A Small Town With Big Time Entertainment

How can anyone possibly have a good time when it is 100 degrees F?  Trust me when I say it can be done.  Yesterday, we covered the wonderful little town of Canon City.  The weather made it easy to enjoy all activities since it is found in the cool mountains of Colorado.  Today, we will look at the jewel of the Midwestern states, Branson.  Yes, I understand that the summer months in Missouri are hot and humid.  I am happy to report that it doesn't seem to matter.  There are so many ways to stay cool. 

Inside Silver Dollar City's Marvel Cave near Branson, MO

The first place I want to mention is an amusement park called Silver Dollar City.  There are many great activities to do that all come as part of the price of admission.  Aside from the numerous water rides, one of the best ways to stay cool is to take a tour of Marvel Cave.  The temperature inside is a constant 60 degrees F.  Also, we have always enjoyed going to the Saloon shows, many of which are set inside air-conditioned theaters.  At around 7 pm, the park has a country music show that we really enjoyed.  Again it is included in the cost of admission.  The same company that operates Silver Dollar City also runs a water park.  "Whitewater" is another fantastic way to spend a day.  I really enjoy the Lazy River.  On that 'ride', I simply get to lay on an inter-tube and let the flow of the water drift me around in nice, cool water.  There is no line in which to stand.  You simply walk into the water, find an inter-tube, and you are on your way.   

Sunset on Table Rock Lake near Branson, MO

If you like being in the water, I would suggest that you take a trip to any one of the lakes that are found in the area.  Table Rock, Taneycomo, and Bull Shoals are great places to go fishing, swimming, or boating. 

Ripley's Believe It or Not Museum in Branson, Missouri

You will not be disappointed in the number of shows that you have to chose from in Branson.  It is known for its ties to country music, but there are a variety of other shows as well.  Besides country music you will find gospel, comedy, magic, museums, and acrobats.  You really could spend a month there and not come close to seeing all the shows that are available.

There are two more attractions that I think bear mentioning.  There is a relatively new shopping district in the old historic downtown area of Branson.  It is called Branson Landing.  There you will find shops, dining, and you can listen to live music in a series of concerts from April to October.  The final place that is worth mentioning is the IMAX movie theater.  We always try to take in at least one movie each time that we go on their 6 story tall movie screen.  Every time I go, I feel like I am actually in the scenes of the movie that I am watching.   It is a great experience if you haven't been. 

We have had a wonderful summer.  Today was our first day back at work, so the blogs may not come quite as often as they have been.  One of the reasons why we have enjoyed doing it, is because of the love that we have for this life-style.  We have wanted to show everyone just how much fun it is to live in an RV.  (or even smaller vehicles like our truck).  The next series of posts will be a bit more serious in nature as we discuss the many of the advantages of living a simpler life.  Happy Trails to everyone! 

The Good With the Bad

Dean, the husband
Shalane, the wife

When you’re on vacation, is it worth it to get up early to go have breakfast with friends?  6 a.m. is sleeping in during the school year, but, for summer break, it’s insanity!   This was the question that we had to ask ourselves yesterday morning.  The answer was a resounding YES!   

We met our friends, Bill and Tammy, at their house at 7 a.m. and we all drove together to a little “mom and pop” diner near the Silver Dollar City area of Branson, MO.  It appears as if the owners of the establishment bought an old gas station and converted it into a little country restaurant.  It’s so adorable, and I had always wanted to eat there, so I was super excited to find out that that‘s where we were going.   At first glance, one would think that it was a little over priced.   DEAN would think it was over priced.  After all, a mini-stack of ONE pancake costs $3.95!   Bill assured me that it would be a good sized pancake, and when they brought it out, I quickly changed my mind.  It was easily the biggest pancake I have ever seen and well worth the price!  To top it off, it tasted as good as it looked!  Billy Gail’s Café is definitely, a place to stop if you are in the area.   Get there early though.  The place was packed by 8 a.m.!  

