The Old Man River....He Just Keeps Rolling Along...

We have arrived home, but the last three days of our Branson trip has not presented the opportunity to blog, although I had the pictures all ready to go up. When Thursday dawned, we were ready to head north. We had a wonderful fairy-tale time in Branson: eating at wonderful restaurants, watchig creative and fascinating Las Vegas type shows, and enjoying going through some of the craft shops. But we were ready to "get out of Dodge". Heading north to Springfield, MO, we spent the morning going through the biggest Bass Pro Shop I ever saw....indeed: it was the Granddaddy of them all....the first one. Then we began our usual way of traveling....trying to stay off of the freeways and going on secondary roads. Strangely, we found absolutely no campgrounds on this leg of the trip. So, we turned off toward Lousiana.....yes, Louisana, ....Missouri. There we spent the night in "Camp Wal Mart" and then left for 30 miles up to Hannibal, Missouri. Both of these delightful, quaint and historic towns are on the wonderful Mississippi River. I thought this picture really showed the majesty and meandering of the River. Now, these next couple of pictures are in reverse of the cronological order: we came to Lousiana, toured and spent time there, then saw that Hannibal was just 30 miles away, up river. So we traveled along the majestic river and was able to get the beautiful picture above.

Hannibal, Missouri, you must all recall from your high school days, is the boyhood home of Samual Longhorn Clemens, otherwise known as Mark Twain. We saw his home, the office of his father, the home of his girlfriend, Maggie Thatcher, and on and on.

On a river boat, was where Samuel Clemmens became a river boat pilot. We didn't take a ride on this one...because there were 100's of kids in town....the place was over run by them! We learned that Fridays were good field trip days....oh rats!

Quaint down town Hannibal, with 200 year old buildings. It was nice that many of them had little historical placks on the front of them so that you knew the buildings "heritage".

Of course, no walking tour would be complete without the fence that Tom Sawyer persueded his gang to pay him for the "privilege" of whitewashing. Mark Twain set most of his Tom Sawyer's adventures in the life and town that he was familiar with.

Just down river from Hannibal was Louisiana, Missouri. One town resident we chatted with for a while called it "poverty central"....and it truly was not on the road to anywhere. But one of the big reasons of staying off of the beaten path, we were able to see the wonderful murals that were painted on 20 of the buildings in town.....this eagle was one of the murals. What unsung artists...

These following pictures I just took because they were pretty. We did get to enjoy spring foliage along our trip. We left Waterloo with no flowers out....saw things progressively become greener as we went south. Saw the forests where dogwood grew wild and beautiful trees were in bloom.

The beautiful fully bloomed dog wood flower.....waited a full week to get close up to one of these.

Aaaaah.....the beautifes of God's world. We stopped off in Chicago just in time for Charlie's 5th birthday, and in time to see Kevin's new "toy" car; then off to Granger, IN to visit with the "presidents": Madison, Lincoln, Reagan, and Kennedy. We picked up grandson #1, Justin, to bring him to Waterloo for a friend's funeral.

Tonight Chris and I are beginning our "recuperation"....tee hee.....doing the tons of wash, cleaning out the camper, fixing a couple of things on it....and to start planning for our next adventure.....

Big Music; Small Town Atmosphere

After the "nothing can top this" performance with Yakoff Schmirnoff on Wednesday morning, we decided to just knock around Branson a bit, had a wonderful lunch salad at Ruby Tuesday, did a bit of shopping in a craft mall, did some wine tasting :-) and then saw the Branson Mall. This was the same place we watched the ten little kds adopted from Guatamala singing last Sunday. There are free shows there all day. There was a "cowboy" outside singing and advertising the acts....Elvis was there at 4 p.m. Thought this might be a fun thing to watch. We had front row seats at a table beside the cat walk.....and here was Elvis. He actually looked a bit like Elvis, but wasn't an impersonator....just singing his songs and giving a little history of Elvis mixed in. Felt sorry for him up there in those leathers....he was dripping wet.

...and more....

and more....

We spent a couple of hours listening to him. He was very good. Of course nobody actually beats Elvis' voice. There were tip vases on the table. This was how they get paid. There was a gal on the other side of the cat walk who was hooting and hollering like a teen-ager did 40 yrs ago was performing. ...and she was NO 16 yr. old believe me.....

This was the singer who was finishing up as we got there for Elvis' performance. He was a very good Christian singer. Really enjoyable.

This little town is very Christian and patriotic. Every show honors vets in some way. This guy really professed Christ. We have even saw one guitar holding dude standing on the corner reading the Bible really loud.

