2025 Branson trip review

We left for Branson on a Monday morning around 8:15 AM after saying goodbye to our cats. We made a couple of bathroom break stops, but we didn't stop at Wally's in Fenton this year - it pales in comparison to Buc-ees. 

I had been bugging my hubby for years to stop at the Uranus Fudge Factory. You can see it on Hwy. 44 on the westbound side, if you're headed south towards Branson. My hubby would always make an excuse that he was in a hurry to get to Branson (can't argue with that) or he was in a hurry to get home. This year, however, he wanted to stop and visit. 

The Fudge Factory complex has several different attractions, some of which are pictured below. It is famous for its fudge. 

The water tower

The sideshow museum

The feathers in his headdress
were lollipops.

This sign reminded me of the sign on M*A*S*H.

We purchased our usual refrigerator magnet and left for lunch, which was at Culver's in St. Robert. If you enjoy Culver's, there is one in Branson on Shepherd of the Hills Expressway, not far from Price Chopper.

Our next stop was the rest stop outside of Conway. We picked up brochures and guidebooks. There was a nice flyer offering discounts for shows at the Little Opry, as well as buy-one-get-one-half-price entrees at McFarland's, Florentina's Italian Ristorante, and Heroes Tastes and Taps.

Once we left the rest stop, our next stop was Buc-ees. My hubby topped off the gas tank, and then we went inside to look around and to visit the bathroom. I have a sweet floral St. Louis Cardinals backpack, which I wear on my back. Some young punk tried to steal my backpack off my back, but my hubby saw him and stepped between me and the punk. Always keep your eyes open wherever you go! 

The next stop was Walmart in Branson on the Strip, where we picked up a few items, and then we drove to the condo where we would be staying. We were happy to see that there were only 2 steps up to the sidewalk in front of our condo. I had made arrangements with the host to get in at 3:00 PM rather than 4:00 PM. However, we arrived a few minutes before 3:00 and the door code wasn't working yet. We had to wait a few minutes. Once we entered, the condo was very nice, although I had to turn the thermostat down because it was a little warm. We stayed in the same condo complex that we stayed in a couple of years ago in the Falls, but on the second floor. There was a nice, screened porch where we could see the pond. 

We went to our first show on Monday night. We saw "Million Dollar Quartet" at the Shepherd of the Hills complex. In all the years we've visited Branson, we've never been to the SOTH complex. We went to the box office to exchange our OzarksDeals.com vouchers (no longer available) for our tickets. A Chicago Cubs fan saw my Cardinals backpack and started a conversation. 

The show was excellent. The actors were talented, and they were also great musicians. However, the man playing Jerry Lee Lewis was short and chunky, unlike the real Jerry Lee Lewis, who was tall and skinny. The young man (he couldn't have been older than 21) who played Johnny Cash looked, sang, and played guitar like the real Johnny Cash. This is the last year that "Million Dollar Quartet" will be playing at the Shepherd of the Hills, so you'd better go this year if you want to see it. We would like to go back to the Shepherd of the Hills complex the next time we're in Branson and do some exploring. 

On Tuesday morning, we went to the Aquarium on the Boardwalk. There is a sliding ticket price depending on what time you want to go. We went early in the morning to beat the crowds. There are also various discounts on the website. We took advantage of the "neighbor" discount, even though we live in southwest Illinois. Plus, you can download your tickets to your Apple Wallet or your Google Wallet. No worries about printing and/or losing tickets. Here are some photos of the Aquarium.

The fountains and that huge octopus. 

The displays were very nice. There was a video, but the husband and son weren't interested in viewing it. It only took us about half an hour to go through the Aquarium, and I didn't think that was long enough for what we paid, even at a discount. I bought my usual vacation souvenir. 

After we left the Aquarium, we drove across the street to the Grand Village shopping center. The shops weren't open until 10 AM, so we sat in the car until the stores opened. We visited the Dickens Gift Shop and the Dickens Gift Shop Boutique (they no longer sell Simply Southern merchandise - sad), Back in Time Toys, and Kringles Christmas Store. We then stood in line at the door to Mel's Hard Luck Diner so we could get in when they opened at 11 AM. The food was great as always, but the prices have gone way up. Our bill was $75.00 for three people for food and drink. We won't be visiting Mel's for a while.

