August 17, Wednesday: DAY 24 - Tulsa OK to Joplin MO

Surprise! I'm back. Jim was seeming a bit homesick, I had an unexpected break from work (sort of), and I heard they had some amateur driving the motorhome . So I shelled out some serious cash, hopped on a tiny plane and headed to Tulsa OK to catch up with the Ride. I got a resounding "what the f*#$" from Jimmy when I got in the room; not the reaction I was expecting but he came around.

We got up about 2 hours later, 0430 Tulsa time, and miraculously were on the road by about 0530. We had plans to meet up with the fire dept in Joplin around 1200, which actually ended up being about 1300, but as we came over that ridge and I saw the gash the tornado had ripped into this town, and it was really hard to choke back tears. And then you come over another ridge and you see the hospital, with one side completely blown out and all the windows gone, and you think, my god, how did they get all those people out. And you're sharing a fire station with the guys who did it. Amazing.

Not ever having had to survive in a place where tornadoes are common (I'll take earthquakes, thanks. They're much less frequent) I can only try to imagine what it's like. As we sat and talked with Joplin FD at Station 1 where we bedded down for the night, they told us about losing two of their stations when the F5 monster ripped through town, as well as not even recognizing the streets in their own town because all the buildings were gone. One of the guys, Shannon, said you didn't know what you were gonna find on the next corner. A house in the middle of the street? A woman holding her unattached arm? To call it a tragedy and a disaster doesn't evn begin to scratch the surface of what this community experienced and is still going through.

And yet they opened their doors to us. They met us outside of town and wanted their picture taken with us. They wanted to feed us (more on that in a minute). Their city is still more than just partially leveled and they want to know what they can do for us. Unbelievable.

As far as dinner, let me tell you we had a feast. Bonnie, Adam Loeser's amazing mom made us a spread like you wouldn't believe, with plenty of vegetarian options for Hambly. The effort she went through to make all that food for us, and then to drive it out to Joplin from Tulsa, it was fantastic! And we shared with our hosts as well (the cheesecake was a big hit).

I'll try and post the video I took from my bike with Mike's GoPro on the blog. 

see the video here:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RMfJQsEfM4g