On Thursday we head up to Springfield, MO to the biggest grandaddy Bass Pro Shop of them all. Too bad we don't have Charlie here to explore all the boats.

So until we're on the road and "connect" again....

Yakov Schmirnoff....A LAUGH A MINUTE!

Chris and I were up and did our workout in the Radisson exercise room....then got ready for our morning show with Yakov Schmirnoff. He was so wonderful, funny and, yes, inspirational. He came to this country with his parents in 1976 to New York, in 1986 became an American citizen, all the while holding a statue of the Statue of Liberty on his lap. He was sworn in on Ellis Island by the late Chief Justice Warren Burger. He had been an art teacher in Russia. He is so profoundly proud of being an American. This is a self portrait of himself.

This is a huge painting with his quote, some of you may recall, hung about 18 floors tall next to Ground Zero on the first anniversary if 9-11. He spent $100,000 of his own money to get it up there. He didn't have his name attached; it was done annonimously. He didn't want anyone to think that he was doing it for monitary gain. Paul Harvey finally let the cat out of the bag. (pssst....that little square on the statue of liberty is not part of the painting; they had small parts magnified hugely on the walls of his theatre.)

I had to take any pictures from a great distance and with no flash; so pics are not the best. He was in this when all of his Cosak dancers were doing their thing.

Here one of his skits involved being president...if he could be if he were not foreign born. He took questions from the audience as if in a press confirence. He was asked the usual about economy, etc, and had us rolling in the isles. He was asked about the white house dog: he said it would be a shitzu and a poodle...and be a shit-poo; asked if he wore boxers or briefs: he answered "I wear English Leather, or nothing at all..." (even he rolled with that one)

When he got to the end of the whole show he was so unabashedly proud to be an American and was very encouraging to everyone to be kind to each other. (He got his masters in Psychology a couple of years ago.) Tears were rolling down his cheeks as he told about the 80 year old landlord in his apartment the night his parents and he came to New York. She knocked on his door at the night (and it wasn't the KGB!) and she had everybody in the apartment behind her bringing gifts, food, furniture, etc. Everything that these new immigrants needed. He never forgot that....and was very moved when he told about it.

Then this little treat waited for each lady in the rest room....had a little ditty about putting down the curtain and he won't look or something like that.... :)

Then this hung above the toilet paper dispenser.

It was a fun morning....and once again, the audience was probably 90% over 6o yrs. of age.....

I'll post the rest of the fun from today by tomorrow morning....then we pack up and head out of town.

So, until we connect again....

Stars, Stars, Stars!

Wow, Tuesday was a star-studded day.

Trying to describe Branson to someone who has not seen it: it is like Vegas, only more spread out; no gambling but all the glitz of the shows and shopping.

After we went through our obligatory presentation about the Blue Green Resorts....which are awesome....but we escaped unscathed! we went on to our lunch, then the afternoon show....see the logo below...wonderful impersonators. I was able to take pictures with no flash....and got some fairly descent pics.

This was Alan Jackson....he had me fooled! I thought that he was just the opener for the impersonators....and it was really him....but ah, no....not him....

This gal....for Tina Turner....was awesome. Don't think she was quite as high energy as the real thing....but nevertheless, very good.

Never listened much to Rod Stewart until yesterday...he was really good.

These Blues Brother's I thought were awesome. I can see why Justin likes them.

Now, Elvis was really not quite as good as the rest of the impersonators.... and probably because moi' is an Elvis oficianado....But, he was fun to listen to.

Now, as far as I'm concerned these guys were the high point of the whole week. They were so ver awesome. Loved every minute. We looked around at their personal theatre....saw it pretty well full. Last night was the first night of their 2009 season and they will only be here this time for 4 days. Looking at the faces....95% if the fans were 60 and older!!! Of course, the Oaks have been singing to the same people for 30 years....cuz they are the same age as their audience!

It was lots of fun to watch these guys. The guy on the right is that fabuloulous base.

We had a super time and enjoyed every minute.

Beautiful, Beautiful Branson

The day started just beautifully....clear blue sky, had to be in the 70's. Chris fixed breakfast (because he's more interested in breakfast than I am) and we left the Branson View Campground. We found the Radison Hotel (will take some pics today and put on tomorrow), checked in and found our room on the 5th floor, with view overlooking Branson, and having wonderful "Sleep Number" beds....what we have at home :-) We went to a Variety Jamboree and really enjoyed the comedy, dancing and music.

The hours spent there were definitely good for our funny bones. Then we spent some time deciding what other shows we wanted to go see.....Like the Oak Ridge Boys, and Yakov Smirnoff.

We browsed through a craft mall. Was enjoyable; different crafts than we see up north. Didn't see anything I couldn't live without. Then off to purchase tickets for the shows we already know we want to see.

