This is the rest of our six week trip to our house in St. Joseph, Missouri.
Week 4
Week four started off with a bang. We went to taco Tuesday with the Culver’s at San Jose Steakhouse and Mexican Food for the taco specials. After having our fill of tacos, we all headed to our respected abodes as bad weather was forecast for the evening. And the forecast just kept getting worse.
As bad as all of that looks, we were most concerned with the tornado warning that came with our phones making the emergency alert sound. A tornado warning means rotation has been seen on radar, but no tornados have been seen on the ground by an eyewitness. So one could be in the clouds and not on the ground, or one could actually be on the ground and not spotted yet. I had to calm Cindy and keep her from rushing into our tornado shelter with the dog, which is nothing more than our downstairs half bath in the center of our house.
Here we are in the “tornado shelter.” I’m standing to the left with the grey black and white striped PJs, the dog is obviously in the middle quite confused, and Cindy is seated on the toilet seat with the pink and roses PJs.
I finally got Cindy calmed down when I explained there had not been a tornado in St. Joseph in over 12 years and if there really was a tornado anywhere near us, the sirens would be sounding. With no sirens, we were obviously safe. Famous last words. Within a minute, the sirens went off.
Unbeknownst to us, a tornado was in fact on the ground about 5 miles away from us and it took the roof off of a department store at the mall and damaged one house. So Cindy, the dog and I all crowded into the “tornado shelter” to wait until the siren stopped. I checked the local radar for our area and it looked pretty bad.
Then we got the worse news. This is an actual screen shot from my phone that I have not altered in any way.
Yes, we had been hit by that funny shaped storm, the worse kind. Then, as we cowered in our bathroom, there was an explosion so loud it shook our house. For a split second, we both believed we were being hit by a tornado. Instead, our neighbor’s house two houses away from us had been hit by lightening. The blast knocked out our internet and we had to have the equipment replaced the next day. But we were lucky. The neighbor that was struck lost a lot more electronic equipment. Here is the house that was hit by the tornado.
So that was a pretty exciting evening.
Later in the week, we had the Culvers over for some wine tasting, charcuterie, and cheese eating. Part of the cheese selection was a Missouri special cheese called Provel. Provel is a combination of American cheese, swiss, and provolone. It has a unique flavor that is hard to describe, but you can taste parts of each type of cheese. I liked it and Cindy did not.
At the end of the week, I installed a B Hyve smart sprinkler control at our house so we can control the sprinklers from wherever we are. It went pretty well.
Week 5
The week started with a visit to the house of Scott’s parents, Nancy and Denby. They live just north of Kansas City very close to the Kansas City airport. Nancy made a delicious lunch of grilled cheese with ham sandwiches. We had a great time hanging out with them. The next day we went shopping for outdoor furniture with the Culvers. Here is what we bought. Two metal chairs, a metal table, and the fake green ball plant in the picture on the left.
Now we finally had some porch furniture. On Thursday, we went to Prysten’s Wine Bar with the Culvers. Usually, Thursday night is trivia night, where Cindy can win us wine. Due to lack of interest, they changed it to Bingo night and were packed. We played a few games and didn’t win anything, kissing our money goodbye, so to say.
On Friday night, we went to the historic Missouri Theatre with the Culvers to see the band Kansas. I was afraid seeing the band Kansas in Missouri may cause a rift in the time space continuum. Luckily, it did not.
Even though the band members have aged quite a bit, they still put on an outstanding show.
The lead guitarist had an eye patch. The rumor was he had lost his eye at the battle of Gettysburg, but that may not be completely true. Either way, he still played a mean guitar.
On Saturday, we went wine and whiskey tasting with the Culvers at the Riverwood Winery, located just outside of Weston, Missouri.
The wines were okay, but the whiskey was really good.
Week 6
This was our final week and our drive home. We relaxed a bit in front of the fire.
We did some cleaning and got ready to button up the house for a visit in a few weeks by our friends the Burdicks, who were going to stay at the house for a few days on a trip they were taking though the area. We left for home on a Tuesday with the goal of making it home by Wednesday night. The weather was supposed to be warm on the way home, but once again, we were in for a surprise. The drive to Albuquerque, New Mexico was very cold, which made my decision to wear shorts a cold one. Luckily, the heater in the truck works great. In Albuquerque, Thea once again got her own bed and this time I got a picture.
This darn dog lives better than most humans do.
The drive through New Mexico was a very cold one, 21 degrees with a wind chill of 12 degrees. That is so cold it freezes the windshield wiper cleaner fluid at gas stations.
Once again, I was in shorts and very cold. It did warm up by the time we got to California, so the shorts worked at the end of the trip. We made it home safely Wednesday night and all was good.
Our next trips are a three day trip to Temecula to do some wine tasting with our friends the Webers, and a four day trip to Carmel/Monterey Bay for our 30 year anniversary.