Branson Day 44

It was cold today, but otherwise pretty. We went shopping (looking) at the dollar and antique stores and then ate lunch at the Steak and Shake. We went to the 1/2 price ticket place and got tickets to the Dixie Stampede Dinner Show and the Bart Rockett Show. Tonight we went to the Christmas Lights Drive at Shepherd of the Hills. The drive ticket included a trip to the top of the observation tower. It was pretty and we enjoyed it.


We didn't get too many pictures since the camera ran out of battery, but a few are shown here.

Branson Day 43

The sun came out today and it was pretty but stayed cold all day. We didn't go anywhere; Emily rode her bike and we went to the Sonic tonight for hot-fudge sundaes. Emily took this picture from accross the creek. The park is really clearing out with more people leaving every day. You can see how empty the park is.

In case you haven't discovered, you can click on the pictures here and see them enlarged.

Branson Day 42

It was cold and dreary all day today. At least we have been spared (so far) the bad weather around us; snow to the north and tornados to the south. We just stayed in all day.

Branson Day 41

We met Jimmie and Nita at 11:30 at McFarlands resturant in Branson. We ate lunch, Emily and Nita shopped and we visited a while. We told them about Lamberts and they said that they would like to go. Since they are leaving in the morning, we decided to go tonight. We enjoyed it as usual. If you look closely at the first picture you will see the "Throwed Roll" in flight.

Branson Day 40

The weather both today and yesterday was nice. Emily went shopping on "black friday" yesterday along with the millions of others. I stayed home. About noon I started having kidney stone type pains and by the time Emily got back I was really hurting. I went to bed with a hot pad on my kidney and after a while got enough relief to go to sleep. This morning I was fine. Go figure?? Emily helped with and ate at the supper yesterday afternoon. She helped cook breakfast at the park this morning.We stayed around here today and grilled some steaks at noon. Emily rode her bike to the post office and picked up the mail. Tonight we went to Sonic.

I found out today that you can download newly released books at Amazon. It's really neat and cheaper than buying them and paying postage. I got Dick Morris' CONDI vs. HILLARY and Peter Schweizer's DO AS I SAY NOT AS I DO. Now I won't get behind on my conservative reading.

Emily got a call from Jimmie and Nita Duncan this morning and we are going to meet them for lunch tomorrow. They came to town with a complete schedule so they haven't had time to see us up to now. We will probably go to Cowboy Church in the morning and then meet them somewhere.

No particular reason for the picture. It was taken in Bismarck, ND just after we had put ten new tires on the trailer and truck and had the truck and trailer washed at a truck wash. We will probably be hitching it all up soon and heading out. After being here for a month and a half we are about ready to move on and are thinking about going to Alabama to see Emily's relatives.

By the way, you can now click on "Marshall and Floye" under "links" to go to their blog.

Branson Day 38

Well, it was a pretty Thanksgiving Day here in Branson (really Hollister). The park had a meal at 2:00 this afternoon and everyone brought a covered dish. The park furnished the turkey and drinks. We had about 42 folks there and lots of food. There is going to be a repeat tomorrow evening with the leftovers.
KRIS IS GIVING JIM INSTRUCTIONS ON HAULING TRASH


PART OF THE KITCHEN CREW


DO THEY LOOK FULL?

Just got through talking to Floye and Meredith about their new blog. It is Paradise In The Pines at
http://paradise-in-the-pines.blogspot.com.

Branson Day 36

Fairly cold today so we stayed in. Emily did ride her bike and went to the post office to pick up our medicine. We will stay here for Thanksgiving and then will probably move on. The park is having a Thanksgiving Day meal.




Don't know where we will go from here but will at least decide on a direction in the next couple of days. Whatever the chosen direction I'm sure it will have an S in it ( SE S SW ).

Branson Day 35

Another Cute Display From Precious Moments

Nothing going on today. The sun finally came out and it got up to about 51. We just stayed in.

Branson Day 34

We made a new friend at the Precious Moments Mansion


Cold, rainy and cloudy today. We got up this morning and went to "Cowboy" Church at the theater at the mall by WalMart. We really enjoyed the service. Lots of ole time Gospel singing and picking. The service was led by Norma Jean; you have to be our age to know who she is. She started on the Porter Wagoner show on TV and was at the Grand Ole Opry for many years. If you watch the Porter Wagoner Show on RFD TV you will probably see her sometime. The preacher was good. He was a 73 year old man who preached the Bible. The building was almost full; probably holds 1000-1500 people. There was a tour bus full of folks from around Waxahachie. We didn't see anyone that we recognized. There was a lady from the Mesquite Opry that sang a couple of songs. Went to the ice cream social at the park tonight.

More Branson Photos

Well, Here are a couple of our Branson pictures. The first one is Miranda driving the duck, and the second is Miranda playing violin at the Jim Stafford Show. I'm glad you guys are having fun. Love, Rach

Branson Day 33

Precious Moments Angel sitting outside the empty tomb

I've had trouble with my wi-fi connection here at the park for the last couple of days so have gotten a little behind on the daily reports. The weather continues to get a little warmer every day. We got up yesterday and went to Precious Moments at Carthage, Missouri. It's about 100 miles from here and was a nice drive. The PM place was very interesting. On the site they have a Chapel that is completely painted inside with scenes of the PM people depicting various stories and principles from the Bible. There is a Gallery that contains lots of exhibits of the many PM items from over the years. While I don't know anything about the PM figures, it was still interesting to see. Next we went to the water fountain show and it was spectacular. They have a Victorian mansion and a chapel on an island that is called the Wedding Island. Lots of weddings are held there and they have a honeymoon suite in the mansion. Maybe Emily will add a little more later; she understood it all a lot more than me.

