Pomme de Terre Lake

We are currently parked at Pomme de Terre Lake in Missouri.

This is a beautiful area.

We are staying at Harbour Marina and R V Park, a fabulous place with a restaurant and very nice dock. A wedding took place there on Sunday morning.


This was taken on Saturday - a picture perfect, cloudless day.



We met our friends Tad and Noelle to spend the weekend and check out their new boat.

Tad and John in the boat.

I wish I'd taken a better shot of the boat, because it's fabulous!

The boat will do 55 mph loaded with people and coolers, so I don't plan to goad Tad when I'm on the Tube later in the summer.

This is such a nice area we are thinking about coming here after our trip to the North-East.

Fall is beautiful in the Ozarks, and Amber, Jeff and Coen could drive here easily. Of course Gaga could get to K C pretty quick too.

Sunday started out just as nice as Saturday. Tad and Noelle took us out for breakfast and a drive through the area. We stopped at a flea market and other points of interest then came back to the park so they could pack up and head back to the city.

They leave their 5th wheel here in a leased space and the boat is in a covered dock on a lift, everything tucked in safe.

It became oppressively hot that afternoon so we stayed in the air conditioning and watched satellite T V, resting after the weekend festivities. If we'd had local television on we would have known about the dangerous weather just 75 miles southwest of us. Amber called at 7pm to tell us Joplin had been hit by a deadly tornado.

Sunset on Sunday 2 hours after the tornado.

We had a little wind and thunder but no real problems.

The forecast for today is more storms.

We have decided to stay one more day here rather than go south to Springfield, where the risk seems to be a little higher.

Coen's Shopping Trip

How cute is this guy?

Coen has "Gaga" wrapped around his little finger, so of course we had to go on a shopping trip before I left town.

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While on South Padre Island we visited an aquarium and Coen was really interested. When we go to a restaurant with tropical fish Coen will hardly take time to eat,

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Meet Harley and Davidson!

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Coen picked out the tank, blue gravel, a plant and a pirate skull.

The ceramic dinosaur was tempting, but Arrrgh! won out.

Goldfish are more active than a Siamese Fish so they got the nod.

We are enthralled so far, and are considering a name change

to reflect how much we truly love the fish.

They may be renamed Katy and Perry.

What Tornado Alley?

This was the sky this morning at 10AM. It was dark and ominous - like a lot of the skies we've seen the last two months - but no tornadoes appeared. We haven't really had warm enough weather to stir up serious problems here. While most of the south has dealt with horrible damage and deaths, here in the mid-west we've had one of the calmest springs on record.

Since records have been kept in Kansas only three years have gone by with no tornadoes in May, and the last previous one was 1983.

We certainly aren't looking forward to riding out a tornado in the 5th wheel ... but if it happens here we have options. This RV park has a storm shelter; unusual even in a state famous for serious storms; and this shelter is a real rarity.

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Oh yeah - we're in Kansas Toto!

Notice the yellow brick road leading to the front door..

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A close up shows Toto hanging on to Dorothy's undies while shingles blow off the roof. If you click on the photo you may see the witch on her broom at the top left of the funnel cloud.
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We are leaving in two days despite the security here, going south for Memorial Day in the Ozarks with my cousins. We will meander around the lakes and visit favorite places in the hills there, arriving in Otterville Mo for a Grove family tradition.
Every year my husband's Grandfather would return to his home town on Memorial weekend to visit the cemeteries where his ancestors were buried. Family lore was passed on. We heard about how the family left Virginia to look for a better life and settled in Cooper County; and how John's Great-great-grandfather was shot and killed in Syracuse Mo for showing up in town wearing a Union belt buckle.
John's Grandfather and Father are both gone now but we can't imagine not going to Otterville for the get-together.
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A week or so later we will depart for places north, going on to our next adventure. We plan to wend our way across the North-east until we arrive at Prince Edward Island.
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I miss my grandson Coen already.

Morgan and Michael's Wedding

Morgan Elliott, our niece, was married on May 1st.

Isn't she beautiful?

The lucky groom is Michael Sobanic.

The weather forecast had a chance of rain but nature co-operated with a sunny and mild afternoon.

Morgan didn't want typical music for the ceremony, so she walked down the aisle to the theme from Romeo and Juliet.

The couple left the altar to the melody of

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"Let's get this party started!"

Me, John and our daughter Amber.

This site is the same one used by Amber and Jeff for their wedding in 2006.

Amber and Coen, who was one of the ringbearers.

Jake, who was in the Easter entry, was also a ringbearer.

The boys wouldn't pose together
but they did walk down the aisle with the ring pillows.

I thought the odds of one doing it were low and both doing it would be a miracle,

but they did it!

Nobody spiked a pillow - another possibility - but Jake did stop at the head of the aisle to demonstrate his (a) karate moves or (b) sword thrusts.
Since he called out "Hii Yah!" my money is on the karate action.

M & M

M & M candies were a part of the decor and favors.

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The Sobanics made a striking couple, the flowers and tables were beautiful

and the Mexican buffet was delicious.

The day turned out great.
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Easter!

The day before Easter we had our egg hunt, and what a success it was.

The weather, always a risk here, co-operated.

Trying to cut back on candy, the Easter bunny filled plastic eggs with change, stickers and small toys.

Hey! A real egg! What's THAT doin' here?!



Coen's cousin Jake with his basket.
Note that Coen is wearing a K U Jayhawk hoodie, and Jake has on an M U Tiger jacket.

It's OK, we love Jake anyway.

First Merry-go-round Ride

The mall merry-go-round was intriguing, but it was a little scary too.

We had to watch for a while before making the move.

Finally we boarded and (with a lot of coaxing from Mom and Gaga) chose a zebra. It was so much fun the next time he rode a dragon.

In Flanders Fields The Poppies Blow......

Kansas City, Missouri is home to Liberty Memorial and The National World War I Museum. The tower and original museum were built in the 1920s, and in 2006 a new and expanded museum opened. We'd tried many times to go but were put off by the crowds. One dreary afternoon this week we finally made it. The tower is over 217 feet tall. On either side are the original exhibit halls. The two stone figures are Sphinxes. "Memory" has wings folded across it's face to hide the horror of war, and "Future" folds it's wings across it's face to symbolize the unseen future. You can see the slope of the lawn going down to the entrance of the new museum. The back of the memorial also has a very impressive frieze.The entrance to the museum is a glass bridge over 9,000 poppies, each one representing 1,000 combatant deaths. Poppies were the first flowers to grow in the battlefields, and the inspiration for the poem "In Flanders Fields" When I was young Poppy Day pins were sold around Memorial Day to honor and remember the sacrifice made by our soldiers. .Of course John was interested in the Howitzers.

WWI machine guns

These were darts dropped by the box full from airplanes. They were weighted so the points faced down and gained velocity on their way to the victims below.

Airplanes were new in WWI, and at first were used only for reconnaissance. One day a pilot threw something at another plane. Soon pilots armed themselves with handguns and the race for air superiority was on. One of the theaters has a "bombed out building" in front and below the screen. The soldiers are walking through what looks like mud. The presentation in this theater was quite impressive. I really had no idea how many men died in trenches or what the term trench warfare really meant. John's grandfather enlisted and went to Europe, but the war ended shortly after his arrival. A WWI tank

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A 1917 Harley Davidson. Absolutely no suspension, but it could run 50 MPH!

. The Americans collected souvenirs. Look how they stuck the stamps right on this Austrian helmet, added a label and mailed it home.

The blue George Washington stamps, issued in1917, cost $ .05 each.