Monday, May 21
The main objectives for today included a doctor’s appointment for Jim, wash the clothes, and laundry…those chores were completed; but it took almost all day to do them. After visiting with Dr. Kaminski, Jim took Big V to the truck wash to knock off about a ton of road grime that had accumulated since we left Artesia. Also, he had to work on the trailer wiring to get the lights working properly.
We enjoyed a short visit with Ryan and Leah as well as a rather quick dinner with Charlene and Danny that night. It seems as though the hours in Liberal fly by without us accomplishing all the visiting that we want to do!
Tuesday, May 22
Definitely a travel day as we head towards El Paso, Texas, where Jim will audition for Wheel of Fortune.
Wednesday, May 23
We had time for a short visit with my sister Carol and brother-in-law Cal before we continued the journey to El Paso.
We arrived at the Camino Real Hotel in downtown El Paso
2 hours early since the trek 
downtown didn’t take nearly as long as we feared.
Jim: Once at the hotel, we scouted out the place to see where I would need to be for the audition. Fortunately, the directions were good and we were able to follow them pretty easily.
While we were waiting, we visited with a man who had attended the earlier audition. He said that it was pretty intense – a room full of very good puzzle solvers. He and his wife were both former teachers, so we had a lot to talk about.
About 1:40 they started letting the contestants enter the room. There were sixty of us in the session, and they would narrow the pool down to 15 after about an hour of competition. After filling out some paperwork and receiving some brief instructions, the games began.
For nearly thirty minutes we played simulated Wheel of Fortune games from all of the different categories – Before and After, Titles, Persons, On the Map, etc. There was literally no break between the games…nor any time for anyone to get a breath and think about what was going on. One of the auditioners would spin the “wheel,” manipulating it to hit different amounts or the Bankrupt and Lose a Turn sections. The other person was calling out names of the contestants and watching for reactions. Each person in the room got at least one chance to call a letter. After that, they evidently had the filed narrowed down and asked only selected persons to respond.
After playing the games, we took a 5-minute written test consisting of 20 puzzles from four different categories. We were given one or two letters and had to fill in the blanks. This was the most difficult part of the audition, since there was no one to play off of…each person was totally responsible for figuring out all of the letters in each puzzle. I did ok with On the Map responses, but not so well in a couple of the other sections.
Following the written test we took a short break while the auditioners graded the written tests and evaluated the responses and reactions from the earlier games. Then, it was back into the room for the moment of truth. We were told that only 15 people would be selected from the group and that there were no guarantees that any of the fifteen would be selected to actually appear on the show. One of the considerations for being selected was the profile of each contestant (gender, age, race, area of the country represented, etc.). There is already a large pool of contestants who may be selected to be on the show, and the job of the auditioners was to keep a balance of profiles between those who have already advanced, and those who are trying to do so. That being said, they then called out fifteen names for continued game-playing and sent the rest of us on our separate ways.
It was an extremely intense session…maybe one of the most difficult “tests” I been through, and while I was disappointed that I wasn’t one of the final fifteen, I was pleased that I was one 120 selected from the original 7,200 who tried out in Ruidoso about a month ago. Would I do it again? I think the answer is a qualified yes…depending on circumstances (time, travel involved, etc.). It was a fun experience…one that I was both glad to have done, and glad to have behind me.
Following the audition we got the car out of the garage and joined the El Paso traffic as we headed out of town, hoping to put as many miles as possible between the city and us before we couldn’t drive any farther.
We did make a short stop in Alamogordo to meet with Barbara’s niece, Lynette, who is manager of the area Subway stores. With fresh Subway sandwiches in hand, we then continued our journey north and east on U.S. 54, deciding along the way that we would stop in Tucumcari for the night, rather than trying to pull an “all-nighter.”
And so, we got to Tucumcari around 9:30 pm, wrung out from the long trip, and ready for a good night’s rest before continuing the trip to Liberal to pick up Big V.
Thursday, May 24
We left Tucumcari around 7:30 (KS time); arrived at Charlene’s where we had left Big V at 11:30. By 12:30 we were on our way to Emporia where we decided we would spend the night since it would be an easy hour and a half drive the next day to Olathe.
