We left home on Sunday morning. Traffic on Hwy. 44 was light, probably because it was a Sunday. We stopped in Pacific for breakfast sandwiches, since we ate a light breakfast to avoid doing dishes. We stopped in Lebanon for lunch at Burger King, which is close to the interstate exit.
I used the GasBuddy app on my phone to report gas prices and to check on gas prices. This is a very handy app to have whether you're on vacation or not. Thanks to the wonderful gas mileage that my new vehicle gets, we didn't need to fill up the gas tank until we got to Casey's in Ozark.
We stopped at the nice rest stop outside of Conway. There is a room in the rest stop with brochures, catalogs, etc. and a lady that tries to steer you to a timeshare place in Branson to purchase show tickets, but it was closed since it was Sunday. It must have been one of ex-Governor Greitens' budget cuts.
We decided that we wanted to stay on Indian Point this year. It had been 10 years since we had stayed on the Point, due to financial issues. We chose to stay at Golden Arrow Resort. It had lots of great reviews on TripAdvisor and Yelp. And the price was right - we reserved online and only had to pay the first night's rent as a deposit. July 4th week is one of the most popular summer weeks to vacation in Branson, so I like to get our reservations in early. I made our reservations in February.
We arrived at Golden Arrow at 1 PM, which was earlier than the normal check-in time. There was a phone set up on the porch with a number to call to check in. The owner's wife came when I called and she checked us in. She went over the resort rules and gave us the wi-fi ID and password. We had real door keys since this is an older resort.
We put everything away and although there were some plates and pots and pans, I realized we had forgotten to purchase plastic silverware. There was also no serving utensils, such as spatulas and serving spoons. I told hubby that we needed plastic silverware and he said that he didn't want to drive back to Walmart. There are a couple of convenience marts on the Point. The closest one was at the Cottage Resort, but they were out of plastic silverware. So I drove up to the Deer Run convenience store. Thankfully, they had plastic silverware. There were also 2 dogs behind the counter, which I found interesting. Since I had no serving utensils, I improvised by using two plastic knives to turn the bratwurst patties I was cooking for supper.
Monday was our day to pick up tickets/vouchers for tickets and make some other stops. I had made reservations for the Presleys a couple of weeks before, so we stopped there first to pick up our tickets. Our next stop was the Walmart on Hwy. 76 to pick up serving utensils and a plastic measuring cup so I could make mac and cheese.
Our next stop was Branson 2 for 1 Tickets to pick up vouchers for Pierce Arrow Decades. After that, we went to Branson Landing. We went to Bass Pro Shops and several of the other stores. We ate lunch at Garfield's.
Our next stop was the Pierce Arrow Theatre to get tickets for Wednesday afternoon's show. After that, we went back to Golden Arrow to cool off and rest for the rest of the day.
On Tuesday, we stayed at Golden Arrow until after lunch. We had a Groupon deal for Wild Wood Miniature Golf. We played there for about an hour. It looks like an easy course, but it wasn't. Wild Wood is an indoor golf course, so it was a good way to keep cool.
We had an hour to kill until we could go to the Branson Famous Theater to see Reza: Edge of Illusion, so we went to the Grand Village shopping center. We visited several stores, but the one we enjoyed the most was the Dickens Christmas Store.
Reza's show was very enjoyable. He was very down to earth and performed some spectacular illusions. He was friendly and worked well with the children selected to perform with him. This was our first visit to the Branson Famous Theater but it was obvious that it was an older theater. The seats are narrow and not very comfortable. The theater was about half full for a Tuesday afternoon, probably due to the KY3 deal (which we used) and the Groupon deal. When we came out of the theater, we discovered that it was raining, with some pea size hail. After we left the theater, we went back to Golden Arrow for the evening. I went to the pool and the hot tub to relax after supper.
After we left the Shrine, we visited Andy's Frozen Custard for some yummy frozen custard. We then walked over to the Tracks, where we went to the arcade and blew $30. All we had to show from all of our tickets was a travel dominos game. I think that was the last time we will visit the arcade for a while.
After our visit to the Tracks, we had some time to kill before the show, so we went to Tanger Outlet Mall. There are a lot of stores in that mall. You could probably spend a whole day shopping there. We visited several of the stores and then left for the Pierce Arrow Theater.
