Kansas

"When you hear the tornado siren go off, then grab your valuables and head to the bathroom."

As you might guess, this is not quite the welcome I would have hoped for at the Kansas KOA. After leaving Evergreen, we had plans to drive as far as we could and then stop at a KOA to spend the night. We had seen the severe weather warnings and with "The Wizard of Oz" rattling around in our heads we were eager to get across the great plains as soon as possible. Of course, the best laid plans... after a few hours, we stopped at a rest area to use the facilities and run around a little bit. Joe and Louisa decided to pool their coins together and buy a soda. As they counted their dimes and nickels, they rejoiced to find that they had enough for not one but two sodas. They approached the drink machine with glee, bought their Pepsi-Colas and we took off hoping to make the border before 9pm. Alas, an hour and a half down the road we hear loud wailing from the backseats. Louisa had just realized that when she and Joe were counting their coins they had taken out all of their crushed pennies (you know the machine where you put in 51 cents, pick the engraved picture, turn the handle and presto a crushed penny with a picture of Mt. Rushmore, or a shark, or a redwood, or well you get the picture comes out the slot at the bottom.), the pennies that they have been collecting along with their Jr. Ranger badges at most of the sites we have visited. Where were these pennies now? Back at the picnic table, at the rest stop. What is a parent to do? The chance that these pennies were still there was minimal. But how do you look into two miserable faces and not even try to go back for them? So back we went and shock of all shocks, there they were in two neat little piles. Needless to say this 3 hour delay made it impossible to get where we had wanted to be by nightfall. So, defeated, we pulled into a KOA in the very middle of the State. Only to find out, as I checked in that the KOA where we had hoped to be had already had three different tornadoes touch down and were in the middle of a nasty storm. Our clouds looked really threatening too, but despite the warnings we slept through the night without one siren going off and with only minimal rain. We packed up the tent in record time the next morning and headed out. Thankful for delays in travel and crushed pennies.