The Journey to Joplin

One weird quirk about the Shaffers: if we're on a vacation, being "near" something suddenly takes on a different perspective. If I'm at home and need to go to a store that's across town, I'm pretty likely NOT to go, because it's alllllllllllllllllll the way across town. That's like fifteen minutes! But we've been known to venture two hours off course on vacation to see someone just because we are near them.

So that's how we ended up leaving my sisters' house to travel to Joplin, Missouri. It's about a five hour drive (that gave new meaning to boring, by the way), but it was totally worth it! In the last couple of years, both couples from our wedding party moved to Joplin. WHAT?! How does that even happen? We wanted to see them, so we made plans to go. We were sad that Sara (the wife of Ryan's best man) ended up being out of town for a work conference, so she wasn't there with us, but the rest of us planned to get together! More on the whole trip in a moment, but let me give you the group shot. (I really should have done better on this picture. I hit a panic mode of not wanting to Bekahrazzi our friends to death and now I regret it.)

ANYWAY!!!

So we left my sister's house and began our pilgrimage to Joplin. I know Kansas can be kind of a desolate area in parts, but this was the least populated part I'd seen so far! Lots of this for miles:

(Ryan and I couldn't get over how brown their corn was already! It was still 3/4 way through July. At home, the corn was still really green, but out there it looked like fall already. Sure didn't feel like fall, though.)

We made the best of the trip, despite the lack of towns/places to stop/things to see:

When it was time to start thinking about lunch options, we checked the GPS for places coming soon. "Soon."

And that is how we ended up eating in a Subway inside a Wal-Mart.

As we made our way toward Joplin, with a better idea of what time we would actually arrive, we realized we were going to be there before any of our friends were off work. Lynnette had suggested we go see the scenic point where Oklahoma, Kansas, and Missouri converge in one nice, neat little point, and I thought that sounded VERY Shaffery, so we hunted for an address. I found one, but when I tried to enter it, our GPS would not take the numbers. Said they didn't exist. SO I put in the closest numbers it would take and that's how we ended up somewhere in the middle of nowhere, on a gravel road....at a dead end.

Time to start over.

We sat like this on the side of the road for the longest time, eating up precious data, trying to find a valid address. For an attraction, it sure didn't want to be found!

FINALLY, Ryan found an address the GPS approved of, and we got back on a real road toward this marker. On the way, Lynnette called and noted for us that the marker is actually found just inside the entrance to a casino, down a gravel road with only a tiny sign to let you know you're in the right place. BLESS HER. We may never have found it otherwise. I didn't take a picture of the sign at the gravel road because the security guard for the casino was parked under it and I didn't want to ruffle him, but I am convinced it was painted on an old ruler. I'm not kidding. Smallest sign ever.

We drove down the lane and found it!

Or wait. Was it this?

Apparently they decided the original marker (the rocket-ship twin) was actually in the wrong spot, so they redid it. We did pictures with both just to be safe:

After we made our way back into Joplin, following this adventure, we met up with Lynnette, who took us shopping around town. We went to her favorite used bookstore (DELIGHTFUL):

Visited a couple of boutiques and a really cool old hardware store that had just about everything ever invented. Ryan and I found the coolest treasure there. Never seen one of these before. It's a folding bistro table. You know - like the folding lawn chairs everyone carts to games and such? That! Except a table and chairs.

Yeah I had to have that. Too cute to pass up.

Joplin is also on Route 66, so we found a couple of fun murals for the scrapbook:

THEN we had pizza with our friends. They took us to one of their favorite local places, and it was indeed delish.

 Next door? Their favorite coffee shop. So of course we went there. I noticed on the menu that they had a drink called the Marilyn. They also had The Skinny Marilyn. So in honor of my mother, I got The Skinny Marilyn. :)

After we parted ways, Ryan and I went to Adam's house (his best man) to stay the night there. Adam and Sara have a big basement that their families use when they visit from out of town, so it was spacious, comfortable, and a lovely blessing in our lodging adventures. :)

Thanks for a great tour of town, friends! We love and miss you!