By that time we found that they had a restaurant called the Shogun Japanese Restaurant, Bar, whatever the last word is.....

It's where they stir fry the food right at your table.

And this was our very skilled chef. He was totally awesome. That spatula (looked like a pizza server) and long fork FLEW in his hands very skillfully....good thing for US!

As you can see....I couldn't stop the movement of his hands....

There was another family at our table....looked at the little ones and said "are they 3 & 5 yrs old?" Yup...hit it right on the head...why? I'll never tell....

Anyway, when the chef LIT the hot griddle and flames leaped up, the 3 yr. old said "Where's my goggles!"

Later on in his presentation of his art, he stacked these slices of onion, poured them full of ??? (kerosene???) and lit it! Not as big a fire as the first time....but really cool. He hung my chicken over it and called it "chicken BBQ" (which it was not) And then when it was just smoking, he tapped his spatula on the griddle and pushed it around like a choo, choo train, sounded just like it, too. The kiddies loved it....so did me.

I had chicken tereyaki and Chris had some kind of shrimp. The fryed rice and stir fryed vegetables were also awesome. What a dinner. What super entertainment! It was too late to catch an evening show by that time, so we came back to the hotel and chilled in the hot tub. (rough life, but somebody has to do it) We met a guy who grew up in Hudson, MI, knew lots of folks in Onsted, MI....had fun remeniscing with him. Who would-a-thunk we'd run into somebody from there way down here in the middle of the Ozarks.

So, until we connect again.....

Sunday Night; April 19

This is what Branson looked like this morning after the horrendous storm we had last night....this is the view from our "bird's nest perch" on the side of the mountain. This afternoon we enjoyed our cafe late and vanilla frozen frapuchino (I think that was what it was called). A nice rest stop.
Then we took in one of the wonderful shows here. It was the Bacon Family doing a Sunday Gospel Jamboree. They have been doing this for 20 years here. They were so very professional, and funny, too. It was mom and pop, 3 boys, their wives....one expecting baby Bacon on Wednesday, and then some of the older grandkids chimed in at times. It was a couple of wonderful hours of uplifting inspiration and laughter. We weren't allowed to take any pictures. I probably could have gotten away with some without my flash...but why bother to get away with something.

Tomorrow we check in at the Radisson Hotel and see what awaits us there. They have an exercise room, pool and hot tub. But I sure have gotten my exercise. Tonight I briskly walked around this this campground.....and that is up and down some pretty steep grades. We're hoping to see the Oak Ridge Boys show.

So, until we connect again....

BRANSON, MO; Sunday morning, April 19

Good morning everybody,
We had a horrid lightning and thunder rainstorm last night. It went on for hours. I even began to think that it might not be the smartest place to be in a camper under trees. There were loads of REAL CLOSE lightning strikes. But I've always loved good storms....and we got a doozie.
As you can see from this picture last night, there's no flat ground in this campground because we are perched on the side of a mountain (hence the name Branson View Campground :-) and we get a 180 view of Branson spread through the valley below. Last night we went to church in Branson. It's a small parish about the same number of families as our parish at home. However, they get so many toursists, that 1/2 of the funding for this new church came from the tourists. It's big and very beautiful. AND as our luck would have it, we we were there for the Spanish Mass. Now I know how folks who come to our Catholic Church

feel when they have no clue what's going on. Of course we knew what was going on, but it was mostly in Spanish. The priest gave the sermon both in English and Spanish interspersed. It sounded like he was just learning Spanish, and when he came on words he knew, he interjected them in Spanish.

Then as luck would have it for us, it was also First Communion for all the little Spanish speaking community. The little boys were so very dressed up....much more than now days at our church up north. They looked so very cute.

Well, that's enough for now. We're going to go and check out Branson this morning and then figure out what we want to do first, before it rains this afternoon.

So, until we connect again....

On the Road Again.... :-)

Here's a nice little addition that we have to our "camping gear" this year. It's a toaster oven that fits just snug as a bug in a rug on our little counter int he camper. Can't wait to use it. Thanks Charolette....
Now on to our adventures.April 16, 2009
We noticed the outdoors getting greener by the time we hit Indianapolis. These trees may even be all green by the time we head home; they all have that “tell-tale” hint of green now. The sky is so very blue. We stopped at Vandalia, Illinois, the site of the Lincoln Museum and Illinois 3rd statehouse because Vandalia was the first capitol of Illinois, And where Lincoln served his first 2 terms in the House of Representatives. It was there that the “Long Nine” got a resolution passed move the capitol of Illinois to Springfield. Ya wouldn’t believe Why the group of gentlemen that Lincoln worked with in this endeavor were called the “Long Nine”…because they were all over 6 ft. tall! (which was tall for that time in history).