It was truly wonderful to be able to spend time with friends that we haven’t seen in so long.  They even took us on a nice tour of the area.  It was great to get caught up on their ten children and to catch them up on ours.  They are a truly blessed family, and we are better for knowing them.    Dean’s right.  We all have friends that, though we may not see or talk to them often, somehow make us better people.  There’s a list of people in all of our lives, that we just feel blessed and honored to know, and we give thanks for those timeless relationships.

We did have a chance to get over to the IMAX theater one more time before we left.   We saw, “Born to Be Wild.”  It was a show about baby elephants and orangutans and the woman who have dedicated their lives to their rescue and survival. I LOVED it! It was SO CUTE! Dean was disappointed that it didn't have more video of the scenery and almost fell asleep.    Also, my wife was able to get her slice of blackberry cobbler that she had been wanting since we got to the Ozarks.   I got it at McFarland’s in the IMAX complex.  IT WAS AMAZING!  Truthfully, it was so good, I had to sit on my hands to keep myself from clapping out loud!  :o)  (Now that would have been a sight.  My wife trying to eat that cobbler while sitting on her hands!)

With a pocket full of happy memories, a tummy full of all that’s good,  and an empty wallet to prove it, it was time to head back to Oswego. On our way, we went through Joplin, MO, the town of 40,000 that had an F5 tornado roll through in late May of this year.  For tomorrow’s blog  I will write about what we saw and experienced there.  We were fortunate enough to be given a tour of the damage by some more good friends of ours that live just north of Joplin.  The husband is a firefighter for the city of Joplin and spent many hours assisting in the search and rescue, so the tour was very informative.   Until tomorrow, Happy Trails!

When the going gets tough, the tough....

Well, the last full day in Branson turned out to be a very eventful one.  We got the day started a little later than we wanted.  In fact, we ended up having 'breakfast' at around noon.  We wanted to spend the rest of the day at Whitewater (a water amusement park).  However, that is were our plans changed.

Why are you posting a random butterfly picture? I don't know, I've just noticed that there are alot of butterflies in Branson!

We made our way to Whitewater at a little after one o'clock.  (Thanks again to the same friends that got us into Silver Dollar City for free on Thursday, we did the same thing with Whitewater yesterday.) Free always seems to work into the budget quite well.  :)  Anyhow, Whitewater has a relaxing ride there called the lazy river.  I love that 'ride,' because there are no lines and you do is float around on an inner tube.  We then decided to try out a couple water slides and the wave pool.  That is when the day changed.  After a while my wife became ill. I had let my blood sugar get too low and that, combined with the intense heat, did me in. We spent a good portion of the rest of the afternoon in the first aid station.  They were really kind and treated me very well.  When she started feeling a little better, we went back to the campground where I hooked up the air conditioner and let her take a long nap.  He's always so good to me. We were pretty hungry when she woke up, so we enjoyed a great buffet at the Golden Corral, I highly recommend it if you are ever in Branson.

Again, with the random picture! Hey, it's not random! They make great funnel cakes at White Water, and I'm certainly not going to post a picture of me in my bathing suit laying around in the first aid station!

Although the day did not turn out as planned, we still enjoyed ourselves.  It's one of the best things about being on vacation with no structured schedule,.  Happy Trails!

Staying Cool at Silver Dollar City

Dean  (the husband)
Shalane  (the wife  :o)

How can anyone enjoy a hot and humid day in southern Missouri at a outdoor amusement park?   This is a question that I asked myself as we headed to Silver Dollar City yesterday.  However, we had a great time and always seemed to be able to find a way to cool off whenever we needed too, thanks to a deep cave and some fun water rides. 

There have been a few changes since we were last at the park more than five years.  One of the best new rides was a floating boat armed with water guns called Riverblast.  It is not a wild ride where you get flipped over.  It is merely a way to get drenched in cold water.  The lines were always short, which also won big points in my book.  Best of all, we didn’t even have to get on the ride to get soaked.  All along the path of the river are places where you can man water cannons to spray the boats coming through.  As you are dialing in on the sailors on the boat, they are unleashing there full armament at you.  It didn’t take long to get completely covered in water.  A welcomed event on a day where the temperature soared into the 100’s and the humidity was very high.  It's funny how certain things can turn us all into kids again.  I have never seen so many grown men laughing and playing like children.  Dean was running around with the energy of a ten year old firing squirt guns!  I enjoyed it as well, but my favorite part was watching my husband having the time of his life.