We then stopped at the Fig Tree Books and More Christian bookstore, where we bought 2 t-shirts and a Bible word search book. We wanted to stop on the way out to shop so we didn't have to carry our bags into Mel's. 

We had nothing planned for Tuesday afternoon, so the guys hung out at the condo and I went to Tanger Outlet Mall, where I bought hand soap at Bath & Body Works and a makeup bag at Vera Bradley. I looked for shoes at Reebok and Famous Footwear, but didn't find any. There is a Simply Southern store at Tanger, but I didn't visit that side of the mall. Maybe next time.

After my shopping expedition, I went back to the condo, and we had dinner. Hubby and I went up to the main Falls building to take a look around.  There was some remodeling going on, and the indoor pool and hot tub were not open, which was disappointing.  

On Wednesday morning, we made our annual visit to Branson Landing. The guys bought clothing at Bass Pro Shops, but I couldn't find anything I wanted. We had purchased tickets through Branson.com for "David" at Sight & Sound, so we went to pick them up. The guy who waited on us pressured me only a little bit about a new condo development we could tour, but I said no. 

We hung out back at the condo until it was time to go to dinner at Heroes Tastes & Taps (f/k/a Montana Mike's), with a voucher we purchased from OzarksDeals.com (it's still available here). The prices and the food were very good, and our waitress (whose name I have forgotten, but it starts with a K) was very friendly and attentive. We will visit here again. 

We went to the 7:30 show of "David" at Sight & Sound Theater. We had to exchange our vouchers for tickets, so we got there early to do that. We went to the gift shop, where I bought our usual refrigerator magnet. The show was very good, as always, but I think "Queen Esther" was a little better. They had David strumming his harp like a guitar, and any musician worth his salt knows you pluck a harp and not strum it. David was not a rock star. Some of the musical numbers were too Broadway-like. "David" will be playing at Sight & Sound next year, so we won't be going back there next year. It took forever getting out of the parking lot after the show, and we didn't get back to our condo until 11 PM. I think we'll be doing the afternoon shows at Sight & Sound from now on.

On Thursday, we visited the recently remodeled Shepherd of the Hills Conservation Education Center next to the Fish Hatchery. The remodeling was very well done, and the facility is now very modern and very educational. Even the bathrooms were remodeled. We went outside and fed the trout. We forgot to bring cups for the fish food, so each of us only got one quarter's worth of fish food. I always enjoy watching the fish come up to the surface of the water to be fed. We then drove down the road and visited the Dewey Short Center. I covered this facility in a blog post several years ago. 

We went back to the condo for lunch. In the afternoon, we went for a ride and ended up at Andy's Frozen Custard, where we all enjoyed our favorite sundaes. We went back to the condo and freshened up so we could go out to dinner at Florentina's Italian Ristorante. We used the buy one, get one half price coupon mentioned earlier. It was the son's turn to purchase dinner. I had my usual lasagna, and the hubby got the sampler.  We then went back to the condo to pack up and go home the next day. 

I was hoping to visit the new Truth Traveler attraction, but it's not open yet. Hopefully, we can visit Branson for the Christmas season this year, and we can go to Truth Traveler then. 

Since I'm always mentioning my refrigerator magnet souvenirs, I thought I'd post a photo of the ones I purchased this year. 

If you click on the words in bold, it will take you to that website in a separate window. Sorry it took so long to finish this blog post! Thanks as always for reading! 

Diane

2024 Branson trip review

We recently returned from our yearly trip to Branson. We went a little later this year because our niece was expecting a baby and she was due on July 10. She actually had the baby a week before, but we had made our lodging reservations already, which of course couldn't be changed.

The first photo in this post was a picture in the master bathroom of the condo we rented. (Sorry about the shadow. I turned the flash off and it still had a shadow.) The phrase is what should happen when you go on a vacation. The first day of our vacation, however, was hectic.  The change oil light had been flashing on the dash the last week or so, but I had been ignoring it because the oil wasn't due to be changed until August - at least that's what it said on the label on the windshield. We pulled out of the driveway and a warning flashed on the dash - Get oil changed now.  The husband and I thought we would just go ahead and drive, but as we were driving down the road, he thought that just maybe we should go and get the oil changed.  The dealer we bought the car from was on the way to Branson, so we stopped by to get an oil change. The service advisor looked at the oil level and said that we had no oil in the car. Thank the Lord we made it to the car dealer  (or somewhere on Hwy. 44) without the engine exploding. 

