On Our Way Home

Aaron had to fly from Kansas City to go on a business trip leaving Este and I to make the eight hour drive home. Este drove the whole way. I was the navigator and I am so grateful for modern technology. The GPS was amazing not just for navigation but also to monitor the weather (We drove through a major thunderstorm.)

Our drive home took us directly through Moore, Oklahoma. On May 20, 2013 an F5 tornado (the most powerful rating) ripped through the town demolishing two schools and hundreds of homes. Twenty-four people were killed including nine children.

As we drove through Moore, I commented to the kids about how "normal" everything looked. As soon as I said those words we saw this.

It was hard to grab my phone and snap a photo as we were traveling at 70 m.p.h. down the interstate.

The remains of a billboard are on the left of the photo.  If you look closely you can see a man walking in front of the debris. That shows how high the debris is piled up. On the right of the photo you can see the "remains"  of a shopping center. The houses directly across the interstate were also heavily damaged. The movie theater next to the shopping center appeared to be unscathed.

We also saw churches being used as emergency shelters. Their parking lots were full.

We saw areas where there were mobile trailers set up for various home owner insurances.

We saw semis full of food and supplies and other various disaster relief.

We saw dump trucks full of debris. There were lots of dump trucks and even more debris. The work won't end for months and months.

Then, a few minutes later, everything was back right to "normal"

We were grateful to arrive home safely. It is always so nice to be home and sleep in our own beds. The memories we made were so worth it. The opportunity to visualize church history and to imagine the experiences of our ancestors. The feelings that we felt and things that we learned were amazing. Then, to top it all off, our ride home reminded us how nice it is to have a house to come home to. Sometimes you have to get away to appreciate all that you have right in front of you all along.