That was Lincoln’s first thing he worked on in the House. The Statehouse in the Vandalia is beautifully preserved. It was only used as a Capitol for 3 years, then it was the Supreme Court for another 10 years, then a school for 100 yrs. Stayed at Timber Trail Campground, about 1 hr. outside of St. Louis. Gorgeous place, mostly full of seasonal campers; has 2 ponds stocked with all kinds of fish. Chris had 2 poles but no reels….so no fish. Traveled all over Alaska last year and never got cold. I FROZE last night in southern Illinois. Go figure.

April 17, 2009

The day today turned out very nice & warm; got up to 77 degrees. Totally loved that. It took us a bit over an hour to get to Cahokia Mounds, about 5 minutes outside of St. Louis, on the Illinois side of the Mississippi River. Cahokia Mounds is the largest urban civilization in North America, north of Mexico. It had the Mississipian civilization there from about 800 AD to 1400 AD. At it’s peak there were about 20,000 people living there; had a division of labor (ie. Farmers, hunters, those who made tools, builders, etc.) There was a very nice interpretive center; then the mounds. They were awesome.

There is one mound, Monks Mound, that is the largest man-made mound. Of course, I’ve never seen a pyramid, but it seems every bit as big. The above picture doesn't do it justice. It just shows one side where the steps go up....but it doesn't show the vastness of the top of it. The base covers 14 acres, it’s 100 ft. tall, and contains 22 million cubic feet of earth and was built and enlarged several times over 300 years. It was the center of their culture. It was so big that in the 1800’s some guy had a whole farm on top of it…it’s like 10 acres on top. People carrying dirt in baskets brought all the dirt there.

Then after we had done loads of walking around and UP the mounds we headed off down the road to see the St. Louis Arch. Although I lived in St. Louis while the arch was being built, and have driven past it crossing the Mississippi, I have never been in the plaza outside, nor in the museum under it. It was wonderful.
I couldn’t see the excitement about going to the top in a little trolley, but Chris did. It is 630 feet tall and has little windows at the top where you can see for miles. Above is a self portrait of Chris....he took it at the top of the arch. And I wasn't there to tell him to "SMILE!"

Chris took this picture out of one of the windows of the arch...at the top

I was totally awed by the hugeness of the arch: it’s taller than the sculptures of Mt. Rushmore, the Statue of Liberty, the Washington Monument, and on and on. The museum had lots of stuff on the Lewis & Clark expedition, because St. Louis was kind of the gathering and launching place for their adventures. The arch is even called something like the “Monument to Westward Expansion.” It was a stop on our trip to Branson that was well worth taking a few hours to soak in the majesty of American ingenuity.
Then….yes, then it was time for another highlight of a stop in St. Louis: a tour of the Anheuser-Busch Brewery. This is another tribute to our immigrant past, since the German immigrants in the middle of the 19th century loved their lager beer. And it took a German, Anheuser, to make something better than in the “old country”. They were so successful that they recreated themselves during prohibition to be able to survive selling soap, non-alcaholic drinks, etc. But MY highlight was seeing the Clydesdale horses. The whole team was not there, but just seeing the magnificence of one huge animal…6 ft. tall at the shoulders and 2000#, was enough to satisfy me.

This is the stable for the Busch clydsdales....and they do live like kings. If I ever won the lottery....(but one HAS TO PLAY THE LOTTERY IN ORDER TO WIN :-( I would have a whole herd of clydsdales....I just love them.

After the long tour we rested in the hospitality room, sipping on some free samples of beer. About that time we needed it, too! Lots of walking....

By that time it was 5 o’clock and time to look for a camp site, but we wanted to get out of the Friday night St. Louis traffic and headed west. We went about 50 miles or so, and saw a welcoming sign of “camp” Wal-Mart. We pulled off and then saw a sign for a state park 3 miles down the road. We decided to go and see what was there. Sure, it was only 3 miles down the road to the entrance of the park, but it had to be 6-10 miles in to the campground on the Merrimac River….up and down and around hills, seeing signs that said “impassible in times of high water”. I figured if we got a deluge overnight we would probably be stranded on some island. But it turned out to be a beautiful rustic camp. We were ready for bed!

On Saturday, April 18, we just traveled 4 hours to Branson....found our wonderful campground that is nestled in the Ozarks overlooking Branson. Tomorrow we will go to Mass in town and then adventure around town.

Sorry these posts are all at the same time....but I'v been having some problems connecting to the internet. But I'm on now....so until we connect again....