Branson

Today we only had a short drive (about 50 miles or so) up to Branson, MO, so we stayed off the interstate (hooray!) and instead took the back country roads so we could really enjoy the scenery and the small towns along the way. We did stop briefly at another Cracker Barrel to pick up our third audio book - John Grisham's latest novel "The Associate". We are on the third disk and the story really has me intrigued, I can't wait to hear more of it.

We crossed into Missouri, and once we arrived in Branson, we drove down to the new Branson Landing area. The last time John and I were here together, this area was just a huge empty dirt lot, and I wanted him to see what they have done with it. It's now a really nice shopping area along Taneycomo Lake, which is really more like a river, with lots of nice stores, restaurants, and a dancing waters display which I really wanted John to see. Carol and I spent a good deal of time here when we were in Branson last October. But today our timing was off. When we arrived, the show, which happens every hour on the hour, had just ended, so we decided to walk through some of the stores and then try to catch it at the top of the next hour. But once again, we were a few minutes late, and John didn't want to wait around another hour, so we didn't get to see it. It's really cool, sort of the like the dancing waters at Disneyland (is that even still there???) Oh well, maybe another time.

So we got back in the car, got a motel, and managed to get tickets for two shows, one tonight and one for tomorrow afternoon. Tonight's show was "Pierce Arrow", and we thoroughly enjoyed it. In case you haven't heard of Pierce Arrow before (I hadn't), it's a group of 5 guys, one of which has a really deep deep bass voice (always my favorite). They say he is in the Guinness Book of World Records for the lowest note ever sung, and again for the widest vocal range. They also have a couple of female vocalists.

The show consisted of a wide variety of great music - a little country western, a little gospel, some show tunes, some rock and roll, some patriotic. And they had a hilarious comedian who had us doubled over in hysterics. Really fun. Tomorrow's show is "Six" which Carol and I saw in October, and I can't wait to see again. It's 6 brothers (out of a family of 10 boys). They not only sing (excellently!), but they make all the instrumental sounds with their voices. You would swear they had a full orchestra behind them, but there isn't. There are no actual instruments, no sound track, only their own voices. It's incredible!

After the show, we stopped at Andy's for a concrete. This is a special treat that seems to be unique to Missouri, and if you haven't experienced it, if you ever get to this state, you MUST have one. The absolute best ones are at Ted Drew's in St. Louis, but Andy's runs a close second. "What is it?", you might be asking. Well, I'll tell you. It's frozen custard, which is like a very very rich and creamy ice cream, but much thicker, and YUMMY! You can have just about anything you want mixed into the custard (think Coldstone type mix-ins), but it's so thick that you can turn the cup upside down and it won't come out - hence the name "concrete". The only trouble - I forgot just how rich it is and ordered a medium instead of a small. And since we had a big steak dinner before the show, my tummy is very very over-stuffed right now!

Tomorrow after we see "Six", we are heading out again. I'm not sure what our route will be, we'll look at the maps and decide in the morning. I have one more cousin that I have never met who lives in Troy, Ohio, and he has asked us to try to be there by the 15th because his sister will be in town at that time and we can meet her as well. So we'll try to find the quickest route to get to Ohio, and hopefully we'll get there before she leaves.

Well, I better crawl into bed and get some sleep. Stay tuned . . .