The oil change put us about an hour behind on our trip. We stopped at Culver's in Eureka to eat lunch instead of St. Robert. I looked at the Hardee's next door and wished I had brought my fast food coupons. I then realized that I forgot to bring my folder with all of my printed vouchers for the shows we were going to attend and the voucher for Grand Country Buffet. This getting old and forgetful thing is not a good thing. How was I going to reprint my vouchers? We were staying at a condo in the Falls and hubby recalled they had a business center with computers and a printer in the main building. 

We stopped at Buc-ee's in Springfield. Buc-ee's didn't open until after our Christmas trip, so we had to wait until this trip to see it. The store had 100 gas pumps and so much stuff and food in the store! I did purchase a Sprite fountain soda. Buc-ee's is the only place I've seen Sprite in a fountain version. It was crowded even though it was a Monday - I'd hate to see how crowded it would be on a Saturday.

We finally made it to the condo after we stopped at Walmart to get supplies. The condo was in Building 30 in the Falls, which was very close to the road you take to the marina. When we entered the condo, there was a really musty smell like someone (the cleaning crew, perhaps?) had been smoking.  Ugh! We got everything unpacked and made supper. There was a small kitchen, so there wasn't much in the way of cooking gear. I realized I would have to go back to Walmart and purchase a cookie sheet. 

After dinner, I drove up to the Falls' main building to see about printing off my vouchers for the shows and for Grand Country Buffet. I signed into my Google account (where I have a folder called Branson 2023 with my vouchers, lodging confirmations, etc.) but I couldn't get the printer to work. So I went to the front desk and explained my problem to a nice young lady named Tabitha Reyes. She had me email the voucher emails to her and she printed them off for me. We discussed this blog, its Facebook page and our many trips to Branson and our stays at the Falls. Thank you so much, Tabitha! In fact, everyone I've ever spoken with in the Falls main building has been very nice and welcoming. 

I drove back to the condo, where my hubby informed me that the bathtub faucet didn't work in the master bedroom. I tried to get it to work but wasn't successful. The three of us had to take showers in the second bathroom the whole trip. I reported it to the condo owners, but no one ever came to fix the bathtub faucet in our bathroom. Our condo did include a voucher for 2 free tickets for a show at the Hughes Brothers Theater. We hadn't yet seen the ReVibe show there, so I called and made reservations for the 2 PM Tuesday show. 

When we woke up on Tuesday morning and got on our phones, we discovered that over 8 inches of rain had fallen in southwest Illinois where we live and the dam had failed in one of the small towns. Thankfully, our house has a crawlspace and not a basement, so we escaped the basement flooding that plagued our next-door neighbors.  

We went to the Doug Gabriel show on Tuesday morning.  Doug has been performing in Branson for many years but we have never gotten around to seeing him. I saw an ad on Facebook for the show for only $15.00/ticket. That was a great deal, so we took advantage of it. It is still available as of this writing; when you go to Doug's website to buy tickets, enter the code SUMMER for the discount. 

Doug's show was excellent. Since this was Doug's 30th anniversary in Branson, there was a retrospective of Doug's entire career. If you are of a certain age, you will remember Doug's "mufftar" guitar made from a car muffler by his dad. Doug did a wonderful Elvis tribute and I really enjoyed his version of "Malaguena." Whoever does the lighting for Doug's show is a genius. During "Malaguena," the lights changed every time Doug played a new chord on the guitar. I also enjoyed the duet he performed with his wife. And Doug spoke about his faith in Jesus during a part of the show. This show was worth more than the $15.00 we paid for each ticket. 

After Doug's show, I had a voucher from OzarksDeals.com for Grand Country Buffet to buy one buffet and get one free (no longer available), so we went there for lunch. The wait staff were friendly, but I think Golden Corral and Pizza Ranch have better buffets. I would have liked to look around the gift shop at Grand Country, but we had to leave to get to the Hughes Brothers Theater to pick up our tickets for the ReVibe show.

ReVibe features the Hughes Brothers' kids and grandkids. They performed songs from the 1940s through the 2000s. The choreography and the song selection were excellent. However, some of the kids' voices were not mature enough to sing some of the songs. The three teenage girls singing "How Can You Mend a Broken Heart?" by the Bee Gees was especially cringe. Their voices were too thin, and did they ever have broken hearts?  