The show we attended that afternoon was Pierce Arrow Decades. It was an excellent show, covering music from the 1960s through the 1980s. You could tell that this quartet had sung together for a long time - their voices blended very well and they had a great chemistry. The comedian, James Sibley, was hilarious. Our son (age 21) was one of the youngest at the show and Sibley had a great time picking on him, but the son was a good sport about it and shook his hand after the show. It was a well-paced show. We are discussing seeing the regular Pierce Arrow show next year. The Pierce Arrow Theater is a very nice theater with comfortable seats and very nice restrooms.
After the show, we went to McFarland's Family Restaurant in the Branson IMAX complex for dinner. We had 2 $10 certificates from Half Price Ozarks and surprisingly, they took both of the vouchers. That cut some money off our bill. We had great food and great service. We then visited a couple of shops in the IMAX complex and then went back to Golden Arrow.
We were hoping to see the fireworks display at Chateau on the Lake from Golden Arrow. There was a small clearing facing Table Rock Lake across from our room, so after it got dark, we carried our lawn chairs over to it and saw not only the Chateau on the Lake display but the Hughes Brothers' display, the Hollister display, and (I think) the Branson Belle or the Top of the Rock display as well. And we didn't have to fight traffic either. We met our Golden Arrow neighbors and found out they were Kansas City Royals fans, so we discussed baseball for a while. Here was our view, daytime version (ignore the large sign, this was taken from across the street):
On Thursday morning, we went to the IMAX theater to see "Ozarks Legacy and Legend" for free using a coupon I picked up at Branson 2 for 1 Tickets. The theater was nice and cool and the seats were comfy, which made me sleepy. The movie was okay, for a freebie. It was shown in the IMAX theater, and I remarked that Jurassic World would have looked really scary on that big screen. After the movie, we went to Steak 'n Shake for lunch, at the location near what used to be Celebration City. We had great service and got our food and shakes promptly, unlike the service we've received at other Steak 'n Shakes as of late.
After our lunch, we visited Curling Vine Winery for the wine tasting. We went to the wine tasting there several years ago (when it was Stone Hill Winery), but our son wasn't old enough for wine tasting. He is now, so we decided it was time to revisit. The films at the beginning were dated - in fact, they were the same ones we saw the last time we were there. We then went into the wine tasting room. The young man in charge of the wine tasting was very knowledgeable, however, and was able to answer any questions asked of him. After the tour, we went back to the cabin to rest up and refresh ourselves for the evening's activities.
We went to dinner at Montana Mike's. There was a photographer there who wanted to take our photo, but we told her no. The restaurant is much bigger on the inside than it looks on the outside. The service was prompt and the food was great. We had $20 certificates from Half Price Ozarks and like at McFarland's, both certificates were accepted. We would come here again.
We drove around the parking lot of the Best Western next door to get turned around to go back on Hwy/ 76 and I noticed that there were two parking spots where you could plug in an electric car to charge it up. This was the first time that I have seen electric vehicle charging spots in Branson. I'm sure there are more. If you know where are vehicle charging parking spots in Branson, please comment below.
Our show for Thursday evening was Presleys' Country Jubilee. We saw this show 2 years ago and really enjoyed it, so we thought we'd see it again. I found no ticket deals for the Presleys, but their prices are reasonable. We went to the 7:15 PM singalong with Clayton, which is held in the balcony upstairs. Clayton is an excellent pianist and he knows how to work a crowd.
The Presleys' show is a great mix of music and comedy. The musicians and vocalists are extremely talented and the music is great without being slick. Herkimer and Cecil were hilarious, as always. It started to rain and storm heavily during a Herkimer/Cecil routine and Cecil said, "I didn't call for any sound effects!" He didn't miss a beat. The house was packed for a Thursday evening. We enjoyed the show and were glad we went.
After the show, we went back to Golden Arrow and caught some of the Cardinals game on TV while packing up some of our belongings for the trip home the next day.
We left Golden Arrow for home on Friday morning. I left behind the serving utensils for the next guests since we didn't need them at home. If we stay at Golden Arrow next year, I'll make sure we bring serving utensils and measuring cups.
Traffic was once again light on Hwy. 44 on our return home. We had a great time in Branson and we'll do it again next year!
Thanks for reading! See you next time!
Diane
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