Lots of Fun but no Turkey!

With the first picture can you guess where we ended up on Thanksgiving Day? You guessed it - Branson,MO. We were pretty determined to head West - with no stops - when we realized that we might like to be somewhere special on Thanksgiving. (So we wouldn't be too lonely!) We turned North 170 miles from Little Rock, AK and found ourselves listening to Andy Williams on TG Eve. It was great fun. We almost skipped it - but we have heard about Branson for so long that we felt we might regret it. As it turned out we had two days - four shows - and plenty of time to explore Branson. The weather the first day was 70degrees and the second day 30degrees and sleeting! When we got back to our home we learned that tornadoes had been dancing all around us.

Do you remember me telling you about Pigeon Forge - extreme carnavalism? Well, for our tastes Branson is only a little bit better. The locals tell us that 20 years ago it was small and quaint - easy to get around - a little homey. Not any more. Traffic - and
more commercial endeavors than imaginable! Still we loved the shows - most all of them are very good - not as many big names. They all got too old!!

The lights you see make up my pictures. Branson has a beautiful outdoor shopping mall on the river - the town spent 7,5 million dollars on a computorized fountain that performs to music. The bright lights are huge natural gas flames (I mean huge - 7 pipes as big as a ships smoke stack). We enjoyed it!

Our hosts at the RV park were from Twinfalls, ID and on their way retirement. They could not talk up enough the region of the Ozarks, the Lakes, Hiking, canoeing, fishing, shopping and much more! They said many people come to stay 3 or 4 days and stay three weeks! Now we can say we have been to Arkansas, Missouri, and the Ozarks and Branson. Not bad in two days!

Today, November 26 we drove just past Oklahoma City. We really can see the end of our trips. Barring the unforseen - like blizzards - we should be able to make Boise in five days. Count it - five days! We can barely believe it - we have always felt so far away from home. But now we have it in our sights. Yeahhhhh!