I’m back! I have been on vacation with my wife, visiting family in Missouri for the first time in years. You would know this, if the post I wrote warning you of my absence had shown up as scheduled. Oops. Well, at least you have me back now, right?
The trip was good. We drove (nineteen hours from Maryland to Missouri…), two days each way. Four days for visiting in the middle. We saw my parents and (local) siblings, and spent a lot of time just driving around Joplin seeing what had changed and what hadn’t. The tornado last year is still very evident — central Joplin is a wasteland, though with most of the debris removed it looks more desolate than destroyed.
New construction is going up. My parents say its impossible to find contractors to work small jobs because they are all booked full just building new houses to replace the thousands that were destroyed.
We took some photos while we were there, which will probably be posted when I ever get around to going through them. In the meantime, expect 20 Questions to resume on Monday!