Day 17 Wednesday August 21, 2024
It was a nice 67 degrees when we got up this morning after a very peaceful sleep. After breakfast we drove to a place called Top of the Rocks that our friends Gregg and Judi told us about. They were in Branson a few months ago. I bought tickets online last night which is supposed to be a bit cheaper plus you don’t have to stand in line there to purchase tickets.
They scanned our tickets and we were directed to our own personal electric golf cart for a 2.5 mile drive through the Nature Trail and Lost Canyon Cave. Johnny Morris the founder of Brass Pro Shop developed this property several years ago. He is a well known outdoors person and wanted to preserve this land for the public to enjoy and to preserve the Indian history of the area.
There were very few on the paved trail this morning so we could take as much time and stop and take all the photos we wanted to. There were lots of layers of rock and numerous waterfalls, covered bridges and one cave. It took about 2 hours to make the loop before we returned to the starting point, turned in our golf cart and boarded the shuttle bus to go to the very top of the hill/mountain to tour the museum. This is the highest hill in the Branson area.
On the way up the hill the shuttle driver pointed out Jack’s Cabin which is available to rent. Two bedroom sleeps 4 guests. The cabin was moved here from the hometown of Jack Nickolas, the Pro Golfer. I can imagine that was quite the project getting it up and around all these hills.
He also pointed out the excavation work being done in front of the museum building. There was a putting green there but a huge 40’ x 79’ sinkhole formed six months after opening the putting green and they discovered massive rock formations below the golf course and another cave. Excavation crews are removing the red clay dirt around the rock formations and the plans are to connect this cave to the one we rode through on the golf cart. The excavation work is a two year project.
The top floor of the museum building had a gift shop, wine cafe, and a restaurant. The museum was below ground and we spent another two hours going through it. It had an amazing collection of Native Indian artifacts, history, photographs, etc. Lena commented she had never seen so many arrowheads. One of the staff told us there were over 10,000 in the museum. A lot of them were discovered here in Missouri. In my opinion the Native Indians were much more intelligent than they were given credit for. They were very much in tune with nature and the preservation of nature. But sadly were overpowered and pushed out by the White man back in the late 1800’s.
We decided to not eat in the restaurant so we rode the shuttle bus back to the parking lot and drove back to town to what was billed as an authentic Mexican restaurant. Lena said her Taco Salad was really good but my Burrito was mediocre to say the least. The tortilla wrap was burnt on one side which was hidden on the inside and the steak must have been from an old bull. But I did get three shrimp in the burrito and a few giblets of chicken and a lot of green stuff that I guess was cactus based on the menu. I should have known that sweet tea here was not like Southern sweet tea. So I had the waitress bring me a glass of Pepsi. The first Pepsi I have had in years.
We needed a few groceries so we stopped at Walmart before returning to the motorhome for the day. The weather has been great today.
Day 18 Thursday August 22, 2024
Another day of wonderful weather, cool morning and nice sunshine but not hot. After breakfast we drove the few miles to the Historic Downtown of Branson.
With a population of only 10,000+ people the town seems larger but that probably is due to all the entertainment venues in town. Branson is referred to as the Worlds Largest Live Entertainment venue. The waters of Lake Taneycomo runs by the downtown area. The lake is formed by a couple of dams that were built to control flooding many years ago.
We parked and checked out a few of the business in town including Dick’s 5 & 10 store. When we were young they were called the 5 & dime store. This place was amazing with the selection of “stuff”. Lena found her a couple of clothing items in H&H Goods, a lady’s clothing store. She was reluctant to get them but I told her to go ahead since her birthday is in a few days. The clerk told her that they do all the design work on the clothes there in the store and the tags on them was their calling cards with their website on it. And they could design anything and ship it to her. We found a few murals as we walked around and then we toured their town museum. It had a lot of interesting things on the history of Branson and a video.
