Home at Last

 Its our final run for home. We leave all our camping buddies behind in the St. Louis campground and head to our next stop.

 After a nice drive we stopped at a Jellystone Park on the border between Indiana and Michigan in Angola IN. Again, the overcrowding is a bit much. We were actually their first camper of the new season; they weren't officially open for 3 more days. Looked like a great park; lots to do, just in front of us is the water park.

 We managed to find time to do some shopping at an outlet mall on the way. The place was almost deserted. At times like this you can really see the effect of the recession. A lot of stores had closed as well.

Our final stop before home is near Flint, Michigan. This where we usually stay for our last night away. Beautiful beach and campground but a bit cool for swimming.

 One of the real treats coming home is getting to go through customs. We picked a good day, not much traffic. Got through without a problem. We find coming into Canada is usually a lot less hassle than Harveys annual cavity search when entering the U.S. in the fall.

 First night home and visitors already. The grandkids were excited to see us and we were excited to see them. A sleep over allowed everyone to catch up on whats new.

 Next morning, I managed to get a picture before the tornadoes woke up. They're so cute when they're asleep.

The last days drive was sunny but windy, no complaints there. Now, the next day was a different story. Heavy winds blew all night and we woke up to a snow storm. First time thats happened when we got home since we started our journeys. A couple hours after taking this picture the ground was white. Oh well, we're home and it won't be long till the weather gets nice and warm. This will be my last blog till the fall I think.

Hope you enjoyed our adventures; I know we saw a lot of new and exciting places and enjoyed having you along.

A stop in St. Louis

 Well, I guess we found something blog worthy. Staying just outside St. Louis gave us an excuse to stop by and see the famous St. Louis Arch.

 After going through security and buying our tickets, we spent some time going through the museum. The arch is the centre of the National Park honouring westward expansion. The museum has a great display of artifacts dealing with westward growth and settlement.

 The arch is 630 feet high and has a unique method of moving people up to the top observation deck. 8 small modules holding 5 people each are escalated to the top. They work like ferris wheel gondolas and the trip takes about 3 minutes.

The arch is the highest structure in St. Louis so we looked down on the downtown area. The old courthouse in the centre is a tour in itself; maybe next time.

 The view of the Mississippi river is spectacular from this height. Note the shadow of the arch on the ground. The arch is made of stainless steel and gleams in the sun.

 These small windows allow you to look outside. The walls are sloped because the arch is at it narrowest at the top.

 Here is Grammie at the highest point of the arch. You can see the sloped walls better here.

To leave the observation area we head down the curve of the arch to the gondolas which take us back down. There are stairs all the way to the ground but fortunately we didn't need to use them.

 While looking out the view ports of the arch, we noticed stern wheel river boats offering cruises. Looks like fun.

 Just down from the arch is the Mississippi river. Taking a stern wheeler on the Mississippi just seems right.

 A quick lunch before our boat casts off.

 Its a beautiful day and we are enjoying the relaxing sunshine and motion of the boat.

The arch is huge and we were at the top. Pretty cool, huh.

 This boat was built in St. Louis to cruise the Mississippi river. Its the largest river boat ever built. It could hold 4000 people for a cruise. It never really panned out so it was turned into a floating casino which closed last year. Its been sold for scrap. Too bad, it's kinda unique.

 How about one last picture of the arch. Notice how I cleverly framed the old courthouse; and we were up there, wow. 

We parked on the levee by the Mississippi. After sitting in the +30C sun all day, I had to let some heat out. Its been a fun day and we decided to share it although our last blog was supposed to be the last for awhile. I'm sure this is it; I think.

Branson Missouri

After spending 2 days in Searcy Arkansas getting 8 of Harveys windows removed and resealed, we're on our way to Branson Missouri, the live entertainment capital of the world. And of course its raining. Thats the Missouri state sign.

 The weather was erratic while in Branson so we did a little sight seeing on one of the sunny days. We're at a fish hatchery below Table Rock Dam just outside Branson. 80,000 trout a month are released into the river below the dam for fishing. The dam provides power for Branson and forms a lovely lake behind it.

The Branson Belle was a stern wheeler that tours the lake and does a dinner show. We didn't go.

The main reason to go to Branson is for the shows, so we booked a few and went somewhere every day. Kirby Vanburch was our first show. He's a magician and had a great show which we loved. We hadn't seen a live magician before and its much more impressive than on TV. For his finale, he made a full size helicopter appear on stage. 