Branson Day 30

The temperature got below freezing last night and didn't get very warm today. We just stayed in all day. Emily did ride her bike to the post office in Hollister to mail some bills. Looks like it will be even colder tonight; it is already about 28. Emily wants to go to the Precious Moments place west of Springfield. We may do that tomorrow.

Branson Day 29

Cold, cloudy, windy and rainy today. Stayed in all day. Emily helped with the park lunch. Hopefully the weather will be nicer tomorrow even though it's supposed to much colder.

Branson Day 28

Cloudy and cool all day today. It is raining this evening and looks like it might rain all night. Didn't do much today. We went to Lowes and bought a stainless steel portable propane grill. We have been using a little one-time-use charcoal grill for about three years and it was getting to be a little too much trouble (you get lazier as you get older). The one we got is a pretty good one so maybe it will last a long time. We ate lunch at Sonic which is close to Lowes. This isn't much but is about it for today.

Branson Day 27

Another pretty day. We went to a church service at Jim Stafford's Theater. The service lasted two hours but we enjoyed it. Lots of singing and a good sermon by the pastor Dr. Timothy Hill. His ministry is starting a youth ranch outside of Branson to provide foster homes for kids. After the service we rode around Branson for a while and ate lunch at Shorty Smalls. It is basically a BBQ place and Emily had Brisquet and I had pulled pork. It was pretty good; not the best BBQ that we have ever had but good none the less.

Ater we ate, we rode some more, went out to Table Rock State Park and drove through the campgrounds. There were not nearly as many people camping there as when we drove out several weeks ago. They have some nice full-hookup sites and the off-season rate is $13.00. We may have to go out there for a couple of nights when we leave here. We went to the visitors center at the dam but found out that it closed on October 31. That's a problem this time of year; crowds are not as bad, but things start to close.

When we left the State Park, we went south on Hwy 65 to Harrison, Arkansas. Looked around there for a while and then went to the Super Walmart. We got back around 5:00 and had a good ride. As usual, we are tired out tonight but will be rested by morning and ready to go again. Hopefully the crowds will be reduced this week.

Emily wanted me to include the picture of me driving the DUCK.

Miranda can drive the DUCK too (maybe I need to check her driver's license)

Branson Day 26

It was cloudy most of the day today but only sprinkled a little with no real rain. Emily got up and helped with the park breakfast this morning but I just stayed in bed (specially since they had french toast). We didn't go anywhere but just stayed in and read our books. Spent most of the afternoon (4 hours) watching the movie JFK. I don't think that we had ever watched it completely through before. I have been reading the book CROSSFIRE on which the movie was based, so the movie was very interesting.

It is getting dark early these days; it is only 6:00 PM but it has been dark for a while. We are going to bed earlier and earlier every day it seems like. The park has been full for most of last week but is starting to thin out. I think that a lot of the folks were here for the Veterans Day activities. Mickey and Patti next to us were here when we came, but they are planning to leave on Thursday. We hate to see them go. He has been instrumental in persuading me to start the blog. Don't know what we will do tomorrow. We are only about 35 miles from Harrison, Arkansas so we might go for a drive down there. Maybe next week we will be doing a little more and will have more to write about.

Rachel's Birthday

HAPPY BIRTHDAY RACHEL
(NOVEMBER 11, 1968)
WE LOVE YOU,
Mom and Dad

Branson Day 24

We got up this morning and went and rode the "Duck". It was fun and lasted about an hour and a half. We rode all around Branson and up on the high hill overlooking Table Rock Lake and Branson. Then we went down and went into the lake for a short ride. I got to drive part of the time that we were on the lake. The first picture is of the quarry on top of the hill where the rock for the dam was taken from. The next picture is of Table Rock Lake from on top of the hill. The third picture is of the Branson Showboat on Table Rock Lake. The batteries ran out on the camera so we didn't get many pictures. There are a lot of people here for Veterans Day and there will be a big parade tomorrow. We have decided to wait until next week to go to Silver Dollar City.

Branson Day 23

It was a very pretty day today. We went for a ride, ate at McDonalds and toured the winery (it was free). Went to ride the "duck" but got there too late. We plan to go back for the 10:00 ride in the morning. We need to get that done before the weather starts to get bad. The P-51 airplane is at the Veterans Museum in Branson. The "decorated" camper rig was in the McDonald's parking lot and was worth sharing a few pictures. We will probably decide what other shows we want to see and get tickets tomorrow. We also want to go back to Silver Dollar City. This is Veterans Week in Branson and there are more people here than there would be otherwise, so we may wait until next week to do much.

Branson Day 22

Slow day today. We just stayed in and rested from yesterday. Emily helped cook and serve the noon meal.


This was a long time ago it seems like

Branson Day 21

Pretty day today and I am feeling a little better. We went riding, picked up our photos at Walmart and went to see about renting a pontoon boat sometime. Then we drove to Springfield and went to Bass Pro Shops and ate at Lamberts Cafe. Took a few photos of our excursions.

Branson Day 20

The edge of the storm came through here last night. Rain, some hail, wind and lightning but fortunately we didn't get what they did in Indiana and Kentucky. Emily had a good time at Silver Dollar City last night. The lights were beautiful. The pictures are of the lights and a couple of the shows.
It has been pretty today, but we stayed in. I am still feeling pretty bad. Emily went this afternoon and bought groceries. We went to Sonic to eat tonight.

Branson Day 19

Very warm day today. I am coming down with a cold and haven't felt good. Emily helped cook the park breakfast this morning but I stayed in bed. We just sat around most of the day. Emily decided that she would go check out Silver Dollar City this afternoon. I may go back with her when I get to feeling better.


Thought that I would throw in a few pictures for Dominick. We took these when we were in Ft. Collins, CO. Doesn't seem like too long ago, but it was in late July.