ended up going to bed pretty late today, but we had a lot of fun either way.
|
|