The next show we went to see was the musical Noah, based on the story of Noah and the Ark. The set was spectacular. After the intermission, the play took place inside the ark and the seating was surrounded by animal pens from floor to ceiling. There was a mix of live and full size animatronic animals. From elephants to tigers to snakes. You couldn't stop looking around, spotting something new each time. Absolutely mind blowing.

Next show was the Hamner Barber show which was a family show with magic and juggling and the best ventriloquist I've ever seen. It was a lot of fun. As you can probably tell by now, we're trying to see something completely different with each show. 

And this one certainly fit the bill. The Baldknobbers was the first big show in Branson years ago and follows the same style. A lot of country (read hillbilly) music along with corny jokes and routines. Some great toe tapping music and frantic goings on. It was a riot and we loved it. I guess we're hillbillys at heart.

 The next show is Legends In Concert. Impersonators play top name entertainers for a lot less money.

 I helped Elwood and Jake warm up before their set.

Buddy Holley kicked off the nights entertainment. He was a great entertainer and got the audience rocking. He had a great voice and took us back to when we were young; a long time ago.

 The next act up was Toby Keith. He had a lot of hit country songs and Grammie was rockin.

 My favourite was the Blue Brothers. I'm not really a jazz fan but they made it work. Its like the movie came to life, and if you remember their frantic dancing in the movie, well they had it in spades. High energy.

 Next up was Aretha Franklin. Now, I must admit that I was never a fan but boy, could this lady belt them out. A huge voice and I recognized some of her big hits once she sang them.

 Now, what legends show would be complete without the king, Elvis. You don't see an impressionist do the early Elvis very often. I guess its takes less discipline to do the fat Elvis. He sang the early songs like Hound Dog and Jailhouse Rock and of course this was the hip swiveling age so this guy was moving. He was a great entertainer and his voice was spot on. Close your eyes and you'd swear it was really him. What a great evening. We had great seats; we were third row centre and you could see them sweat.

 The last show we saw was the Dixie Stampede. Its owned by Dollie Parton, but she didn't show. Darn.

 Its mainly a rodeo show themed around the settling of the west and the Civil War. Lots of horses and buffalo, soldiers and indians, chuck wagons and an excellent dinner as well. Contests between the north and south were used to keep the audience cheering. We were southerners; boo to the north.

Different acts performed as well. This stage with southern belles singing dropped from the ceiling into the centre of the arena and went back up again. Impressive. It was a fun evening and the food was great. Soup, biscuits, ham, corn on the cob, a whole chicken each and dessert. Now thats country vittles. All eaten without  any implements, the way food was meant to be eaten. Its been a fun time in Branson but now its time to head back to Ontario. There may not be another blog until we're settled back home. Unless of course something blogworthy happens along the way.

Arkansas Next

Well, its time to head out to our next stop. As usual this year, its raining and miserable driving. We're driving through some beautiful country but it all looks like this. No worry about tornadoes though.

 We arrive safely, mainly due to the skill of the driver, and find the weather much improved the next day. Dragging the car behind us in the rain means that its so dirty that it needs a cleansing before we can even see out the windows never mind going for a drive.

 Its a lovely campground in a river valley, just starting to show its spring colours. 

 Both sides of the stream are high stone cliffs covered with trees. We can lay in bed and listen to the burbling stream.

 The camping area is on a level area across the stream from the entrance. The bridge we drove over looks much more rickety from this angle.

 This is a lovely picture of the valley we are camped in with a slow meandering stream with splashing trout and newly budding trees and flowers.

 Just down the stream aways is a picturesque bridge which crosses the stream that we're camped along. Being the curious type, I asked the campground manager if they've ever had a flood here. YIKES! In 2008, the rains started in March and twice that year, the slow meandering stream roared down this narrow valley and this bridge was under water. That means, where we are currently camped was under over 30 feet of water. OMG!

 But, he said, that when they knew water was rising and that solid concrete bridge I showed you was under water, the suspension bridge could be used to evacuate. This is the deck of that picturesque bridge. Would you drive a 24,000 lb RV over this? Heck, I was scared to walk over it.

The advantage of that type of flood was that it cleaned the cliff front behind the outhouse. It sits right behind our RV so its nice to know that mother nature keeps the area clean. Just kidding. Even in Arkansas they wouldn't put up with that crap. :-)