The card pictured at left was attached to the back of every seat in the theater. This just rubbed me the wrong way. I have visited Branson for many years and have seen many shows. If I enjoy a show, I will say so on my trip review blog posts and/or recommend the show to people looking for a show.  However, I feel the card is a blatant grab for positive reviews. I did not scan the QR code.  It reminded me of when we saw the Escape Magic show in 2021 and the magician mentioned their #2 TripAdvisor rating and asked that we leave good reviews. The kids and the theater were also plugging the Christmas show by saying all dates were already 50% sold out. I guess they were guilt-tripping us into buying tickets for the Christmas show. 

After the show, we returned to Walmart to buy a cookie sheet to make breakfast the next morning. However, when we got to Walmart, there were a whole lot of people and Walmart employees standing outside the front of the store. The power was probably out. So we went to Price Chopper instead, where we bought two foil cookie sheets for cheaper than what we would have spent at Walmart. We then returned to the condo to make supper and relax for the evening.

On Wednesday morning, we awoke to a big rainstorm. In fact, it had been raining most of the night. There was a small ravine between the condominium buildings, and the rain filled the ravine and came up almost to the patio area. Branson ended up getting 8 inches of rain that day. It flooded the RV park near Branson Landing, and RV's and campers had to evacuate. We had planned on going to Branson 2 for 1 Tickets to buy vouchers for the Wild West dinner show at Shepherd of the Hills. However, we were unsure whether the show and the park would be open due to all the rainfall. So we decided not to go. We'll try again next year.

On Wednesday afternoon, we went to The Grand Village shopping center. We enjoy going through most of the stores. We discovered a new Christian bookstore there called Fig Tree Books and More where the Thomas Kinkade store used to be. The name was certainly correct as there were not only books, but t-shirts, Bibles, mugs, tumblers, and jewelry.  I purchased a metal tumbler with some of the words to one of my favorite Fanny Crosby hymns ("Blessed Assurance") and a Bible word search book for my hubby. I could have spent more time here, but my guys were ready to go to Andy's Frozen Custard.  We got to Andy's just in time before a big group of people arrived. After Andy's, we returned to the condo, made dinner, and then relaxed for the rest of the evening.

On Thursday morning, we went to Branson Landing to visit Bass Pro Shops. We browsed but didn't buy anything. The son bought a few items at Bass Pro. We walked down the sidewalk and I purchased a new St. Louis Cardinals decal for my Jeep Cherokee at On the Ball Sports. I really wanted the City Connect Cardinals license plate holder, but I will put that on my birthday/Christmas list. On the Ball Sports has not only baseball items, but NFL football and hockey items as well. The sports fans in your family would like this store.

We walked to the town square to see if it had been affected by the flooding the day before. There was water in the base of the fountains, as you will see in the photo below. 

We went back to the condo to have lunch and freshen up before our last show of this visit.  We went to the Dustin Tavella - Now I See show with a voucher from OzarksDeals.com, which is no longer available. Dustin is an illusionist who won America's Got Talent in 2021. He is a friendly, outgoing guy who did some amazing illusions, interspersed with storytelling. For one illusion, he had people call out numbers and had everyone add up the numbers on their phone calculators. I don't know how he did it, but the sum was the same number as the 8-digit number printed on everyone's tickets. Later, he changed the serial number on a dollar bill. How did he do that? Toward the end, he mentioned how he ended up in Branson. He said he and his wife adopted two boys and during his residency in Las Vegas, he had to cover their eyes so they wouldn't see the debauchery that takes place in Vegas. He was looking for a new, family-oriented place to hold his show and so he found Branson. Dustin also talked about his Christian faith. This was my favorite show on this trip. I would highly recommend this show. 

After we left Dustin's show, we went to Danna's BBQ for dinner. Hubby and I both had the yummy Piggy Melt with French fries. The son got nachos with only cheese. As mentioned before, he is a picky eater. We then went back to the condo to pack up to return home. 

We didn't do as much this trip as previous trips, but we enjoyed getting away anyway. We are still debating about a Christmas trip this year. We've seen almost all of the Christmas shows already. 