Our friend Gregg and Judi were here a few months ago. They recommended we have lunch at The College of the Ozarks. The college is referred to as Hard Work U. The students that attend college here can graduate with a college degree completely debt free. Each student works a job somewhere on campus for 15 hours a week and then two 40 hour weeks during the Summer Semester break. They get credit for the hours they work and the remainder of the tuition is covered by donations to the college from donors and endowments.
The restaurant was in the Keeter Center which is built with massive logs. The building has a lodge where you can rent rooms, the restaurant, meeting room and a conference center. The gift shop inside had lots of items made by the students, a creamery with numerous choices of ice cream and baked goods all made on campus. The agricultural department has dairy cows that are milked and the milk is used for the ice cream and also sold to students and staff.
We had a wonderful meal and a great server (Olivia). All the servers were students here at the college. Olivia is a Junior and majoring in Public Relations. When we checked in for our table they asked us if we had any special occasions coming up and we told them we both had birthdays in a few days. When we finished our meal and dessert Olivia said she was going to bring us some birthday cake to take with us since we had already had dessert and if we wanted they would sing happy birthday to us as they had already done to two other people in the dining room. Lena said she didn’t want them to because she didn’t want everyone looking at us when they sang to us.
We were stuffed when we left the dining room. The food was delicious.
We returned to the motorhome to relax before our entertainment tonight. At 7 PM we drove the short distance to the Clay Copper Theater to see The Haygoods Show. The Haygoods are 5 brothers and their sister and they have been performing 32 years together. They are from the Branson area. This was a really high energy show. They played several different instruments, fiddle, guitar, mandolin, saxophone, drums and piano. The sister even played the standup harp. She played the most instruments of all the siblings.
They told a little about their childhood and learning how to play musical instruments from their father and listening to his LP records. Their mother put them is tap dancing class but since they didn’t have the money to buy six pairs of tap dancing shoes they improvised and glued tin cans to their shoes and later nailed metal plates on military combat boots. One of their acts was the five brothers tap dancing with their boots on and the sister played the drums. Two of the brothers even tap danced upside down hanging from straps wrapped around their wrists.
The show used a lot of special lighting and pyrotechnics and one act even used several small drones with lights on them. They said they have sold over 6 million show tickets since they have been performing.
Day 19 Thursday August 23, 2024
We didn’t have any plans this morning so we got up a little later than normal, had breakfast, I did some BLOG writing and then we decided to ride around some. We rode out to Table Rock Dam. This is one of the Dams that was built for flood control for the area, thereby creating Taneycomo Lake. We stopped at a cheese store and tasted several types of cheese. We bought a piece of the first one we tasted. Then we went to the Amish Store and got a couple of their prepared frozen meals and a container of cinnamon buns before returning to the motorhome for lunch.
At 2PM we drove to the Pepsi Legends Theater to see the Legends Show. These are performers that imitate famous musical performers. The first act was The Judds. Followed by Garth Brooks, then Pat Benatar and Elvis closed the show. They all sounded very much like the performers they impersonated. The guys imitating Garth Brooks and Elvis really looked like them especially Garth. We were disappointed that The Blues Brothers did not perform as was shown on the schedule but one of them was on a family vacation so Garth Brooks took that spot. They all did a good job as did the backup singers and dancers.
It is much hotter this afternoon than has been all week. We head father North tomorrow so maybe we will get some cooler temperatures.
Day 20 Saturday August 24, 2024
We were in no hurry to leave this morning so we didn’t get on the way until after 9:30 after having breakfast and doing all the preparation to leave. We have about 250 miles to go today.
Coming into and leaving Branson on Hwy 65 we had to go up and down some rather high hills but our motorhome handled them like a champ. When we got several miles away from Branson the terrain flattened out quite a bit.
