Amazing Welcome Center near Joplin, MO

At the Missouri Welome Center (Exit 2 eastbound on I-44) near Joplin, Missouri, I met several interesting folks quite by accident.  I stopped to eat my lunch and stretch my legs.  When I sent inside the Welcome Center to wash my hands I saw the most amazing wall mural made from recycled license plates from many states.  There were four highway workers posing in front of the mural and seeing that I had a camera around my neck asked me if I would mind taking their group portrait.  I happily obliged them and as we started talking about the mural and the Welcome Center the workers told me that today was their last day working at that rest stop.  After several months working together at the Welcome Center they had all been transferred to another rest area down the road.  They were happy that they had been transferred as a group but were sorry to leave the Welcome Center and I could see why. It was a lovely place, especially with the public art mural. 

Zane Livengood, who manages the Welcome Center saw us conversing and came over to point out an interesting piece of serendipity within the mural.  He told me that his wife had passed away four years ago but pointed to his name on a vanity plate on the wall.  Amazingly, he next pointed to his wife's name two plates away - Dora. Zane had given these two plates to the artist to be used in the mural but Matt Dehaemers, the Kansas City artist who created the mural told Zane that he had no idea that Dora was Zane's wife when he put them up almost side by side.

Group of Welcome Center workers on their last day.

Zane Livengood pointing out his name and his wife's name on license plates on Matthew Dehaemer's mural.

Matthew's website is http://www.matthewdehaemers.com/.  You can read about the 2009 Public Art Commission for the I-44 Welcome Center for MODOT in  Joplin, MO at http://www.joplinglobe.com/local/local_story_352211833.html.

Here's another shot of Matthew Dehaemer's mural.