Don't forget that this blog has a Facebook page where I post Branson deals and articles about Branson.  Here's the link:  Branson on Your Budget. Click the follow button so you'll get the latest deals right away. 

Thanks for reading! See you next time!

Diane

2023 Branson Christmas trip review

This Christmas tree was in front of the Titanic Museum.

We recently visited Branson for our annual Christmas season trip. We stopped at Wally's in Fenton, MO on our way to Branson. The bathrooms were squeaky clean as usual, but I was disappointed that the red and green lights over the stall doors that indicated the stall was occupied had been removed. Maybe the red and green lights offended someone?  Or maybe it's just too hard to change out the light bulbs when they burn out. 

Our first stop in Branson was at the Branson 2 for 1 Tickets location on Hwy. 163 next to the White Oak Station gas station. We wanted to purchase vouchers for the "Awesome '80s" show since I couldn't find any discount tickets for that show. One of the gentlemen behind the counter was Santa Claus' double. This location of 2 for 1 is a lot easier to get in and out of than the location on Hwy. 76. 

Our next stop was the condo we reserved. I found a great deal on Airbnb - the owner had just bought the condo and he was running a deal where the first 3 people to rent the condo got 50% off the rate. I was the last person who got the 50% off deal.  The condo was located across from the Thousand Hills offices on Wildwood Drive.  This condo was a walk-in and it had a walk-in shower in the second bedroom, which my husband used since he has difficulties getting in and out of a tub.  We had issues accessing cable TV on the smart TV in the living room (old people problems, I know), but the owner came by and made sure he fixed it. The kitchen had lots of cooking equipment, including a blender and a crockpot. This condo even had a bidet in the master bedroom, but whose crazy idea was it to put mirrored closet doors across from the toilet? The condo we stayed in the Foothills during our summer trip to Branson had the same master bath setup, but the tub was across from the closet doors. 

On Saturday morning, our first excursion was to Tanger Outlet Mall.  I made some purchases at Bath & Body Works (it's much bigger than our B&BW) and purchased a small backpack at Vera Bradley Outlet with my 25% birthday coupon. We then stopped at the Americana Theater to pick up our tickets for the "Awesome 80s" show that afternoon.  

After lunch at the condo, we headed to the Americana for the 2 PM ”Amazing ‘80s” show. I struck up a lovely conversation with a couple in the lobby, in which we discussed Branson, and this blog and its associated Facebook page.  We then started talking about the St. Louis Cardinals and baseball. 

You’re probably thinking, “Why did they see a non-Christmas show during a Christmas season trip?” The answer to that question is that the show isn’t open during our summer trips to Branson. The show itself was pretty good.  We recognized most of the songs, and the choreography and costumes were great, although the female singers were a little flat in places (in pitch, not chest). There was interesting trivia about the songs and the artists on the video screens.  We were happy to see this show once, although we would probably not see it again.

Since that day was my birthday, we decided to go to Florentina’s Italian Ristorante for dinner. We had a voucher from OzarksDeals.com.  The son offered to pay for the dinner as his birthday gift to me. He mentioned to the waitress that it was my birthday. I ended up with a piece of cheesecake for dessert.  As always at Florentina’s, the food and the service were great. If you love Italian food, you can’t go wrong with Florentina’s. I think it’s even better than Olive Garden.

Oops, I forgot to take a photo of the cheesecake before I took a bite.

After dinner, we went back to the condo to rest up and give our stomachs time to digest all that pasta before going to the “Christmas Wonderland” show. This show is in the King’s Castle Theater, which we had not been to since we saw the debut of “Anthems of Rock” there back in 2020. If you enjoy Broadway musicals, you will probably enjoy “Christmas Wonderland.” There were lots of costume changes and the choreography and singing was very good. There was a tall guy with an Irish accent who played Santa and was also in other musical numbers. During intermission, he also filled in at the concession stand. “The Irish Tenors and Celtic Ladies” is also playing at King’s Castle and I’d be willing to bet that our Irish tenor is in that show as well.

On Sunday morning, we watched our church’s worship service which was streaming on Facebook. We then ate lunch at the condo and drove to Promised Land Zoo (“PLZ”).  We originally bought our OzarksDeals.com PLZ voucher for our summer Branson trip, but we ran out of time to go during that trip.  The voucher was good through December 31, 2023, so we decided to use it on our Christmas Branson trip.

