As I write this there are 89 souls who are no longer alive because of tornadoes last night in the Joplin, Missouri area. That number is going to rise. I was safely (?) ensconced in a motel in Branson, some 60 or 70 miles east, but as the storms moved in the direction of Branson, I got to see a little bit of real fear in the eyes of some people. Being a tourist town, a lot of the folks here in Branson are just passing through, and don’t have a clue about what to do, or even as to just how dangerous this weather is. I was in Alabama a month and a half ago when the tornadoes hit there, and I saw some awful things, and was afraid for my own safety then, as I was again last night here in Missouri. The motel owners told everyone here that if we heard the sirens, we were to immediately head downstairs to a special basement room that was ready if we needed it, so that brought a little bit of comfort. I stayed mostly outside with my phone and camera at the ready, but I was prepared to dive downstairs at a split second’s notice. In the end, we got a lot of high winds and rain, and flooding is possible today, May 23, and more bad storms are predicted for the next few days. My walk will continue though, and while I am sure Im going to get wet and will be very miserable at times, I have confidence in my own common sense and I will be as careful and as smart as possible.
I named my blog after a quote from Mark Twain, who called golf “A good walk wasted” and who is one of my favorite writers. Now here I am in his home state, and since I am only a few miles from a wilderness area known as the Mark Twain National Forest, I am going to walk through part of it on my way towards Joplin. I am not heading to Joplin for sensational reasons. It is on my route west and I almost have to pass right through the center of town. I will take pictures and make some notes and post what I see, but it will be a sad task as the death tolls mount. If I can help people there I will, but most likely Ill just try to get through there without interfering with anyone or anything. I’m still several days away, though, so hopefully things will have started to normalize a bit by the time I roll through.
So, I will finally head out of Branson, Missouri. Three days of watching tourists enjoy themselves is enough. Time to go see some Twain trees……
SF, I assume that U know that Janice Joplin was named after Joplin, Mo.
ReplyDeleteU will see that even if the tornado hadn't hit Joplin, it was not what U would call a beautiful town.
In Missouri, I was offered 7 rides in one day going west and 7 rides months later when I was returning east. Very unusual because I usually walked an average of 3 days before I got a ride in other states.
Six of the rides was from cops when I went west and the last ride going into Colorado, the cop drove about 35 miles into Colorado out of his district to hear about Christ from me.
Ain't that WEIRD?