How do two people who are living in their RV and traveling throughout the US spend their 25th wedding anniversary?  DRIVING!!!!

We left Memphis around noon and wanted to get back to Branson and to Duke before dark.  We made it and Duke was very unhappy to see us!  It turned out he had been pretty depressed since yesterday and as soon as I saw him I knew he was sick, not depressed!  He had infected ears and a fever.  Dogs with long floppy ears are susceptible and this was his first ones.  He was in a good amount of pain for 2 days.  Anyway when we got home there was no way I was leaving him again to go to dinner and I was tired anyway.  We decided to go to a local joint that Paul had been trying to get to since we had arrive in Branson, Billy Bob’s Diner.   Definitely a local dive with great milk shakes and burgers.  More like a first date than a 25th anniversary but we were together and I guess that is what counts!

Paul saw this on TV before we came to Branson and so with all these country people he asked and we got, about 12 different versions of the same thing as far as I can tell!  We all got together and bought the ingredients; sausage, chicken, fish, shrimp, potatoes, onions, carrots, corn-on-the-cob and eggs.  They started cooking it in a turkey fryer about 3 pm and we ate at 5:30 so not really a long time.  It was pretty good and Paul was really happy cause it is kind of like stew!

The most fun was listening to everyone tell how they make it and thinking theirs was the true country boil!

Not only does Branson have musical entertainment they have live auctions.  They have been bringing cars in all week for this thing and it is all the talk!  Paul went, I didn’t so you will have to ask him about the auction.  He did tell me they had cars for as little as $4K but no one was bidding!

We hosted our first cocktail party at our house last night and it was a success just like our parties back home in San Jose.  They were forcasting rain but it waited until 10 pm which is quiet hour here in our complex so that worked out perfectly!  Our outdoor entertaining area is a bit smaller, and the bar doesn’t have any seating but the pool is much larger!  Having friends over is one of the things I really miss about Home so now I am good to stay on the road a bit longer!!!

I am happy to say that for once we got to do something other than our taxes today, infact we didn’t even have to work on them this week.  We spent the day in a much happier place, spending money and supporting the local economy.  We went back to Silver Dollar City because the weather has finally warmed up.  Like Branson, Silver Dollar City has lots of shows and the big attraction this month was the Zhejiang Acrobats of China.  This was a great show and I was most impressed with the opening act which were balleria’s that spin a yoyo type of device on silk strings while doing ballet and then juggling these devices while juggling theirselves and doing acrobatics!  Very hard to explain and impossible to film.  The big act was the balancing monks – it was so intense our heads hurt for them when it was over.

Annie came all the way just to see us!

When we arrived home to the RV park, Annie and her mom from Kansas were here to visit.  Annie was visiting her mom and since it is only 4 hours away, came down for the night.  We haven’t had much practice having visitors but we tried to show them the sites and sounds of Branson!  We took them to our favorite show, SIX.  The second time for me was even more impressive than the first – these 6 brothers (out of 10 brothers) put on an incredible show with no backup music!  One of the brothers, the drummer they make fun of him commenting he “SPIT’S for a living”.  They use their voices to create all the music etc. 

Annie and her mom spent the night in our sparse accomodations without complaint so I guess we are good for more visitors!  Come visit us we have room.

Thursday morning we took our guests (actually they took us!) to the local breakfast spot and then we gave them a quick tour before they had to get back on the road for Burlington, Kansas.

Annie is very familiar with the local foliage from growing up in the Midwest.  She tells me these are weeds but they look beautiful in everyones lawns during the spring to me.

Spring is finally here – the sun has been out most of the week and we have only had rain one night and that didn’t even get the ground wet!  FINALLY, I guess this means we can stay a bit longer – I was starting to wonder.

Hope everyone had a very Chocolate holiday!!!  I did!  We were really good and spent the morning in Church.  The catholic church here in Branson is quite large with seating for 1300 x 4 masses per week,  but only has a parish of 450 families.  Visitors make up most of their numbers.  Easter was no exception here, even with seating for 1300 there was more than 50 people still not able to find a seat.

In the afternoon the group of workampers had a potluck Easter dinner complete with easter eggs and Ham!  Very good of course. 

Happy Easter

Paul has this big trip planned to go to the Nascar race at Talladega in 2 weeks and yesterday he realizes that we cannot take Duke with us.  This poses a problem as we can’t leave him home and have someone care for him cause we are taking the house!  and besides we don’t know that many people here yet- and the ones we know also live in their RV and generally with a minimum of one dog, usually more so we are scrambling to figure out what we do with Duke.   Do we leave him in Branson, MO or do we bring him along and put him in some sort of Kennel in Alabama?  We started checking Kennels and realized he also needs his vaccinations updated for kennel cough and heartworm!  (They only expired this month so I am not a negligent parent!).  Anyway, we don’t know what we are going to do but today was a visit to a very nice veternarian and $148 later Duke is all set for another year.

It was a BIG day

Paul & I really liked the vet; Duke was not so impressed and spent the afternoon sleeping on the couch.

Space Shuttle

On our way home from the vet Paul decides we need to see some more of the Ozark Mountains.  It is a rainy day so a good day to site see from the car!  This was the most interesting thing we saw today and it was parked in a Methodist Church parking lot.  We figure it doesn’t move and is probably somehow related to ????  Check out the thruster tubes – they are made with?

50 gallon garbage cans & wash tubs

Spent the rest of the day inside writing to you all that are actually reading this stuff.

Spring Puppy

I received this cute picture today in an email from my friend and just thought it explains how I feel about spring!

Today was such a beautiful day we decided to play hooky and get some exercise and fresh air!  There are many short trails around the Branson area and so we found one that is about 2 miles long down the side of a mountain so about 1/2 of it is uphill!!!!  There is so much blooming and so much that has not even started so we are going to have to try the same trail in a couple of weeks when the hills are covered in trees with foliage.  There were lots of butterfly’s of all different colors, black & yellow, red, white & yellow, white & black and some really large bumble bees (at least that is what they sound/look like!)

This was the only one I could get my camera focused on!   Most of them were dancing in the air.

Paul teaches his boy how to hunt!

We have been spending a lot of time indoors as it has not gotten over 40 for about 4 days!  The good news is it is giving me time to get my taxes done (great fun!). 

We did try to get out on Sunday and go to the local amusement park, Silver Dollar City.  They were having a special festival however we didn’t last long as it got really cold.  Before we left we did take in the cave tour, Marvel Cave which is how the whole amusement park started, with tours of the cave beginning with a giant sink hole!  Very cool, 50 stories into the ground and we had to walk all the way down and 15 stories back up before they finally put you on a tram.  The cave was pretty cool.

Cave walls

Walls raining?

We stood here and watched a blowing a glass vase for almost an hour. No wonder hand blown glass is so expensive!

What do you see?

Paul & our friend George are watching one of the craftsmen or maybe they are just standing there wondering where they could go and get warm!  It was right after this we decided to call it a day and go home.