I was away for a week on a trip that I wanted to be purposely spontaneous. Does that make sense? We had a destination—my brother’s house in Des Moines—but we wanted to be able to stop and explore whatever struck our interest.

The first day out, we drove north from Arkansas and were barely into Missouri when the sign off the Interstate read “Joplin”. We’d watched the newscasts of the aftermath of the powerful tornado that hit there and wondered just how bad it really was.

It was worse than we’d imagined.

Pigs flew. Don’t know why this struck me as wrong, but the only sign of damage at this restaurant was to…well…the sign!

Home Depot had their act together. Their entire store had been flattened, but they’d already had the wreckage pushed to one side of their huge lot and erected this large tent to provide building supplies for the area.


I guess Walmart’s taking their time with the insurance adjusters.

I hope no one was inside this car when the tornado hit.

This neighborhood was obliterated.

I stood in one spot and turned 360-degrees. This is what the entire area looked like.

Why did one house’s shell remain when so many others were laid to waste?

I don’t know how more people weren’t killed.

This looks like the aftermath of a huge explosion, minus the scorching.

The sign read: “God Knows. God Cares. And he has already worked it out.”

We weren’t there long. I felt like a rubbernecker at an accident. Ashamed by my fascination. We moved along and found a hotel for the evening. I’ll be back with more pics of happier sights.