Oct 9th to 11th - Branson, MO

Oct 9th - Tues - to Branson, MO
Another beautiful sunny day for driving to Branson. We stopped at a visitor info site in Nevada (with a long “a”) not far across the border in Missouri. They gave us the usual books & pamphlets and then told us that the local radio station had show tickets for sale at very low prices. They are given the tickets in exchange for advertising and then have a auction on Friday evenings. You can then go and buy tickets at the highest auction bid price. Of course this was a small town and the radio station was downtown on narrow streets so Terry was nearly ready to bag it when we found the station and a place to park. We ended up with 6 shows - no big names - for $90. Most of the shows were normally $25 to $35 per person.
Stopped at grocery store just out of Springfield and then started calling the RV parks in the PA book. To our surprise and dismay, Sept & Oct are busy months here and places were full. We found one PA park that could give us a space for Wed, Thurs & Fri and then said they could put us in a pull through (normally reserved for very long rigs) tonight. So even though we would have to move and also wanted Saturday, we said fine. By the time we got to the park I realized that one show was only on Sunday night so we would need Sunday as well. When Terry went to register, the owner said she had switched some rigs around and could give us a spot through Sunday. At $15 per night we were happy!
When we were setting up, the large slide started to go out crooked. Thanks to friends having this problem, Terry knew what to look for (missing bolt) and thanks to a neighbor with a box of misc parts, he was able to replace the bolt and all is well.

Oct 10th - Wed - Branson, MO
Branson is set in/on hills with a lot of trees - quite pretty. We waited until our new site was vacated and then moved before exploring a bit and finding the theaters for our shows.
We went to a show called “Comedy Jamboree” this afternoon. A variety type show with dancers, singers and comedy. The pianist in the band was incredible. They were filming the show and showing it on two large screens at the same time. The pianist’s hands were moving so fast that they blurred on the screen.
There was an group of 3 men playing guitars & drums and singing in the covered picnic area in the RV park so we walked over and listened to them for a while.
We are parked in the trees and one of the trees is a hazelnut tree. So we get nuts hitting the roof. We will have to sweep the slides before we leave.

Oct 11th - Thurs - Branson
Cooled down a bit today but still sunny. We went to the “Buck Trent Morning Show” at 9:30 today. He is a banjo/guitar player who has played for 50 years with various artists including Porter Waggoner, Dolly Parton and Roy Clark and on shows such as Hee Haw. There was a band (of course), 2 excellent fiddle players and a guitar player who sang a lot. After asking the audience about birthdays and anniversaries, they played Lara’s Theme from Dr Zhivago (Somewhere My Love) that was absolutely wonderful. The entire cast sang on some songs and they had to throw in some jokes and one-liners. Very enjoyable. The shows yesterday and today were both 2 hours with a 15 minute intermissions so they could sell some CDs.
Drove around some and had lunch before going to another show at 2. It was “Island Fire” and not country at all. It was a group of 14 dancers from Samoa who performed Polynesian dances. There were also a couple of guys who twirled flaming torches. The male dancers had amazing energy and speed while the women performed traditional “Hawaiian”, graceful dances with storytelling hands and swivel hips.