This post was originally going to be about the second half of our return to our house in St. Joseph, MO. But we did so much fun stuff, I’m splitting the second half into two posts.
MAY
Early in the month, Don, Scott, Bobby, and I played in a golf tournament at the Fairview Golf Course. We played respectably but did not finish in the top ten.
A few days later, Cindy and I tried hiking at the River Bluff Trails Park. This is a park that has both hiking and off-road bicycle trails. The bike trails were no joke so we will definitely stick to the hiking trails.
If you are a serious mountain biker, or just looking for some interesting hiking trails, you should check this park out. Use the link below and strap on your hiking boots. After hiking, we had lunch at the B & B Runway Cafe at Rosecrans Memorial Airport. The Airport is a large general aviation / military joint-use airport located 3 miles northwest of St. Joseph and 35 miles north of Kansas City. The cafe had just been remodeled and was brand new. It is open for breakfast and lunch and is in the building with the current control tower.
The new control tower was being built behind the cafe and current control tower.
The cafe is next to a runway and provided an excellent view. There were a few C130’s parked near the cafe on our visit.
Besides the excellent view, the service was outstanding and the food was pretty good too. We both had the BBQ Pork Taco special.
The whole package made this a must visit, so use the link below to get your airplane and grub fix. The next evening, Scott, Heather, Machelle, Bobby, and I went to the Den for trivia night. Only four teams played and we managed to finish third. Here was our prize.
Our first trivia award! The next night there was a live band downtown. This prompted Don, Marie, Scott, Heather, Bobby, Machelle, Cindy, and I to eat dinner on the patio at Felix Street Gourmet.
A few days later, a nasty storm blew in. In the early evening, a Tornado Watch was issued. That meant tornados were possible in the area, but none had been reported or seen on radar. I went outside to check the weather and the clouds in the sky were boiling.
That is an indicator of severe weather and was not a good sign. Our safe spot in our house was an interior half bathroom since we did not have a basement. Here it is ready to go in case of a tornado. And yes, those are bike helmets in case we needed them.
At 8:36pm, the sirens on our phone sounded and we received a Tornado Warning. That meant a tornado was either seen on radar or seen on the ground. We went into our safe place and put our helmets on.
At the same time our phones were issuing the tornado warning, the outside Tornado Siren started to wail. I checked my weather app and saw there was a tornado indicated about 10 miles southwest of us heading in our direction.
The actual weather around the tornado didn’t look that bad, so we were hoping it was a radar indicated tornado and had not touched down. After a few minutes, the outside siren went off, and the tornado symbol disappeared from the radar. We breathed a sigh of relief. But it was short lived. At 8:43pm, the outside sirens sounded again, and the tornado symbol reappeared on the weather app, only this time, it was about 7 miles southwest of us. It was now on target to barely miss us and hit Scott and Heather’s house instead. It was also in an area of really bad weather, so it was probably a tornado on the ground this time. We texted Scott and Heather to warn them and returned to our half bathroom shelter and our helmets.
After a very long minute, the outside siren went off again, and the tornado symbol disappeared from the radar. We remained in our half bathroom hiding spot hoping for the best. A minute later, 8:45pm to be exact, the outside sirens sounded for a third time and the tornado symbol reappeared on the weather map. This time, it was about 4 miles southwest of us and was on track to go between us and Scott and Heather, assuming it didn’t change course again. It was still in a really bad weather area, so it could be on the ground.
This time the siren stayed on for a few minutes before going off for good. We checked on Scott and Heather and they were safe, but had a tree down in their yard that just missed their house and carriage house.
The next day the weather service confirmed an EF0 tornado had been down near us. An EF0 tornado typically has wind speeds of 65-85 mph. It is the lowest intensity on the Enhanced Fujita scale. More than half of all reported tornados are classified as EF0. Damage from an EF0 tornado is typically light, causing minor damage to trees and signs, and some damage to roofs. The news reported the tornado had not made it to our or Scott and Heather’s neighborhood, but when I went to their house to help Scott with the downed tree, there was enough damage at their house and some of their neighbors’ houses to make me believe the tornado had come through their neighborhood. Here is some of the damage in their yard.
And here is the large tree that split and half of it came down in the driveway between the house and the carriage house.
After several hours of going at the tree with chainsaws, we were able to reduce it to this.
This storm, and our lack of a basement, really got our attention. But more on that in a future post. A week later, the whole gang was back at the Den for their monthly “New Drink Tasting.”
They had mini charcuterie snacks to enjoy before the tasting.
And an interesting lineup of new drinks.
As usual, there were some really good ones and a few that were not for me. The first two were not for me.
The Cody to Go was pretty good and I was not a fan of the By the Gin of My Teeth.
I really like these two.
The Den is always link worthy. Check it out on my Blog Links page. At the end of the month, Scott was able to get he and I tickets to a KC Royals game. They played the Detroit Tigers and unfortunately, lost 7-5.
After the game, they had a firework show.
JUNE
June started off with the whole gang going to the Kansas City Zoo and Aquarium.
As you can guess, there were a lot of animals. Here is a sea otter.
Some monkeys.
Birds.
A sloth.
Some napping kangaroos.
The hippos were popular.
So popular, Machelle and Bobby had to ride some.
They even had some dinosaur displays.
We ran out of time, so we did not visit the aquarium part of the zoo. Overall, it is a nice zoo. Not quite link worthy, but a nice zoo worth visiting when in Kansas City. About a week later, Don and Marie invited the gang to go to Don’s nephew’s lake house on Lake Viking. It was their yearly get together with live music. The front of the house looked like a small house, but it was deceptive.
It was built into the side of a hill, very close to the water.
The back side showed how big the house really was.
There was a concrete area behind the house where a singer played for a few hours.
We all had a great time. On the way home, there was a beautiful sunset.
The next week we all went to the city’s “Party on the Parkway.” These are events the city hosts at different parks along the parkway (a series of bicycle and walking trails). The event is held once a month during the summer and there are vendors and a live band. They are very popular.
We all had a great time and will definitely do it again.
That concludes this post. Stay tuned for the final installment of our return to St. Joseph. Until then, feel free to party away on the parkway!
LINKS