Our planned route for the afternoon would take us up U.S. 54 to Greensburg, Kansas, a community that just three weeks ago suffered a catastrophic tornado. We had all seen pictures of the town after the storm, but most people cannot go there to experience the devastation, since the highway is closed from both ends of the community, and no one is allowed in unless they are working with the cleanup or are sponsored by someone who has clearance.
We had talked with Darin Headrick, the superintendent of the school district a week or so ago. Darin had been Barbara’s principal at West Middle School, and he and I had worked together at both the high school and the middle school. When we told him that we were going to be in the area soon, Darin invited us to come to Greensburg for a first-hand look at what had happened there.
We made arrangements to drive to the Greensburg city limits, at which point Daring would meet us in his vehicle and take us on into town. He said to not worry about the safety of Big V and the trailer, since Kansas State Troopers were watching the parking lot.
After giving Darin a brief tour of Big V, we got into his pickup and headed into town. As he was driving, he said, “You’ve seen the pictures of the destruction; now you can see the destruction.” And how very right he was…Even though we had seen many pictures of what had happened there that Friday night, nothing prepared us for the scenes all around us. It was, literally, a 360 degree panorama of total destruction. Darin told us that 95 per cent of the community was destroyed; the other 5 per cent was heavily damaged.
Houses were lifted completely off their foundations and blown away.
Trees were ripped apart and the bark was stripped off of the trunks. More than 1,500 vehicles were completely destroyed. One of the first places we saw was the John Deere implement building. The lot was full of combines, each valued at $250,000, that had been greatly damaged or totally destroyed.
Familiar landmarks are all gone; there is no point of reference for a person standing somewhere in the town. Street signs are missing; the water tower is crumpled up on the ground beside the
big well. The third story of the high
school building is gone and the first two stories are destroyed and crumbling. A beautiful old red brick church that has for several years housed an antique shop is now nothing but a pile of rubble.
Sections of 2 X 4 boards are stuck through walls…strips of steel are wrapped around remaining tree branches. And, in the midst of the
destruction at the elementary school, a shelf of books remains perfectly in place, even though everything around it has been blown away.
Darin said that he had been working in his office that night. When the warning was sounded, he decided to go to the home of his high school principal and seek shelter in the basement. As the storm got closer, the lights started flickering, so they lit some candles. He said that it took less than 15 seconds for the tornado to completely destroy the house. He said it wasn’t just damaged…it wasn’t just moved around…it was gone, as were the other six houses in the subdivision. Luckily, no one in his neighborhood was missing or killed, but that wasn’t the story through the rest of the town. Still, it remains a miracle that, considering the size and force of the tornado and the extent of damage and destruction, only 7 persons lost their lives, none of them under the age of 48.
Familiar sights about the town now include police and fire department officers from all around the state who are temporarily deployed to assist in patrolling the community and maintaining security. There is a state of the art military hospital set up along Highway 54, and a Kansas National Guard unit bivouacked on the football field. Perhaps the most amazing sight is the steady stream of dump trucks hauling away debris. There are currently over 2,000 truck loads of debris being carried away each day!
2 hours early since the trek 
downtown didn’t take nearly as long as we feared.Jim: Once at the hotel, we scouted out the place to see where I would need to be for the audition. Fortunately, the directions were good and we were able to follow them pretty easily.
While we were waiting, we visited with a man who had attended the earlier audition. He said that it was pretty intense – a room full of very good puzzle solvers. He and his wife were both former teachers, so we had a lot to talk about.
About 1:40 they started letting the contestants enter the room. There were sixty of us in the session, and they would narrow the pool down to 15 after about an hour of competition. After filling out some paperwork and receiving some brief instructions, the games began.
For nearly thirty minutes we played simulated Wheel of Fortune games from all of the different categories – Before and After, Titles, Persons, On the Map, etc. There was literally no break between the games…nor any time for anyone to get a breath and think about what was going on. One of the auditioners would spin the “wheel,” manipulating it to hit different amounts or the Bankrupt and Lose a Turn sections. The other person was calling out names of the contestants and watching for reactions. Each person in the room got at least one chance to call a letter. After that, they evidently had the filed narrowed down and asked only selected persons to respond.
