MISSOURI.....the show me state!

OK, so the title of this post has nothing to do with the actual post except that it tells you where I am. I actually have no idea what is meant by the "show me" state. But whatever.

I am officially done with my sub-region of the tour. I was in charge of booking Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Springfield Missouri. Now that we are in St. Louis, MO I am all done. I have met some of the most amazing people along the way. The Mayhue family had us to their house for two nights. They were the poster family for the big hearted families of middle america.

So quick break down of the states...

Oklahoma (oak-lah-home-mah)
Visited Oklahoma City, Edmond, Tulsa, Norman, and Ada. I have really high hopes for almost every school we visited here. Ada high school may be small but they have an amazing yearn to win this. And University of Oklahoma, who I competed against when Athens won, has already set up a huge benefit concert that bands like The Rocket Summer are playing at with all proceeds going to benefit Inivisible Children.

Arkansas (ar-can-saw)
Visited Fayetteville, Gravette, Gentry, Hot Springs, Little Rock, Conway, and Fort Smith. Once again, the people may not have had the money to help out but they definitely have the heart. I am excited to see what the schools I visited have to offer. We visited Hot Springs National Park and saw the geothermal springs in the park. It was absolutely amazing. I was blown away.

Springfield, Missouri (spring-feel-d mizz-ury)
The one thing I can say about Springfield is Missouri State University. Our extremely loyal contact Megan Gettemier is a freshmen there. She organized a campus wide screening at the student union and then gave up her entire dorm room to me and my team for the night to sleep. (NOTE: This was the third time in 4 weeks that I have had the oppurtunity to sleep in a bed!!!)
She has some amazing ideas and creative ways to go about following through with them. MSU will definately be in contention for the trip.