The Finished Product…
Need I say more? Just check out the pictures!
*sexy meow*
The HOT new lights!
Rear View 😉
The sexy new fender Stangs
They're really shiny close up!
Yay, us!
Good Stuff from the garden!
All the hard work is going to pay off. The garden is starting to take shape. Our tomato plants are perking up (one even has blooms already), one jalapeno plant survived and the corn is up and doing well. I’m not too sure what I’m going to do with the turnips Duane planted, but they are thriving Seriously, what are turnips good for?
Gardening is good for the soul, also good for reminding me of muscles I haven’t used for a while!
Back home again.
Well we are back from Branson. It wasn’t exactly what we expected but we still had a really good time. There’s definitely not a lot to do at night there. The streets are bumper to bumper during the day, but at night you’ve got free run of the place! If we were to do it again, we’d definitely try to rent a cabin or something out by Table Rock lake, just to have some nice space to relax in during the downtime.
The big building is called the "Chateau on the Lake" or something like that.
Tons of places to fish and camp. And the water was crystal clear!
Cottages down by the marina.
It’s so beautiful out there. All sorts of trees, hills, and water. I’d love to rent a house boat or something sometime and just spend a week out there fishing and drinking beer, and taking in some of the sights. I’m a geeky boring person, so I really enjoyed all the museums. Some were better than others, but the Titanic museum is well worth the price of admission (and at $20 a person that’s saying something). Come to find out, that big ship outside? Yeah, only 1/2 scale. MAN was that a big boat. No pictures allowed inside, so soak it all up while you’re in there. We spent 3 hours there, and I’m sure we didn’t get a good look at everything.
There’s also Ripley’s Believe it or Not museum. Just a collection of weird cooky stuff. Kinda neat but thought it was a little pricey. The Hollywood Wax Museum was very cool. The Dinosaur Museum has life size replicas of Dinosaurs. Pretty cool, kids would LOVE it! I would have liked more scientific info, but it was still neat to get up close to T-rex and others.
Big ole Stegosaurus.
Say goodbye!
Everything in Branson seems to cost at least $10. So take your number of stops planned for the day. Multiply by $20 and add food and gas, and there’s your budget. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not to say it isn’t worth it, but a lot of times I found myself forking over $20 or $30 just because I knew I wouldn’t have a chance to do this stuff again for a long time. (Which I’m sure is their plan.) $10 a person to ride an elevator 16 stories seemed a little steep, but I’m still glad we went up Inspiration Tower, and got a good look at the Ozarks. $10 a person to ride one of the 50 different go-kart tracks… lame. Since when do gokarts AUTOMATICALLY hit the breaks going down hills. 20 m.p.h. speed limits FTL. $10 per person for a really retro indoor mini-golf was okay since we had the whole place to ourselves pretty much. But they could have been a little more creative with the course designs!
Inspiration Tower
Branson from the top.
Goofballs
Indoor mini-golf. Fun, but I recommend one of the 17 outdoor mini golf courses (unless it's snowing).
In Branson, you're never more than 100 ft. from a gift shop.
Part of what surprised me about Branson is just the atmosphere. I knew it was all about country music, and live shows, but the way the city is laid out creates a very confusing experience. With so many hills around, there’s not too much “off the beaten path”. There’s just not that many paths to choose from. So mixed in between really upscale theaters and condos, you’ll find old vacant buildings reminiscent of the 50’s and better days. Then you might run across large cleared and undeveloped areas. It’s almost like the town is caught between two eras. The old tie the suitcase to the top of the car, Griswold family vacation days, and the new multi-million luxury timeshare days. And without space to separate the two, it just seems odd. Not bad or scary, just not what I had expected.
I’m glad we went and I had a great time. But I probably won’t be back until we have some kids to take with us, or we get a group of people who want to split renting a cabin on the lake or something. There’s no shortage of things to do there. Which reminds me, we never did go see a show. Not really Andrea or I’s thing, which surely adds to why we might be Branson misfits. Haha. It’s not the cheapest vacation if you plan on running and doing stuff all day everyday. But like anywhere there’s always fun things to do that don’t cost a dime. Like taking in the lake or visiting the fish hatchery! (Seriously, it was actually fun.)
Trying to decide the best way to torture these fish.
Table Rock Dam and powerhouse.
Oh yeah. We rented a Mazda 6, and now Andrea wants a new car. Greaaat.
Don't get used to it.
She never even let me drive it on the road. I got to pull it around the hotel once.
Speaking of cars... just saw this driving around. All I can say is WTF?
A real "head turner".
Welp, I have a little over a week left at Dillon’s. Better get to work!
We’re in Branson
We’ve had this trip planned for a while, and I can’t believe it’s already here. We were messing around on the internet one night and discovered Branson is home to the Titanic Museum. Andrea’s a big fan of the movie, and I’ve always been facinated by the story since I was in grade school, so that was kinda the seed that was planted to start the planning.
We got to town around 4:30 or so, and have just kinda been feeling our way around so far. There’s a lot of stuff here, but honestly I feel a little out of place. Branson seems set up for two different demographics. The Senior Citizen, and the Family Vacationer. Lots of buffets, gift shops with oversize broaches, and about 200 different go-kart tracks and water slides. And of course TONS of shows to go see.
But that’s not to say there’s nothing for us to do. Just today in the short time we’ve been here we found a nice microbrewery called Charlie’s and I had an excellent dark wheat beer while Andrea enjoyed a tasty chicken-fried steak. We also visited the Hollywood wax museum. Lots of celebrity figures and stuff and they let you pose with ’em and take your own pictures even. Pretty cool. I know Mom’s coming in a few weeks so I won’t post all our pictures and spoil it, but here’s a couple of my favorites. The rest of the pictures are in my Picasa gallery if you want to see who else is in the museum.
Jack Black and I sharing expressions.
This one kinda freaks me out because the picture almost looks real! Even the wax Hef' can get the ladies in bed!
So we’re back at the Holiday Inn Express now. In our SECOND room. At just before midnite (while typing this post actually) water started dripping from our ceiling into our room. Tried to call the front desk… but the phone didn’t work! So I make myself halfway presentable and go up to the front desk and explain what’s going on. Didn’t have to be mean, or nasty or anything. And they sent somebody over to look at the leak, and immediately moved us to a king suite! Nice. We don’t have our own hot tub or anthing, but it’s a lot nicer room, and all it cost was a few drips!
But now I need to sleep. Tomorrow is on to the Titanic museum, and whatever else we end up doing. Who knows! Here’s a few pics we shot today of the outside of the museum. I don’t think the ship is QUITE full size, but it’s damn close. 4/5 size maybe. Still pretty darn big.
ICEBERG! I hope the museum is still floating tomorrow.
Weird to see half a ship right in the middle of town.
BONUS!
I was trying to explain to Mom tonight what these little lights are on Andrea’s new headlights. Just next to the main headlight, it looks kinda like a fog light… only it’s not really bright enough to light anything up. It doesn’t do anything, so I’m just calling it a “bonus light”. Since the original lights didn’t have these, I just tapped into the park lights, so there ya go. Bonus lights on Andrea’s car!