Last weekend, Lynzie and I took a little road trip up to Joplin, Missouri to attend a women's conference I heard about last year. We had a few adventures along the way and even met a few online friends in person for the first time!
The conference didn't start until 7:00 Friday night but Lynzie and I were on the road by 3:00. We had some time to kill so we drove up the road a bit to Carthage, MO---a town we visited last year and wanted to see more of. I was especially interested in taking Lynzie to see this Alice In Wonderland sculpture that I'd read about on another blog.
Carthage's downtown features several of these lovely sculptures by the late artist, Bill Snow. Read more about him and his work here.
The usually-costumed Lynzie was decked out in Steampunk garb so we took a couple artsy photos around town. Here she is looking toward the courthouse---having just stepped off a magical path...
After our little shop stop, we headed to Joplin to make sure we could find the church before dark. Up the street a bit was a lovely family style restaurant called Sami's. We both ordered chicken fried steak. It was awesome---almost as awesome as mine!
Just before dark, we found some abandoned tracks and took a few more fun photos.
Finally, it was time to head to the church where we were planning to meet up with my blogging friend, Laura from Harvest Lane Cottage, and her two daughters. Lynzie became instant friends with Emily and Amy and Laura and I hit it off immediately!
The night was fun and encouraging!
The next morning, we headed back to Joplin for the Saturday session. First, we stopped in for an early breakfast at Bella Vista's Duffer's Cafe. We're always the youngest in there by a couple generations---but it's a great place to eat!
After our inspiring day in Joplin, we headed home to find big, fat snowflakes just over the Arkansas border! It ended up sticking for a whole 18 hours---first snow in two years for Bella Vista!
