Twists, Turns, Up & Down

Tony and I try to stay off of Interstate Highways and take back country/county roads as much as possible. I am sure everyone understands that you see more and always stumble on a few surprises.

Our Onstar navigator, yet to be named, quickly realized we did not want to take her original fast track route and recalculated. She read our minds as we travelled from prairie lands to the hills of the Ozarks. The countryside was beautiful with the flowering Dogwood, Magnolia, and Red Bud trees. We passed through small towns, many that looked deserted, mom and pop businesses I am sure scraping by, small ranches with cattle, goats and sheep, and the largest high schools we have ever seen, with stadiums. They probably bus kids in from near and far.

After leaving such a (tri) angular environment in Bartlesville, we felt free; we were alone on the road that ran straight as an arrow, our view was far out into the horizon, then gradual change, a little hillier, slight turns entering Missouri. Rolling grassland appeared and the pines were starting to pop up in abundance leaving the mighty oaks, pecan and walnut trees behind us. About an hour out of Branson we were on roads, all alone, that did not have numbers but a “Z”, “TT”, and I think an “F”. The curves were as tight as hairpins and I felt like I was back in Europe climbing up and down, up and down, one hill after another. It was great.

The Ozarks cover a significant portion of south Missouri and we were in a part of the mountainous region. They are noted for their scenery, forests and lakes, a popular tourist region we can see why. It is more rugged, the vistas are stunning, there are lots of little lakes, that apparently are fish filled, hiking and biking trails and caverns. We saw many signs for Cave Tours. Branson is in the Ozark Mountains.

We arrive, it is overcast, 18 degrees and I think it may rain. After settling in we head out to a local bar and grill where Tony enjoyed a cold local brew and I had a Branson Bloody Mary, the ingredient list was Branson Moonshine, Zing Zang, tomato juice and pickled vegetables. What the heck, it was worth a try and it was amazing. I stopped at one!

Entertainment was a “seasoned” cowboy belting out old tunes from Conway Twitty, Johnny Cash, Hank Williams, and various other artists, while strumming his guitar and talking a blue streak in his gravelly voice, in between. He played for Veterans, who raised their hands when asked, thanking them for their service and seranading them with “Proud to be an American”. As we left he thanked us for listening and wished us a blessed journey.

Tomorrow we are embracing this little itty bitty town of 7000, that attracts 7 million people every year to 100 glitzy shows in 49 theatres on its own neon-studded Vegas “Strip”, since 1959.

I will let you know about our “Show” experience tomorrow. We are staying in a Deerhurst type hotel that has a few activities for adults only, children only broken down by age, and families. Tonight the Adult invitation was for Sangria and Salsa, we passed, tomorrow there is a “Moonshine” tasting at 5:00, thinking...........about......it......