In the  hottest part of the day we spent about two hours in a cave at about 60 degrees.  As you first enter the park there is an area where people leave to go on an impressive hour long tour of some of the most unbelievable caverns I have ever seen.  As soon as you go into the main chamber of the cave the temperature drops 40 degrees.  This is a good thing, because there are a number of steps. Over 600! Fortunately, most of them go down, as there is a tram that takes everyone back up to the top at the end of the tour.  Now some of you may notice that I mentioned it was an hour long tour, but I said that we had spent two hours in there.  It seems that someone in the tour ahead of us got injured somehow.  All tours in the cave were suspended right where they were until the person could be removed by EMT’s.  Trust me when I say that an extra hour in the cool temperatures was a blessing.  We had no complaints.  Because of the delay, the guide was able to share with us a lot of extra interesting facts about the cave that we wouldn’t have been able to hear on the “normal” tour.  We highly recommend that you enjoy the Marvel Cave tour, especially on a hot day!

At the conclusion of the day was a great country music show in a wonderful amphitheater.  The singers were all great as soloist, but when they sang together, it sounded almost angelic. The harmonies were incredible.  It was a fantastic way to close out the day. They did a fantastic "old country" medley, but my favorite part was the gospel music.  I LOVE country gospel!  I listen to it almost every Sunday as I get ready for church.  The singers did a fabulous job sharing their love of the Savior with the audience!  :o)

Today, as I crawled out of bed, I realized once again that I am not as young as I used to be.  We had so much fun yesterday that we thought about going back to Silver Dollar City again today.  However, I think that we will stick to our original plan of Whitewater.  They have a lazy river.  I can’t wait to lay back on my inner-tube and just float for the entire day! Until tomorrow, Happy Trails!

Entertainment in Branson, Missouri

Dean (the husband)
Shalane  (the wife  :o)

Today we arrived in Branson, Missouri.  We had originally planned to go to an amusement park called Silver Dollar City last night.  If you go after 3pm, you still pay full price, but you get to come back the next day on the same ticket.  Happily, we decided to change our plans after our friends that live here in town gave us free tickets to Silver Dollar City and Whitewater.  We decided that today will be our Silver Dollar City day and tomorrow we will follow it up with a day at Whitewater.  Last night we decided to enjoy a down home meal at a wonderful restaurant and finish the night watching a movie on the big IMAX screen.  It was a great night!

The restaurant was called Fall Creek Steak and Catfish house.  It's big claim to fame is that they bring out hot, homemade rolls and throw them across the room to you.  The rolls are delicious and the BBQ brisket platter that we ordered was excellent.  My wife loves to eat at places that are authentic to the area in which we are traveling. I personally would be just as happy eating off the value menu at McDonald’s, but I am grateful that my wife gets me to try new cuisine every once in a while.  He usually goes kicking and screaming, but last night he was surprisingly cooperative.

Just outside the restaurant.

 The movie we viewed on the IMAX was quite fitting since we are currently in the Midwest.  We saw  "Tornado Alley."  It featured a scene where a guy in an armored vehicle drove into the path of a powerful tornado so that he could show footage of the event from the inside.  It was AMAZING!   If I didn’t enjoy teaching so much, I think that is what I would want to do for a living.  Traveling all over the United States chasing down severe storms sounds like a lot of fun, doesn’t it?  I think so!

Missouri is a beautiful state.  It has forests of lush, green trees covering every mountain.  We are staying at Table Rock Lake State Park, which is located just outside of Branson.  The lake is large and very beautiful. The campground is clean and the sites, spacious.  There are trees everywhere!  It's fun coming back to a place that I had been so many times in my childhood.  I have a lot of happy memories in Missouri state parks.

Finally, we are happy to report that the air conditioner we installed worked perfectly.  It was 87 degrees F when we went to bed last night with about 70 percent humidity.  Inside the shell of the pickup is was pleasantly cool all night long.  Today will be our first full day in Branson, and I think will prove to be outstanding.  More pictures will follow, so keep on checking in with us.   Happy Trails!