June 19, 2021 Branson

 June 19,2021

Each night, I guard my humans.  I lay on their lower paws, or maybe their haunches and protect them from floating away.  It is exhausting, but I must ensure that I have food in the morning, so it is the only way.

This morning, our walk took us down a county road.  It is dirt, but in good shape.  There is a nice canopy of trees and the temperature is quite comfortable.  Homes are sparse and the properties are quite large.  Spouse went with me the first mile, then I continued on for about another mile.  There is a pond, and a black dachshund that decided she wanted to escort me.  I talked to her, but did not pet her as I did not want her to get to far from her home, but she didn’t seem to mind.  When a truck came by, he told me this dog wanders all the time so just let her be.  A couple of times I turned around just to see what she would do, and she turned around too.  So, we ambled back to the RV park together.

We readied Hannah for her next journey, which is to Branson, Missouri.  We have heard about it through the years, and it is right on our path, so why not.  I had another fight with Lady Gagarmin.  She refused to take highway 160 no matter how I coaxed her.  I finally got tired and we went the extra 25 miles she insisted on.  I hate her.  At least it was a beautiful drive.  She took us down one road, and Spouse was kind of complaining about the smallness of it.  I told him Lady Gagarmin has an even smaller road that is totally out of our way that she is taking us on. 

It really is a pretty part of the country.  There are ranches with alfalfa rolls all around.  There are rolling hills.  We go up, we go down.  I call these ‘whee’ roads.  But then we go left and right.  We are not moving too fast.  It is green, with ponds and streams.  It is RURAL.  There are no other cars, as who would be stupid enough to take this route unless they had to (or unless the GPS gods were messing with them).  At one point, we passed this beautiful water wheel, with a dam.  Even though this was so out of our way, it was definitely pretty.  We finally got to highway 160.

Highway 160 was a little wider, and occasionally had a business on it.  It too was windy.  We pass a huge lake with submerged buildings and power poles and such.  I think it was by design that they created the dam and everything that was there would just get wet.  We ultimately made it to Branson, and found an RV spot at Turkey Creek Rv park.  They give us a newspaper circular with a gazillion coupons to every attraction around.  Oh, I can tell this is not my schtick!

Getting into the RV spot…  well, this was fun for everybody!  It is a back in site, however, with the rig across the road, there is very little room to maneuver.  People don’t realize that to back up a rig like Hannah, you need lots of swing room up front.  We had an inch, maybe two…  Back and forth, back and forth… our neighbors had to move their truck and lawn furniture, another came to assist with the backing.  It was a community event!  But, Spouse pulled it off.  We set her up and decided to explore.

Branson is everything I thought it would be.  I look at it as Las Vegas without the gambling.  Tourist, give me your money!!!  There are lots of discount ticket offices, amusement rides, theater after theater for live performances.  Wax museum, Ripleys Believe it or Not, souvenir shops and all sorts of things that Spouse and I have absolutely no interest in!  But we had to check it out.  One night will be just fine for us. We did have a good Thai meal in the historic area, and Spouse actually bought a wallet at a leather shop.  He whined about the cost but he still bought it and I have it on digital!

We checked out the local Elks Lodge.  Actually, it isn’t too local, it is 13 miles away on the windy highway 160.  And although they do have RV spots, it was too far for us.

Rudy sure is demanding some outside time.  I think he has cabin fever big time.  I took him for a walk.  It was dark, and the fireflies were out. They are magical to me!  Rudy paid them no attention.