Back from Branson!

Our family went to Branson last week on vacation.  Here's a rundown of our activities. I will post reviews of the motel we stayed at as well as the shows we saw. 

Monday morning's breakfast consisted of donuts and milk in plastic bottles, so I wouldn't have to wash breakfast dishes.  We left around 8 AM.  We ran into road work on Hwy. 44.  The weather was fine until we ran into rainy weather right outside of Eureka. We didn't stop at the first rest stop because it was pouring down rain. By the time we got to Sullivan, it was only sprinkling, so we stopped at Jack in the Box so we could go the bathroom.  We were hungry (donuts only fill you up for so long), so we got a little breakfast.  I had a coupon for a buy one, get one free breakfast croissant, so we only spent about $5.00.  I was a little chilly since it was cool and rainy, so I bought a $1.00 coffee.

We got back on Hwy. 44.  We stopped in Lebanon for lunch around 11:15.  There are lots of fast food restaurants on Jefferson Avenue.  We ate at Taco Bell, even though I had no coupons.  Hubby wanted something different for lunch.

After lunch, we got back on the road.  We stopped at the next rest stop, which is a few miles outside of Lebanon.  This is the nicest rest stop on Hwy. 44. It has a Route 66 motif.  It has a playground and a nice  building with clean bathrooms and lots of bathroom stalls. There is a separate room with lots of Branson brochures and information on other Missouri attractions. The lady behind the desk perceived that we were going to visit Branson, so she gave me a card with directions to a place where I could get show tickets cheap. 

We stopped at the Casey's in Ozark to stretch our legs and use the bathroom.  It was still raining a bit as we were driving down Hwy. 65.  There were wispy clouds touching the tree tops. I thought it was fog until I looked a little closer.  There are two ongoing areas of road work on Hwy. 65 due to bridge construction, with only one lane open in each direction. 

We arrived in Branson around 1:15 PM.  We drove to Angel Inn, the motel we stayed at.  Thankfully, our room was ready for us, even though we got there before check-in time.  We unloaded our stuff, and then my son and I went swimming while hubby rested.

We went to Steak 'n Shake on Hwy. 365 (across from the old Celebration City) for dinner.  I had a S'nS e-club coupon for a buy one, get one free banana shake and a regular coupon for a free drink, so our bill was around $13.00.  We then went back to the hotel for the rest of the evening.

On Tuesday, we went Walmart to pick up a loaf of bread for lunch and a couple other items.  We then went to Branson 2 for 1 Tickets to purchase vouchers for the Haygoods show. We drove back down the Strip and viewed the damage from the Leap Day tornado that hadn't been cleaned up yet.  Hubby said it looked like a bomb had hit some of the damaged hotels.  We then went to the RFD-TV Theater to exchange our vouchers for tickets for that evening's show. On the way back to the hotel, we stopped by Grand Village to look around.  We went into a store or two.  I tried to get our son to sit in the giant rocking chair so I could take his photo, but he didn't want to. :(

We went to Pizza World for dinner.  It has a great location - right next to one of the Track locations.  I had a coupon for a buy one, get one half price pizza and salad buffet.  My son and I made the mistake of not following my own advice and ordered soda, so our bill was around $23.00.  Sodas were about $2.00 a piece. We went to the Haygoods show on Tuesday evening.  I will post a review on the show later.

On Wednesday morning, we went to the Jim Stafford Theater to exchange my radio station vouchers for tickets to the show for that evening.  We stopped by the Presleys' theater so I could visit my friend Melanie, who posts on the 1Branson.com forums.  It was a nice visit.

On Wednesday afternoon, we visited the Shepherd of the Hills Fish Hatchery.  This has been a favorite place to visit for us - it's free (except to buy fish food) and it's neat to see all the rainbow trout. There are lots of fish to feed.  There are special presentations by the rangers.

We left the hatchery and drove across Table Rock Dam to visit the new Dewey Short Visitors' Center.  We visited the original Visitors' Center several years ago, but it was torn down and the new center is very nice, with several interactive exhibits, one of which is pictured below:

We went really cheap for supper Wednesday night - we got a $10.00 pizza from Pizza Hut.  It was right down the street, so I didn't have to drive very far. Total cost (along with 2 sodas from the hotel vending machine) for supper was $12.50. We went to the Jim Stafford show that night and enjoyed it.  A review will be forthcoming. 

On Thursday morning, we went for a little walk. We saw a dead deer on a grassy area about half a block east of the motel.  I reported it to the front desk clerk so that she could call Animal Control or the city of Branson to have the dead deer removed.  I'm sure no tourist wants to see that.

After lunch, we drove to Branson Landing.  We had missed the fountains in past years because we didn't realize that they aren't turned on until after noon.  So we got there right around noon and I got a great photo of the fountains.  We nosed around in a couple of the stores and I got a new Bass Pro Shops t-shirt for $5.00 (my only souvenir).  We then hopped on the free shuttle (which was air conditioned!) and rode it to old downtown Branson.  We got off the trolley behind Dick's 5 & 10.  This store really packs in the merchandise.  Not only was there a lot of merchandise, there were a lot of people there as well.  So we left there and went to the Branson Centennial Museum.  There was no admittance fee and there were a lot of interesting old photos and great displays.  The guys were getting tired, so we hopped back aboard the trolley and went back to Branson Landing.  We drove to Dairy Queen and treated ourselves to some ice cream since it was a hot day.  I had coupons for Dairy Queen too. 

Since I got paid on Thursday, we spent a little bit more money for supper that night.  We went to McFarland's in the IMAX complex.  I did have a 10% off coupon, which took off a little bit off of the price.  We did follow my advice and all three of us had water.  The waitress gave us a strange look for ordering water, but oh well.  We saved about $6.00 by not ordering soda or tea. 

We had no shows planned for Thursday night, so we just went back to the motel and hung out.  The son and I went to the pool and hot tub and hubby relaxed by watching the ball game. 

We left for home on Friday morning. :(  I never want to come home when we go to Branson. We fueled up the Jeep at the station on the corner of Green Mountain Drive and Hwy. 165. We stopped at McDonald's in Sullivan for lunch.  This is our usual stop on the way home. 

I hope you enjoyed the recap of our trip!  See you next time!

Diane