Before we left for our trip to CA spring was barely emerging and I was pretty anxious.  One day I would wear shorts and by the end of the day it was cold & cloudy.  The Bartlett Pear trees were starting to bloom with a million little white puffs covering the branches.  When we got back there were no longer any white puffs, now there are beautiful purple/pink blooms on a different variety of tree.  They tell me these are called Redbud.  They are scattered everywhere and are both trees and bushes.  They are quite beautiful.   There also are some tulip bulbs blooming and lots of pansy’s.   So far we have white blooms that have turned into bright green leaves, purple blooms everywhere, and bare branches.  This feels like spring in slow motion!   And the weather is still very odd.  Yesterday was a beautiful day with temperatures in the 70’s. Today I am waiting to see.  It seems warm and the sun is out with quite a breeze.  Tomorrow and next week the weather is supposed to drop back into maybe FREEZING!  My wardrobe can’t handle all these seasons!!

With spring also comes babies.  The day we got back the managers here had a Puppy shower for their new Chinese  Crested, Black & White powder puff.  She is adorable and has plenty of HAIR!  All the workampers were there for the cake and ice cream.  The dogs were all invited of course and they had ice cream also.  Duke really liked the treat and finished his before some of the others even started!

Redbud across the lake

Redbud mixed in the landscape

On sunny days the mountains look beautiful with the purple blooms mixed in with the bare trees and the brightly green leaves.  Another thing I have been seeing here is the lawns are blooming – not only dandilions like we have in CA but there are also several other types of blooms and I don’t think they are weeds, they are little purple blooms and some areas have crocus blooms.

Branson Landing Fountains

Another sign that the people of the midwest think spring is here!  The tourist area of Branson Landing has this fountain display every hour and usually no one is sitting, watching.  On Friday everyone was out enjoying the sunshine and the display.  The boat in the background is a tour you can take around the lake.

We left today to deliver the New Hampshire RV to California.  As we were driving over the same route we came East on a few weeks ago I was looking for something new.  In the midwest they take there freedom of religion seriously; billboards along the highway with scriptures and phrases of god.  But then right next to these billboards you will also see billboards or even store fronts for Adult Stores!  There are Adult Stores really often along the highways and interstates in buildings that use to be either gas stations or ordinary stores.  All the signs are painted the same way, bright yellow with bold, block, black lettering.  I wonder?

Something else I noticed is that in the few weeks we have been in Branson Missiouri things are starting to come alive with spring fast approaching – I can’t wait!

Did you wear green?  We had a potluck dinner here in Branson with a few of the couples that stay here for the season and just like every potluck I have been to there was enough food for at least twice the people attending.  No green beer though! 

I did learn an interesting new term, Pitch-in!  That is potluck from Indiana or North Carolina!!!  The person sharing it was not sure where she picked it up as she is from Indiana but has lived in North Carolina for the past 20 years or so.  Pot-Luck, Covered Dish, Pitch-in it doesn’t matter what you call it, it still means “Going to eat TOO much!!!”

We are starting to really settle down into our life here, Paul actually took a few hours away from work and took me golfing!  I haven’t been able to find someone to golf with yet and really wanted to get out and golf.  The golfing here is more for the vacationer so they have several really nice courses but then of course the fees are pretty high.  The city course is only a par 3, nine hole but that is where we went and from my score I better stay there for awhile and improve my game – Paul beat me by a bunch and we can’t let that happen!!!

Weather:  It finally improved!  Today was in the upper 70’s and beautiful.  The lake was full of people and not just fishermen anymore.  We even saw a seaplane (I think that is what they are called) land and take off while we were lounging at the local hangout during happy hour!  I am told that just cause the weather has warmed up it can get cold again and they are expecting it to get back down in the low 60’s by the weekend!  Good thing we are heading west! 

Paul has to make a quick trip to CA to deliver the RV we picked up in New Hampshire.  I was kind of hoping they would forget and we could just have 2!  We leave Branson on Thursday and will get to Fresno on Sunday evening and then we will leave on Tuesday to get to Santa Barbara to see Amy and then back to Missiouri.  A quick trip with no site seeing but I am not complaining cause I get to see my girls!  It has only been 2 months but it seems like we left CA much longer ago than that. 

