So, I failed to mention our problem with the sun roof while we were in South Dakota. We were having beautiful weather and had it open and enjoying the day, but when we went to close the thing it acted like the little back crack was open. I may have tried to use the wrong button and opened it, but we aren't real sure. Especially after I used it again several more times, we were not sure what position it was really in. I ended up grabbing the glass and pulling it while Dennis pushed the real close button and we got it to close - agreeing that we would never touch it again. EVER. Well, until we were driving through Custer State Park. I was trying to get good pics of the buffalo all over the road and decided that standing up in the seat and hanging out the sun roof would be my best option. Except the stupid thing went sideways. My side was opened half way and Dennis' was barely cracked. Ruh Ro. We said we weren't gonna use that thing anymore. We left it alone until we found a place to pull over and got it to close again, but now we hear air as we go down the road. Sometimes it is loud and sometimes it seems to suck down and seal better. Hmm. We have had rain and it doesn't appear to be leaking, at least not yet. Dennis says I will not get a sunroof on the next upgrade. He is becoming quite the bully.
Tuesday, Septembere 1, 2020
So we make it out of South Dakota and back into Nebraska. We land in Sioux City, Nebraska at the Scenic Park Campground. This campground is another Nebraska Ciy Park and is very nice. It is directly on the Missouri River, which is a very swift river or we would have pulled out the kayaks. A very nice place too stay.
Sioux City, Iowa is on the other side of this river, but even though we spent more time over there Dennis would not let me put my Iowa sticker on our map. Gotta stay there in the RV he says. Dang it! Did I tell you he was being a bully?
As some of you may remember from your history lessons, Louis and Clark explored this area via the Missouri River. The visitors center is even an old paddle boat, The Sergeant Floyd River Museum, now dry docked. It is adjacent to a couple of pretty nice museums, the Betty Strong Encounter Center and the Lewis & Clark Interpretive Center. The boat was more of a visitors center, so not that cool, but the others were really worth the visit. There are many things in the area named after Sergeant Floyd. Apparently, Floyd was the only man to die during the expedition and was buried here in Sioux City.
As we were touring the museums we saw this guy we had run into at the RV Park on a bicycle. We were walking around the park and I saw this inverter plugged into an outlet in the tent camping area and there was no evidence of any campers. I had turned to go tell the park manager that it was left behind when he pulled up on his bike. I asked him if it was his and he said yes and we moved on. But I was really curious about what he was doing traveling by bike. So when we saw him at the museum I had to ask. He has traveled over two thousand miles on his bike so far and is primarily traveling US 20. He is often confilicted about taking a couple hundrend miles out of his way to see something when he remembers, he doesn't really have that much time or money. So he has a plan and tries to stick with that. I would be torn as well. I have been torn on this trip and we have much more ease going out of our way than he has. He was very talkative and it is really neat to see someone doing that. In my youth I heard of people (even family) who took backpacks and toured Europe. You just dont see that sence of adventure in people anymore.
Thursday, Septerber 3, 2020
We head to Nebraska City, Nebraska. We are staying a few more days here at the Victorian Acres RV Park. But we will not have sewer at this location. I think we had originally planned to stay only 2 nights, but with the other places along the way we had to adjust this reservation and forgot about the sewer thing. Oh well, we are really close to their bath house and it is very nice. Besides, I can do 5 days! This is a really nice place to stay. The owners think they have found a buyer and are moving back up to Minnesota, so I hope the new owners are as great as the old.
My brother Bryan was able to take the long drive from Tulsa on his Harley to visit us for one night and we really enjoyed seeing him. There is not a lot to do around here, so we really just hung out and visited, but he got to ride his bike and I got to hug his neck. All good things. A picture of us the morning after. I really could have picked a better time to take our photo.
After we said goodbye to Bryan we found the Arbor Day Farms. It is a local apple farm and park - they even have a lodge on the property. They have a beautiful forest that they have put down wood chip paths and it is a beautiful place. They also have 11 tree houses you can climb from one to the other over rope bridges and stuff. That was pretty fun. I know, it is for kids, but we are kids, okay! Such a peaceful place and they even make wine there, but we decided it was probably sweet wine so, nope.
While we were at the Victorian Acres park they had this little guy there. It looked like a caboose.
Tuesday, Septeber 8, 2020
So the weather was spectacular in Nebraska City until we were ready to head out. It was a cold 48* and raining. Since we had not had sewer all week, we not only had to break camp, we had to go dump. The dump station did not have a threaded intake so we had to stand out there with our foot on the end of the hose thing to keep it in the hole. It was really windy on that side of the RV too. It was pretty miserable.
It was a pretty miserable drive all the way into Branson. Fortunately, by the time we got to our RV park, Branson View Campground, it had cleared off and was warm again. We are right on the edge of the park over looking Branson. It is a pretty nice view, but the slip we are in is a full 4 bubbles off level, not to mention that we dragged on the way into the slip and will likely have to back out to keep from tearing up the RV and hitch on the way out. The area is very hilly, but my goodness. They have the slips reserved for certain size RVs and I get that because of their length in the slip, but they should also consider the type. I think a Class C would tear less up getting into this site than us. I really wish I had recognized it before we pulled in. But as we pulled into the slip we dragged the frame about 4 feet on the asphalt and we are not the first. You can see all the marks.
Then we had to get her level. I decided the only way to do that was to raise her in stages. I got her on two blocks, then put three blocks for her to move up on and then finally put 4 blocks and that got her almost perfectly level. It just looked and felt precarious to me. Then we look around and I am not sure we will be able to get the drivers side slide out. They have railroad ties to hold back the dirt for the next slip because it is so much higher ground than we are and I am afraid there will not be my needed three feet there. Come to find out, it actually barely went above the wall there. If not, we would have had to move over a tad more and be more unlevel. I wasn't sure I had enough blocks for that. If we were in a different spot I would say I love this place. It is beautiful. There are trees everywhere and the hills are really steep. Nice to look at, but they do not even allow bicycles the roads are so treacherous.