When I turned on I-44 there were two separate exit lanes side by side which is kind of odd and I took the one to the right but should have taken the one beside it on the left. But I
made a left turn at the Yield sign and was able to get onto the correct highway. That turn probably was not totally legal but no one was looking so no harm no foul. Not sure how far I would have had to drive before I could turn around. You just don’t turn this rig around anywhere.
We ran into a storm with heavy rain and lightning that lasted about an hour. Ever since our experience with lightning damage in May I don’t like lightning.
After driving for a little over two hours we pulled into a Casey’s Truck Stop to take a break and stretch our legs a bit. We walked around the store and then went back to the motorhome and made us a couple of Lattes and had one of the six cinnamon buns we bought yesterday in The Amish Barn in Branson. Yummy.
By this time the rain had stopped, sure was glad because I was not looking forward to driving around Kansas City in the rain.
One thing we have noticed in Missouri is their secondary roads are not identified with numbers. They are identified by letters, like the place we are staying tonight is on road “PP”. Reading the roads signs is about like taking an eye test.
We got to Holts Roadside Park about 2:30PM. This is a Boondocker Welcome Host location. There is no charge to stay here but you must be a Boondockers Welcome member and request to stay in advance and get approved by the hosts. We have been Boondocker Welcome Hosts for many years. We are about 6 miles from the birthplace of the famous outlaw Jesse James. Just as we got stopped I saw a Bald Eagle fly out of a tree across the road.
After setting up, Lena heated up leftovers from our lunch at The College of the Ozarks. Sure was good. About 7PM another Boondocker pulled in for the night. The hosts had told us there would be about 2 guest tonight.
Day 21 Sunday August 25, 2024
We didn’t have but 185 miles to drive today so we didn’t leave until just before 10AM. Even with the traffic on the road beside our Boondockers Welcome location we had a good peaceful night.
We got back on I-35 which was only 1+ miles from our site last night. It is as straight as any interstate highway we have ever been on. Except for a few miles of horrible concrete pavement it was in good condition. They are trying to replace the worst of the damaged broken concrete but the places they repaired are still rough but at least they got rid of some of the horrible potholes. Have I said how much I hate concrete highways.
We took a break about halfway to our destination for a few minutes to stretch our legs and get a snack.
The last 1.5 miles to The Cellar Winery was a very dry dusty dirt road. Well the motorhome and Jeep was already dirty so what. The Cellar Winery is a Harvest Host location. Harvest Hosts and Boondockers Welcome are now owned by the same people. The difference between the two is Harvest Hosts locations are some type of business and Boondockers Welcome is someone like us that has space on their property to accommodate a RV or two on their property for a night or two.
It is recommended that you patronize a Harvest Host by purchasing an item or two of whatever they are selling. But you are not required to just it is recommended. We normally do purchased at least one item at a Harvest Hosts. We have always had good experiences staying at Harvest Hosts locations and even with purchasing an item or two we still are staying with less cost than a typical campground. But there are no hookups normally at a Harvest Hosts or Boondockers Welcome site.
And why do we occasionally stay at a Harvest Host or Boondockers Welcome location you may ask. Well it is a different experience than a campground and we do save some money to spend on diesel fuel. Like this afternoon we sat outside beside apple trees and corn fields and watched barn swallows fly overhead chasing insects. And there was no one around but us after the winery closed. There was supposed to be another guest coming this afternoon but no one has arrived but us.
We arrived at The Cellars Winery about 1:15. John, the owner came out and greeted us and said where we were parked was fine. On Sunday afternoon the winery has a local band come play music outside if the weather permits and inside if not. We parked as far away from the band as we could because we needed to run the generator so we could stay cool until the sun went down.
I took a nice cool shower and we went to the winery building to taste a couple of their wines. We selected one and then set out on the shaded patio to listen to the band that was playing. There was a nice breeze blowing through the trees so it was nice out on the patio even though it was in the upper 80’s. The band was a good group. They didn’t have the speakers so loud you couldn’t hear the singing and instruments.