Happy Day everyone

Sunset today was beautiful and the whole sky was lit up in pink for about 10 minutes. 

We have been here just over a week and have made several observances so far about the differences from CA.

Every show we have been to so far take time out of the show to acknowledge Veterans by saluting them and asking them to rise so the audience can applaud them.  They also speak openly about God, country, and being grateful for what we have.  Quite a difference from what I am use to.  I like it, however being from CA where everything is so politically correct it felt odd at first but one entertainer summed it up by saying “Branson is a place where you can say Jesus without offending anyone”  It seems to me that that is the way things should be no matter what or who you are speaking about.

Something else that I have observed is the weather!  Did I mention it only got up to 35 degrees yesterday!  I was wearing shorts and tanktop last week when we got here.  I am looking forward to it warming back up and they promise me it will.

People also seem to really enjoy the small things in life. (and I am not sure if this is unique to Branson as I haven’t had enough free time to really observe in CA or anywhere else yet!) The people here seem to spend a lot of time just relaxing along the banks of the lake.  You will see whole families or just couples just sitting along the banks, fishing, reading or skipping rocks.  Last week (cause no one is out this week!  remember 35 degrees) on Friday afternoon I saw several groups sitting along the banks each doing their own thing but somehow together – it was pretty cool to just sit back and watch these families interact in such a simple, cheap way.

And, People here are really into their fishing!!!  There is a bass tournament in town this week and everyone is talking about it.  Paul & I don’t get it.  Especially the sponsors on some of the boats.

Bass Boat tournament

 These are the boats with sponsors and they are lined up exactly perfectly the same.  I think they got measuring tapes out to make sure each trailer’s wheel was in the same location!

This is one of the boats and tow vehicle; What exactly does Febreeze have to do with Bass fishing?

I still miss California everyday and tell anyone that will listen about “Home” but I am so happy that I am out here and getting to see how the rest of America lives and learn about what is important to them and how they see life.

Happy weekend to everyone!

We have been very busy doing not much.  We spent several more days just learning our way around town and enjoying not having a schedule.  We went to two more shows which both were excellent.  One of them is called SIX and it is 6 brothers from a family of 10 brothers!    These guys were truly amazing; there are no instruments played and you keep looking for the instruments because there is so much music!  They create the music with their voices and microphones.  They also were good entertainers and interacted with the audience a lot.  If you ever get a chance to see them (I think they are only in Branson) you need to do it!  The other show was a group called Pierce Arrow.  I didn’t really care for the singing all that much but they have a comedian that is excellent without being dirty, or using bad language at all!  Pretty unique for us hardened soles from California!  The comedian was not just an act, he was part of their show and was on stage throughout the show. He did the promotional advertisement of the groups CD’s and touristy crap which was so funny I forgot he was trying to sell us useless stuff!

We had another great dining experience!  Actually it was a happy hour experience.  It was wing night where wings are $.34 each and come in 3 different heat recipes.  You order as many as you like in groups of 10.  They also have beer on sale; either $3.00 for a glass of draft or a bucket of 5 Miller for $5.00!  $1.00 a beer was even within Paul’s budget!!!!  All this and the view of the lake was amazing.

I joined the local city gym and the library this week.   The gym was free, uncrowded and brand new; the library cost me a $20 deposit and one of the books I checked out was on the new releases shelf and they rent those for $.10 cents per day!  I better get to reading or I could have bought it !!!

Paul  has a small complaint about the RV park and what  stuff we are suppose to get with our site in exchange for working our hours.  

That's all the wood they are going to provide?

Happy daylight savings day!  This is my favorite time of the year; Longer days, springtime and warmer weather!  We woke up this am to another great storm!  The wind came thru with some really dark clouds and dropped a bunch of rain making everything outdoors a mess.  The whole thing lasted about 15 minutes and took out the power in the whole city for about 1 hour!  The midwest is going to take some adjustment!!!  Then we heard on the radio there was a tornado moving thru Southeastern Missiouri.  I think these people are crazy to be afraid of an earthquake – at least with an earthquake there is no warning!  They were broadcasting to several towns that the tornado was coming their way within the hour, what do you do for that hour besides be afraid!!!!

