Out of the Mud and into Missouri

We had a short lived and busy day and a half in Kansas City, Missouri. After we got out of the mud in Denver we got right on the road for Missouri and arrived at our campground at about 12:30 am on Tuesday morning. We stayed at Weston Bend State Park where we would also host our service project. After getting the RV all tucked in for bed, organizing ourselves, and some pre-slumber chatter, we got to sleep around 2:30.

The next day brought us the usual pre-project planning and an RV overhaul to get all the mud and dirt out of it that it acquired from the field in Denver. Marchetti and Eric spent their evening off going to a Royals game and Kim, Tyler, Andrew, Diana, and I went to Jack Stack BBQ for a very late dinner. Kansas City looked very nice and I wish we had more time to explore. Jack Stack was good- even though I’m vegetarian. We got fried mushrooms to start and then I indulged in a veggie kebab and French fries. The meat eaters got burnt ends and I think the favorite dish of the night was the baked beans. Andrew and Tyler both drooled over them.

Today the alarms rang at 5:30 and we all silently started getting ready. Our group is not the most chipper before the sun rises. We took the 2 minute drive down the road of Weston Bend State Park to the site where we would be working. We had 24 volunteers, a lot of them were from VML, an advertising company that does work for Southwest Airlines so it was great to have them there along with SWA employees. I was in charge of photos and videos today while Diana and Eric roamed amongst the groups. I really enjoyed walking between the groups along the trails. The smells were great and I got to see some cool wildlife including an ebony jewel wing damselfly which I was very excited about. They’re so pretty!

Andrew, Tyler, Marchetti, and Kim were projects coordinators. Andrew’s group installed 20 water bars along a trail. The volunteers didn’t know what water bars were so they had no idea what they were getting themselves into until they hit the trail. At the end of the day their shirts were sweat stained and caked in mud but they definitely felt a sense of pride and accomplishment at getting all 20 bars put in.

Kim’s group stained a wooden overlook with a
beautiful view of the Missouri River. What’s even cooler is that there will be a wedding at that overlook next weekend so their work will be seen and appreciated by a lot of people! Marchetti and Tyler took a group of volunteers out on a 3 mile trail to clear brush from the sides and top of the trail. They covered a lot of ground and at the end of the day they were able to cover 2 miles of trail!

I give all the volunteers, my team members, and the Park employees and volunteers a lot of credit because today was extremely hot and humid but everyone powered through it and made a huge impact on the park. We completed 3 to 4 weeks’ worth of work for the park staff in a mere 3 hours. Great job Kansas City!

Becca
and the Tour 40 Team