After playing the games, we took a 5-minute written test consisting of 20 puzzles from four different categories. We were given one or two letters and had to fill in the blanks. This was the most difficult part of the audition, since there was no one to play off of…each person was totally responsible for figuring out all of the letters in each puzzle. I did ok with On the Map responses, but not so well in a couple of the other sections.
Following the written test we took a short break while the auditioners graded the written tests and evaluated the responses and reactions from the earlier games. Then, it was back into the room for the moment of truth. We were told that only 15 people would be selected from the group and that there were no guarantees that any of the fifteen would be selected to actually appear on the show. One of the considerations for being selected was the profile of each contestant (gender, age, race, area of the country represented, etc.). There is already a large pool of contestants who may be selected to be on the show, and the job of the auditioners was to keep a balance of profiles between those who have already advanced, and those who are trying to do so. That being said, they then called out fifteen names for continued game-playing and sent the rest of us on our separate ways.
It was an extremely intense session…maybe one of the most difficult “tests” I been through, and while I was disappointed that I wasn’t one of the final fifteen, I was pleased that I was one 120 selected from the original 7,200 who tried out in Ruidoso about a month ago. Would I do it again? I think the answer is a qualified yes…depending on circumstances (time, travel involved, etc.). It was a fun experience…one that I was both glad to have done, and glad to have behind me.
Following the audition we got the car out of the garage and joined the El Paso traffic as we headed out of town, hoping to put as many miles as possible between the city and us before we couldn’t drive any farther.
We did make a short stop in Alamogordo to meet with Barbara’s niece, Lynette, who is manager of the area Subway stores. With fresh Subway sandwiches in hand, we then continued our journey north and east on U.S. 54, deciding along the way that we would stop in Tucumcari for the night, rather than trying to pull an “all-nighter.”
And so, we got to Tucumcari around 9:30 pm, wrung out from the long trip, and ready for a good night’s rest before continuing the trip to Liberal to pick up Big V.
Thursday, May 24
We left Tucumcari around 7:30 (KS time); arrived at Charlene’s where we had left Big V at 11:30. By 12:30 we were on our way to Emporia where we decided we would spend the night since it would be an easy hour and a half drive the next day to Olathe.
Our planned route for the afternoon would take us up U.S. 54 to Greensburg, Kansas, a community that just three weeks ago suffered a catastrophic tornado. We had all seen pictures of the town after the storm, but most people cannot go there to experience the devastation, since the highway is closed from both ends of the community, and no one is allowed in unless they are working with the cleanup or are sponsored by someone who has clearance.
We had talked with Darin Headrick, the superintendent of the school district a week or so ago. Darin had been Barbara’s principal at West Middle School, and he and I had worked together at both the high school and the middle school. When we told him that we were going to be in the area soon, Darin invited us to come to Greensburg for a first-hand look at what had happened there.
We made arrangements to drive to the Greensburg city limits, at which point Daring would meet us in his vehicle and take us on into town. He said to not worry about the safety of Big V and the trailer, since Kansas State Troopers were watching the parking lot.
After giving Darin a brief tour of Big V, we got into his pickup and headed into town. As he was driving, he said, “You’ve seen the pictures of the destruction; now you can see the destruction.” And how very right he was…Even though we had seen many pictures of what had happened there that Friday night, nothing prepared us for the scenes all around us. It was, literally, a 360 degree panorama of total destruction. Darin told us that 95 per cent of the community was destroyed; the other 5 per cent was heavily damaged.Houses were lifted completely off their foundations and blown away.