Today we decided we should try some local cuisine and headed out to Billy Bobs Dairy for a burger.  It is Sunday so I guess Billy Bob was in church and doesn’t work on Sunday.  We found another place that is new and no one had been there yet so we were being brave.  I have had so many lousy restaurant meals while on the road I was really concerned about trying somewhere without a recommendation.  This place was amazing.  It is called Checker’s, Home of the Stuffed Burger.  The menu was actually pretty creative and not so midwestern.  They had things on the menu such as a burger stuffed with blue cheese crumbles and bacon.  There were several salads that looked pretty good but they also had a special for lunch on Sunday and that was southern fried chicken with smashed potatoes, gravy, fresh corn, cole slaw, homemade rolls and fresh southern cooked green beans!  I had to have it and see if the chicken was really fried like mom makes!  This was the most amazing food!  I felt like I was 10 years old again eating my moms fried chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy.  Not exactly your health food menu item but who cares!  When you get food that good you have to eat until you can’t sit any longer!!!  Oh, I forgot, it was all you can eat!!!  Paul had a burger that was about 8 inches high.  We will be back, maybe next Sunday.

After lunch I decided I needed some exercise so I planted some spring flowers and arranged some things in our mini-yard!

Our frontyard

The view from our patio

RV office, Laundry

The RV park is really small, only 160 sites with no tent camping.  The office is small but the people are really nice and the rules are just suggestions – so far!!!  I really like this place and we are calling it home for a couple of months.

Enough driving for a few days or hopefully weeks!  We are settling in at the RV park and getting to know the area.  We should be here untill June when we return to California for Amy’s graduation.  It is still the off season here so the park is pretty empty and the landscape is still very winter looking although the weather is shorts & t-shirts.  There are not many people out and about yet other than in town driving around.  The traffic is already pretty congested so I can imagine what it will be like during the season.

We are doing a lot of the stuff tourist come to Branson for.  We have already seen 2 shows; Spirit of the Dance and Bart Rocket.  Spirit of the dance is an Irish dance company and were pretty amazing.  I wonder if their lower legs were even attached to the rest of their bodies!  Bart Rocket is a magician, illusionist and a pretty good ventriloquist.   Pretty good entertainment for the price we paid! 

Today we also drove around the area and stopped at the Table Rock Dam which dams up the water entering Tannycomo Lake.  Tannycomo Lake was actually a river and runs infront of our RV park.  There is a dam at both ends to creat the lake that is a good trout fishing lake.  At the Dam they have a fish hatchery where you can see all the trout you want.  They have viewing tanks with 20 lb Brown & Rainbow Trout which if I knew anything about fish that would be impressive!!!!  The outdoor tanks had so many fish the water looked oily and black!  I found it sort of discussing and didn’t take any pictures.  There are lots of birds that think it is buffet so they have to put netting over the breeding tanks to protect the fish.

This Red bird and her partner were much more fun to watch while at the fish hatchery.

 Table Rock Dam

Table Rock Lake

We finally got a little site seeing in because the temperatures actually got above 50 degrees!  On Interstate 70 you drive right by the St. Louis Arch and I have already driven past it 3 times without getting to stop so this time I insisted.  Paul had been before and had bad memories of his vehicle being broken into.  Where you need to park RV didn’t look really safe so he and Duke stayed behind checking out the operations along the shore of forklifts, tractors, boats, etc. while I went to the Arch.  Actually Paul wasn’t going to the Arch anyway because he says just looking at it makes his stomach roll!  I was very excited!  You travel in a little bubble with 5 other people up the inside of the arch with no view of the outside and then you are dropped off in the very top of the arch which is 630 feet above ground – way cool!

They were willing to pose but not go any closer.  The arch really doesn’t look that large nor does it arch over any of the roadways but you can see it from a ways into Illinois and coming into St. Louis.

A cocoon for 5

Cardinals Baseball

Pools on top of these hotels

Park entrance to the Arch

Catholic Church

View of the Church from above

Another beautiful sunset

We arrived back in Branson late Wednesday night and start our newest adventure in the morning.  Wish us luck!

