Branson Finale

We wrapped up our Branson visit with a few more shows.  Once again, all the pretty girls were falling all over my Dad.

Watching Dad, I had another of my rare, brilliant thoughts.  Recalling the old saying, "The acorn doesn't fall far from the tree", I asked the young lady in the second picture if she would be so kind and let me have my picture taken with her.

Smiling sweetly, she said, "Sir, I don't do Beauty and the Beast poses".

With all the dignity I could muster, I held my head up high and slowly backed into a nearby crowd, my tail between my legs.

In one of the shows, there was incredible talent.  A family show, with all the kids.  These kids had more talent in their little fingers that I have in my whole body.

Just amazing talent. 

We enjoyed all of the ten shows and the Duck ride we did, in just five days.  When you're not full time, you have to cram as much fun into the limited time you have.

One of the interesting things I saw was this RV.  It is a Vixen .

We left Branson Saturday morning and tried a different route home, up to St. Louis and then East on Rt 64 through Illinois, Indiana and spent the night in my old Kentucky Home, also known as Flying J.  I guess you could call it "Flocking", a derivative of boondocking.  For inquiring minds, don't buy fuel in Indiana, it was 25-30 cents more per gallon than any other state.  Fortunately, I was just topping off the tank with a few gallons of diesel.

Another early start and we drove the rest of the way home, a nice day, sunny and warm.  Beautiful countryside and views of mountains through Kentucky and West Virgina.

The ride home was uneventful except for one almost mishap.  NASCAR drivers may be quite talented but their transport drivers, or at least one, was not.  The transport driver passed me and before he was half clear moved over into my lane, forcing me completely off the road and on to the shoulder.  I won't mention any names but...

All tolled, we drove 1100 miles from Branson to our home in Northern Virginia, splitting the trip again into two days.  The Journey ran really well, it is approaching the 40,000 mile mark and the CAT diesel engine is getting broken in.  I saw miles per gallon rise a bit from a 7.5 mpg to 8.3 mpg.  That is towing the Element and running around 65 mph.  I'm liking that.

We've decided the next time we go to Branson, hopefully we'll be fulltimers.  Then the drive out should take us a week...or two.  Right now I'm trying to let my butt re-inflate from the 500 plus miles per day legs.

I'll do a post of the shows we saw and our recommendations in an upcoming post. 

Thanks for visiting and feel free to leave a comment.