Trees were ripped apart and the bark was stripped off of the trunks. More than 1,500 vehicles were completely destroyed. One of the first places we saw was the John Deere implement building. The lot was full of combines, each valued at $250,000, that had been greatly damaged or totally destroyed.Familiar landmarks are all gone; there is no point of reference for a person standing somewhere in the town. Street signs are missing; the water tower is crumpled up on the ground beside the
big well. The third story of the high
school building is gone and the first two stories are destroyed and crumbling. A beautiful old red brick church that has for several years housed an antique shop is now nothing but a pile of rubble.Sections of 2 X 4 boards are stuck through walls…strips of steel are wrapped around remaining tree branches. And, in the midst of the
destruction at the elementary school, a shelf of books remains perfectly in place, even though everything around it has been blown away.Darin said that he had been working in his office that night. When the warning was sounded, he decided to go to the home of his high school principal and seek shelter in the basement. As the storm got closer, the lights started flickering, so they lit some candles. He said that it took less than 15 seconds for the tornado to completely destroy the house. He said it wasn’t just damaged…it wasn’t just moved around…it was gone, as were the other six houses in the subdivision. Luckily, no one in his neighborhood was missing or killed, but that wasn’t the story through the rest of the town. Still, it remains a miracle that, considering the size and force of the tornado and the extent of damage and destruction, only 7 persons lost their lives, none of them under the age of 48.
Familiar sights about the town now include police and fire department officers from all around the state who are temporarily deployed to assist in patrolling the community and maintaining security. There is a state of the art military hospital set up along Highway 54, and a Kansas National Guard unit bivouacked on the football field. Perhaps the most amazing sight is the steady stream of dump trucks hauling away debris. There are currently over 2,000 truck loads of debris being carried away each day!
Still, even with so many working diligently to clean up the mess, (photo on right shows volunteers gathering debris in a vacant lot) plans are moving ahead to rebuild the town. 53 of 54 businessmen have committed to starting over; plans are underway to have a temporary K-12 school up and running by the scheduled first day of school for 2007 – 08. A new building is already under construct
ion for the local grain elevator. “Experts” have declared that it will never be economically feasible to rebuild the community, but they evidently don’t understand the dynamics of small towns in the heartland of the country. Greensburg is home to so many folks, and they aren’t about to give up their home…just make it better than ever.
After about an hour, it was time for us to get back to Big V and get around the town by following the directions Darin had given us.
We would have loved to stay and visit, but Darin is extremely busy, handling countless telephone calls and attending meetings. As we left, we could only comment that words and pictures are inadequate to the task of letting others know what happened in Greensburg that night, but words and pictures are all that we have, so that is what we share with you in this writing.
With Greensburg in our rear view mirror, we headed east on U.S. 54 through Wichita and on to Emporia where we gave a long drink to a very thirsty Big V and settled in for the night at the Flying J truck center, one of our favorite “homes away from home.”
Friday, May 25
Today was a combination “travel day” and “hurry up and wait day.” We got up at 6:30 and made our preparations to drive from Emporia to Gardner to have the motor home doctors check Big V into the emergency room. We were on the road by 7:30 am and at the gates of Olathe Ford and RV by shortly after 9:00.
With their usual friendliness and professionalism, Bob K and his crew started checking out our concerns and making arrangements to fix the problems. We had fully expected that the most they could do was check some warranty concerns and send us on our way while they ordered parts from Winnebago, but they were able to handle nearly everything right there in the lot, even going so far as to dismantle a taillight assembly and replace a faulty light bulb…something that wasn’t under warranty, but was handled as a courtesy. What a crew! Our only regret about Olathe Ford and RV is that we didn’t buy Big V from them. They have been more than wonderful in taking care of all of our warranty concerns.
With all of the work completed and the paperwork signed, we left the lot in search of a place to spend the night. What we soon discovered was that there is a definite scarcity of RV parks in the Kansas City area, and the few they do have were already booked for the Memorial Day weekend, something we hadn’t thought of when we planned to spend the night there.
Not giving up, we found a listing for an RV park at Worlds of Fun and Oceans of Fun on the northeast side of the city. Skeptic that I am, I said that there was no way they would have space available, but Barbara called anyway and quickly had a space reserved for us…plenty of space for Big V and the trailer, full hookups, and free internet service…life is good!
Once in place we called Whitney and Jim to see if they would mind driving across the city Saturday morning to join us for a home cooked breakfast and a visit. They quickly agreed, so we set about making Big V presentable for company before calling it a night…then decided that we really didn’t want to travel again tomorrow, so we made arrangements at the park office to stay over until Sunday morning.