The only way to travel; one for him, one for me!

That is what it is.  We left Friday afternoon, stayed on the interstate and made it to New Hampshire by Monday am to trade Motorhomes and were on our way back to Branson, MO by 2 pm.  Not exactly my kind of trip but we had a few bumps along the way!  It is cold here in the Eastern 1/2 of the USA and Motorhomes are made for travel in warmer climates!  By the time we got to Ohio Saturday am it was in the 20’s! and the heat only works when you are going because this rig didn’t have propane! 

We have traveled this path before so when we hit Erie PA and then Buffalo NY seeing the signs for Niagara Falls brought back memories of the other times we were in the area.  Paul and I on our first trip back from NY stopped at Niagara Falls, did the boat to the falls and only have the memories in our minds cause the camera didn’t work and we had to buy the slides in the gift shop!!!! My second to Niagara falls was with the girls and my mom.  We had a wonderful time and lots of pictures to show for it.  If you have never been to Niagara Falls it is definitely a tourist attraction worth putting up with the crowds and the tourist trap stuff.  It is truly amazing to see.

American Falls

July 1993- Amy & Stephanie standing infront of the falls.

We made it to Utica, NY Sunday afternoon and had a great, quick visit with Paul’s 2 Brothers and wives and his sister, her husband and 2 boys.  That is what makes this trip to NH worthwhile because we had not seen one of his brothers in 3-4 years and the others in over a year.  After dinner we headed East again and had to spend the night in a Truck stop in Massachusets to 12 inches of nice fresh snow!  The temps got down into the teens and it really wasn’t fun.  Paul says driving the rig in the snow was not bad and it really wasn’t very slippery however we did stop as soon as snow started accumulating on the road.   I am missing Arizona a lot now!!!

Duke doesn't seem to mind the cold

Infact I think he likes it!!!

 We got to the RV dealer in NH and were hoping for a great seafood meal; the weather was really not looking good and Paul really wanted to get south out of the snow before dark so we left (without that meal! next time!) and headed West.

We had to spend another night on the road and the temperature this am was about 12 degrees!  We let Duke out quickly and got on the road hoping for warmer weather, so far it is almost 30 degrees and it is noon!

I saw enough of the little hamlet area in New Hampshire to know we will definitely be back and next time it will be in the summer and for a much longer visit!

So far the cheapest gas is $1.59 in Amarillo; the most expenisve $2.29 at Meteor Crater, AZ.  Yep we bought the $2.29 stuff! 

We drove 620 miles in 14 hours!  Paul gets into a mode of getting there and I can’t stop him.  I almost refused to go further when I heard on the radio in Arkansas there was severe weather warnings and then the lightening started but we were on the interstate and finding a place for two motorhomes and a tow car takes some planning.  There was no time cause we were heading right into the storm!  If I hadn’t been driving my house across the country I would have been really enjoying the storm!  It was amazing, the lightenng was behind the clouds and lighting the sky up like daylight!  It was truly beautiful although at one point we were slowed to about 35 miles per hour but no one except the occasional maniac truck driver would pass but no one else wanted to go any faster either.  We heard reports on the radio of 60 mile an hour winds and hail the size of nickels but we didn’t see either only lots of heavy rain, lightening and big thunder!  The storm lasted about 30 minutes and as soon as it ended we found a really nice truck stop to pull into!  Never mind, keep driving.

We got to our campground in Branson found our site, parked, and went to bed right after Paul hooked up the cable.  The cable didn’t work so no TV still!

This is the place where we will do our workamping until June and I was really nervous but after meeting 2 of the couples that have been here since September and checking out the location I think it is going to be really fun.  Starbucks is about 4 blocks away and we are right on the lake.  Duke and I wandered all around the campground and fed the ducks. 

I know I am going to like this place, one of the couples came over and invited us to wine tasting!!! We had to take a raincheck cause we are heading out this afternoon for New Hampshire.  We were told no rainchecks cause wine is on the menu everyday!!! Yeah!  I ‘m in.

Duke may not be as impressed because first thing we got him a hair appt and he spent the day getting groomed so we can head off to New Hampshire.