Captain’s Log – Star Date 07092009
Location – Stagecoach RV Park, Branson, Missouri
Trip Miles – 2112.9 miles
Engineer’s Report – Everything’s Cool! Cleared for transit to Galaxy of Kansas!
Weather Report – Warm and sunny.
Diesel Price - $2.45 per U.S. gallon; loaded 40.8 gallons while giving advice to two enthusiastic RV-ing newbies from Branson.

Branson is a Christian Las Vegas! That was our first impression, as we roller-coastered south on U.S. Highway 65 into the Ozarks. Billboard after billboard after billboard showed brilliant-smiling entertainers offering family-friendly shows. Are we Vegas Veterans virtuous enough to be here? There is much more to the Branson story than this limited initial impression will yield!

It is true that Branson, a city of 6.050 inhabitants, contains 52 theaters and 213 hotels. Many of these establishments, vivid and gaudy, crowd Main Street like the great gambling palaces line the Vegas Strip. It is also fact that 8 ½ MILLION people visited Branson last year! It’s also true that Branson is placed in absolutely GORGEOUS Ozark Hill country and is home to seriously gracious and friendly people. In a word --- we are glad we came here!

The Commodore and I plan to have lunch today at the impressive College of the Ozarks. The college has a School of Restaurant Management which includes a restaurant run by students. Students at the College of the Ozarks MUST have (1) financial need, (2) top grades, (3) good moral character as certified by five letters of recommendation, and (4) must work 15 hours a week in addition to attending classes. Interestingly, if a student does get admitted to the College, he or she gets a first-class college education COMPLETELY FREE OF CHARGE…including books, meals and lodging! Word has it that the college restaurant is a good one. We shall see!

Now…PLEASE…Brothers and Sisters, don’t get MAD at what I am about to tell y’all! The Commodore and I are both church-going Christians…but Christianity hereabouts is OVER THE TOP! Christian Radio is HUGE here, with announcers continuously and meticulously stipulating that the stations’ supporters are all Christian owned-and-operated concerns! We like gospel music…particularly men’s groups with stellar harmonies and great bass singers! However—as with ANY musical genre, including classical and jazz---there is great stuff and stuff that is marginal, to put things mildly. After a couple of syrupy numbers poured on us over the “Hankerin’ Fer Him Radio Program”(I’m serious! That’s the title!), we were glad to make it over to our secular Starbucks and sip a strong brew!

Over in Arkansas, you have a 67-foot statue of Jesus overlooking the city of Eureka Springs. You can get your Christian tee shirts at a big store nearby! They are loudly advertised on billboards on Highway 62, many miles before you arrive! So DOMINANT is the Christian culture here that we are SURE the ice cream sold next to Our Lord’s statue is pure-Christian ice cream!

When we arrived in Branson, we immediately connected with Bob and Peggy Bednar, San Diego friends who are Branson enthusiasts. They helped us get good show seats, joined us for dinner at a great fish restaurant and gave us recommendations on what to see and do! At Bob’s and Peggy’s suggestion, we “Rode The Duck”. The “Duck”, a World War II amphibious vehicle, was the unique platform for an informative presentation on Branson and the surrounded area. Our captain affected a Good Ole Boy accent…but he was, in fact, a razor-sharp retired science teacher with an encyclopedic knowledge of this historic area. It was he who gave us the Branson facts with which I started this writing. He also reminded us that Missouri suffered mightily in the Civil War with the deaths of 27,000 of its citizens. Missouri stayed in the Union. Arkansas, which lies 10 miles down Highway 65, seceded and joined the Confederacy. Sadly, recorded history shows this war to be brother against brother and neighbor against neighbor.

Entertainment here is presented with energy and heart --- and incredible talent! We saw three shows here …Shoji Tabuchi, Acrobats of China and SIX (a vocal group of six brothers). These fast-paced variety shows were fresh and delivered with passion! You can drop a lot of cash when seeing shows here – however, from what we saw, the entertainers really give you your money’s worth!

We got our exercise here as well! The Commodore and I made a geocache hike along the peaceful Big Cedar Wilderness Trail south of Branson. We walked up and down the ultra-steep streets of Eureka Springs, an engaging arty Arkansas town situated above natural springs long-regarded as sources of healing by both Indians and white people. During the Civil War, this sanctuary treated wounded soldiers from both sides. The Ozark country in Arkansas is lovely and reminds me of Vermont!

Not all our ventures were successful, of course. We rode the Branson Scenic Railroad, which ran north into the woods. For forty long and slow miles, we stared at an impenetrable wall of forest! B-O-R-I-N-G! After this unfortunate experience, The Commodore authoritatively directed her train-nut husband that there would be no more “scenic vintage rail journeys” on this trip! No MAS, muchacho!

Lambert’s is an experience not to be missed! I wouldn’t have dared to miss this eating establishment or I would have incurred the wrath of Art Morris! Art is a feisty retired U. of Missouri engineering professor and Branson buff who got in my face and said we had to eat there! Billed as the “Home of Throwed Rolls”, it’s a huge comfort-food restaurant where hot fresh rolls are literally thrown at you! Eat’em slathered with sorghum along with fried okra! M-M-M,G-O-O-D! My cardiologist will LOVE to hear about this!

Enough of my words, folks! Commodore Barbara is an inspired photographer and photo-editor. Her displays tell a story of their own! So….please enjoy them! Click on each of them to enlarge them.

Oh, one last thing! That College of the Ozarks student-operated restaurant I mentioned previously? OUTSTANDING!

Affectionately,

Captain Baldy