John, the owner came over to talk to us for a few minutes. His parents had a Tiffin Motorhome like ours for awhile. We thanked him for letting us stay here.
We returned to the motorhome and Lena prepared some spaghetti for a late lunch.
From our motorhome in the parking lot of the winery there are corn fields as far as the eye can see. Iowa grows a lot of corn and soybeans and the farms are huge, unlike back home in North Carolina the farms are smaller and the fields are much smaller. There are very few trees here unlike in North Carolina. This will be the first night we have stayed in Iowa in our motorhome. In 2015 we drove through it on the way to Alaska but didn’t stay a night in Iowa. We don’t count a state unless we stay at least one night in it. As of tonight this will make us 41 states where we have stayed at least one night in our motorhome. Don’t know how we will tick off Hawaii, maybe attach some huge pontoons to the motorhome.
We are less than 500 miles from where we will meet the remainder of the group for our Mississippi River Road Caravan down the Mississippi to New Orleans. We have one more stop before arriving at the meetup campground.
Day 22 Monday August 26, 2024
If the second guest arrived yesterday they arrived after 10PM and departed before 7AM this morning because we never saw or heard them. We appeared to have the entire place to ourselves except we did see a Watchcat lying in the entrance driveway before night yesterday.
It is already getting hot by 8AM. We were on the way by 8:45 for our last stop before arriving in Bemidji MN on Wednesday. We had a good trip today, traffic was fairly light for an Interstate and I-35 was in decent shape. It got a little rough coming into Minneapolis but it seems all the roads around large cities are getting in terrible shape.
We got to Lebanon Hills Campground about 1PM and checked in. They had contacted us earlier and wanted to know if it was ok to switch us from site 30 to 39. The people on 30 wanted to stay 2 more nights and didn’t want to break camp then set back up again. I said sure as long as 39 was a full hookup site. They said it was, had a longer driveway and much more shade. Shade is nice when it is 90+ degrees.
The air conditioners are humming. It is supposed to get much cooler starting tomorrow and we are ready for it. I believe we may have an issue with our dash AC in the motorhome as it doesn’t seem to be cooling as good as normal. Will try to find a mobile technician to come check it when we get to Bemidji.
A thunderstorm came rolling through about 8PM and dropped the temperature from 90 down to 68 in just a few minutes.
Day 23 Tuesday August 27, 2024
Well Happy Birthday to me. We had another thunderstorm roll through about 5:30 this morning with constant thunder/lightning and a massive downpour of rain but it blew past us in about 30 minutes. I looked out the window and the street in front of our site looked like a river.
After breakfast we went to the Mall of America that is about 9 miles from us. That is the reason we are staying here for two nights. We didn’t realize we would be this close until my sister reminded us that it was in the Minneapolis area.
It is quite a place but if you omit the theme park inside and the aquarium it is pretty much like other very large malls. I think they had a least one of any kind of business you can think of. They even had a clothing store for Muslim women.
You have to pay to go to the aquarium which we didn’t do and we sure didn’t take any of the rides. I don’t think my stomach would have enjoyed them very much. There were not very many people there when we got there just after 10 but when we left about Noon the theme park floor was crawling with young kids.
We didn’t walk over but about half of the mall and still we walked almost 2 miles inside the mall. We did stop at Dunkin Donuts for a donut and latte…..big mistake. Lousy latte. We can make a much better one with our coffee maker in the motorhome. They only had two young girls working and they were really busy, the two small tables to sit at hadn’t been cleaned in awhile and I noticed the mop bucket and mop was sitting right next to the latte machine and the mop handle was leaning up against the machine near where they set the cups while making the coffees. The health inspector probably would have not been happy to see that.
We returned to the motorhome for a while before going to Applebees for lunch. Our meals were large enough to box up half of them for a good lunch tomorrow when we get to Bemidji. Then we made a quick stop at Walmart for a few groceries before returning to the motorhome for the day.