We had breakfast at Clockers the first morning. It was pretty good. Saw it on the Branson channel on TV our first night here. It is like we're in a hotel and they have the local info channel. Didn't know that was just broadcast TV in Branson. We went further into downtown and found the Amish store. I bought a new wallet there. Then some guy tried to tell me it isn't really made by the Amish, it is made in China. I chose not to believe that!!!
First show we saw was the Grand Country Comedy Jamboree. It was fun, they actually took an intermission and had the camera scanning the audiance. It landed on me and said I had been abducted by space aliens. I don't know how they knew!!!! Then they pulled us up on stage and asked a few questions about our first date, had comedians re-inacting it with us dinging bells for things they got right and honking horns for things they got wrong. It was hilarious. We got two free meals at the Grand Country Buffet for being good sports. The food was really good and I was starving. So it worked out.
My recliner broke. Dennis has it temporarily fixed.
Trying to see if we can get a new cable assembly or have to replace the whole shebang!
We had two different friends recommend to us that we should go to the Trout Hatchery and it is temporarily closed. I had also wanted to go hiking in the Lakeside Forest Winderness Area, but the dang weather was rainy and gross during the last couple of days. The Shipwreck Museum sounded like it would be interesting as well. They have artifacts from shipwrecks that happened way back to even more recent ones. I called and they never answered the phone and the voice mail box was not set up. As soon as I hung up from them I received a text saying they were sorry they missed my call and how they could help. I returned the text asking the cost of the exhibit and they never responded. We went by there when we went to Branson Landing and they were open. Not sure why they did not want us to come see them. 😕
Next thing we did was the Dolly Parton's Stampede Dinner Attraction. Recommended by my good friend Belinda Fountain. Thanks! It was a whole lot of fun. They did trick horse riding, dancing with horses, and even had dog and piglet races. The whole thing was very patriotic, but the ending was very much so. We both enjoyed the entire thing. We were first row, but I do not think there would be a bad seat in the whole arena. They served us a biscuit and soup for the first course, a whole cornish hen, 1/2 a potato, earlet of corn and a slice of pork tenderloin for the second course and after all of that followed an apple tart. Dennis ate every single bite of his. He and I usually split a cornish hen at home and have leftovers. He said he was hungry, but WOW!!!! I think my doggy bag weighed 5 pounds. It literally took me two other sittings to finish it off. And no, I didn't share with Dennis. LOL.
Dreary day and we are all lined up waiting to be let in.
They actually took your tempurature and asked if you had been exposed to a confirmed case of covid.
They had a buffalo drive, a cattle drive and even a wagon train.
Didn't have anything to do until 7:30 one evening and it has been kinda dreary weather here. We noticed that none of the shows have alcohol availabe, nor does there appear to be a full blown bar anywhere. So we went out seeking one. They had a 'Starvin Marvin's' so we thought for sure they would have a full bar like the one in Beaumont did. But no. They started to send us to a Mexican Restaurant when I found Crazy Craig's Cheeky Monkey on the map. What? We know Crazy Craig so we had to go there! They had a pit smoking meat and a few bikers. they greet you with some Deep Eddie's Lemon Vodka shot called the Easy Sqeezy Lemon Breezy. Funny. We sat outside and had a couple of drinks. The staff was super cool. They work well in tandom and are a real team. They were really pretty funny too. See this story about the real Crazy Craign below:
I really wanted to go see an illusionist while we were here, but couldn't get into see Rick Thomas. I thought that was the only one here. We had been seeing signs for Reza, but had no idea what it was until we had booked the other two nights we are here. Yes, he is also an illusionist. Dang it! Dennis keeps saying we need to leave something for next time. I guess the Illusionist will be that for Branson.
We did get to go see the Acrobats of Shanghai at the Mickey Gilley Grand Shanghai Theater. Did you know that Mickey Gilley is still alive and performing here with Johnny Lee. He is 84 and Johnny is 74. They call it the Urban Cowboy. How funny! Anyway the acrobat show was cool, the brochure showed a lot more challenging feats, but even the performance we saw was pretty amazing. I've seen better, but the strength of these guys, WOW! Still a fun evening.
They had this pretzle lady and a balancing guy
Of course the tight wire guy and this other balance guy.
Then the girl who dances with ribbons and guys that fly through rings.
All of these shows had a comedy element and that is always good for me.
We went out to the Branson Landing to have a drink before the boat ride this evening and they have a Guy Fieri restaurant. I really wish I had known that. We hit the Landshark because it is right next to the fountain and we enjoyed a couple of drinks there. Next we went down to the Black Oak Grill and got a drink there too. They have a happy hour, so we saved some money! We are on a fixed income you know. It is a real nice place. I kinda wish we could have had a meal there too.
Next up is the Showboat, on the Branson Belle, a paddle boat. It is a dinner cruise on Table Rock Lake. We chose the evening cruise because the water is just so peaceful at night. The food was really good and they had dancing and singing with a little comedy thrown in there too.
All in all we had a really good time in Branson. I must say I was a little surprised how many venues are currently closed and the buildings for sale. I hope this doesn't mean that Branson is peaking. Maybe it is just the darned Covid hurting so many people right now. I hope they are able to overcome. It is a really family friendly fun place.
We will be in Shirley, Arkansas tomorrow at the Golden Pond RV Park. I will be looking for Henry Fonda and Katherine Hepburn while we are there. May have to find that movie and watch it.
Until next time! Yal'll be safe.
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