Saturday, May 26
Wow…What a great day! We got up around 7:30 and finished straightening Big V, and then took some clothes over to the laundry room to do a few loads of wash. I was busy starting breakfast (bacon, eggs, and French toast) when Jim, Whitney, and Little Jim arrived for a visit about 10:15.
We spent the next couple of hours talking,
playing with Little Jimmy, and eating, a perfect way to spend a lazy Saturday morning. Too soon, the kids had to leave and get on with their other activities for the weekend (they had a family gathering to celebrate Jim’s 
sister’s birthday today), and we did dishes, went out for a while, and then returned to watch TV, get caught up on the journal, and generally kick back for the evening.
Rested and relaxed in Kansas City, Missouri,
Jim & Barbara
“Daily blessings are daily reminders of God.”… Sign at a business in Alamogordo, NM
ion for the local grain elevator. “Experts” have declared that it will never be economically feasible to rebuild the community, but they evidently don’t understand the dynamics of small towns in the heartland of the country. Greensburg is home to so many folks, and they aren’t about to give up their home…just make it better than ever.After about an hour, it was time for us to get back to Big V and get around the town by following the directions Darin had given us.
We would have loved to stay and visit, but Darin is extremely busy, handling countless telephone calls and attending meetings. As we left, we could only comment that words and pictures are inadequate to the task of letting others know what happened in Greensburg that night, but words and pictures are all that we have, so that is what we share with you in this writing.With Greensburg in our rear view mirror, we headed east on U.S. 54 through Wichita and on to Emporia where we gave a long drink to a very thirsty Big V and settled in for the night at the Flying J truck center, one of our favorite “homes away from home.”
Friday, May 25
Today was a combination “travel day” and “hurry up and wait day.” We got up at 6:30 and made our preparations to drive from Emporia to Gardner to have the motor home doctors check Big V into the emergency room. We were on the road by 7:30 am and at the gates of Olathe Ford and RV by shortly after 9:00.
With their usual friendliness and professionalism, Bob K and his crew started checking out our concerns and making arrangements to fix the problems. We had fully expected that the most they could do was check some warranty concerns and send us on our way while they ordered parts from Winnebago, but they were able to handle nearly everything right there in the lot, even going so far as to dismantle a taillight assembly and replace a faulty light bulb…something that wasn’t under warranty, but was handled as a courtesy. What a crew! Our only regret about Olathe Ford and RV is that we didn’t buy Big V from them. They have been more than wonderful in taking care of all of our warranty concerns.
With all of the work completed and the paperwork signed, we left the lot in search of a place to spend the night. What we soon discovered was that there is a definite scarcity of RV parks in the Kansas City area, and the few they do have were already booked for the Memorial Day weekend, something we hadn’t thought of when we planned to spend the night there.
Not giving up, we found a listing for an RV park at Worlds of Fun and Oceans of Fun on the northeast side of the city. Skeptic that I am, I said that there was no way they would have space available, but Barbara called anyway and quickly had a space reserved for us…plenty of space for Big V and the trailer, full hookups, and free internet service…life is good!
Once in place we called Whitney and Jim to see if they would mind driving across the city Saturday morning to join us for a home cooked breakfast and a visit. They quickly agreed, so we set about making Big V presentable for company before calling it a night…then decided that we really didn’t want to travel again tomorrow, so we made arrangements at the park office to stay over until Sunday morning.
Saturday, May 26
Wow…What a great day! We got up around 7:30 and finished straightening Big V, and then took some clothes over to the laundry room to do a few loads of wash. I was busy starting breakfast (bacon, eggs, and French toast) when Jim, Whitney, and Little Jim arrived for a visit about 10:15.We spent the next couple of hours talking,
playing with Little Jimmy, and eating, a perfect way to spend a lazy Saturday morning. Too soon, the kids had to leave and get on with their other activities for the weekend (they had a family gathering to celebrate Jim’s 
sister’s birthday today), and we did dishes, went out for a while, and then returned to watch TV, get caught up on the journal, and generally kick back for the evening.Rested and relaxed in Kansas City, Missouri,
Jim & Barbara
“Daily blessings are daily reminders of God.”… Sign at a business in Alamogordo, NM