We went to the booth, turned in our vouchers and were given a code to use to access the drive-through part of the tour. Since it was a damp day, there weren’t any animal demonstrations. We went to feed the parakeets and did the walking tour.  We then went back to the car to do the drive-through tour.

For some reason, we had a difficult time finding the keypad to enter the code that would open the gate. The son finally spotted it. Perhaps an arrow and a sign pointing out where the keypad is located would be helpful. There is a person in the booth for the “Let There Be Lights” tour that opens the gate – I guess we were thinking that there would be someone in the booth for the drive-through tour.

Hello, Mr. Llama, what can I do for you?

Once we got through the gate, the drive-through tour was very enjoyable, although some of the roads were kind of bumpy. The best part of the tour was when the animals came up to your car. The hill leading out of this part of the park to get to the exit is very steep – you have to floor the gas pedal and speed up the hill to get over it. We drive an SUV so this wasn’t hard for us, but someone with a sedan or a minivan would probably have problems getting up over the hill.

After we left PLZ, we made our way to Andy’s Frozen Custard for a treat. The son and I got the special Andy’s sundae that is a fundraiser for Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce’s 87 & Running Foundation. After all, Branson has been selected as the Chiefs’ official vacation destination. And after the Rams left St. Louis, we became Chiefs fans.

We went back to the condo for dinner and to rest up before attending the final show of the trip.  We had seen Clay Cooper’s regular show but had never seen his Christmas show, so we decided to check it out.

There was a pre-show skit titled “Just Horsin’ Around” produced by and starring Matt Gumm, the all-around talented Branson entertainer. It took place in an Old West saloon and was very funny. 

The first half of Clay’s show was all country music. The second half of the show was Christmas music. All the music was great and the dancers were great as well. Clay has a live band backing him in contrast to the other two shows we attended, which used tracks for the accompaniments. Clay is very personable with the audience members and the interactions were one of my favorite parts of the show. If you don’t want to be singled out for any interaction with a show member, however, maybe you should sit closer to the back of the theater.

Monday was our shopping trip day. The Black Friday sale at Bass Pro Shops usually starts on the Monday before Thanksgiving. We were disappointed to discover, however, that the $10 hoodies we always buy didn’t go on sale until Black Friday.  Hubby did purchase two nice flannel shirts and the son bought a Henley thermal shirt and a pair of jeans. I purchased a pair of Christmas pajamas with a bass on the shirt and the inscription, “Happy Bassmas.”

We went next door to the souvenir store to look around a bit.  It was raining, so we only walked up to the main square to see the Christmas tree.  We wanted to go into the store with the Christmas trees for charity, but they didn’t open until 11 AM. 

Our next stop was the Grand Village shopping center.  We visited Dickens’ Gift Shop, but we didn’t find anything we really wanted. We looked around the toy store.  We went into the Christmas store, but it was too crowded for hubby. He has a bad foot/ankle and he was afraid someone was going to step on it.  We wanted to eat lunch at Mel’s Hard Luck Diner, so we stood at the front door, along with a lot of other people, until the doors opened at 11 AM.

Lunch at Mel’s was as good as it always was. We decided to order our favorite onion rings as an appetizer rather than an additional side. I ordered a bacon BBQ cheeseburger, and it was huge!

After we left Grand Village, we went to Price Chopper to pick up some pastries for an easy breakfast on Tuesday morning before our drive home. We went back to the condo for supper and started packing up to go home.

We had a great time, but hubby and I discussed it, and we believe this will be our last Christmas season trip to Branson.  We’ve seen all the Christmas shows we’ve wanted to see except for Dolly’s Stampede and that’s out of our price range. We would rather spend our vacation budget on one Branson trip per year. 

Thanks for reading this very long review! Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Diane

 

2022 Branson summer trip review

The Titanic with its 4,000 flag display for the 4th of July.

 

This is a review of our 2022 Branson summer trip.  The links on the names of the activities will take you to any deal that we used on that activity.  Please keep in mind that if you read this at a later date that the deals may no longer be available. 

We left for Branson at 8:15 AM on July 2.  I wanted to stop in Fenton to check out Wally’s, the new super gas station, but as usual, hubby was in a hurry and didn’t want to stop.

 

We usually stop somewhere on our way to Branson to grab a bit to eat to tide us over until lunch and on this trip, the stop was St. Louis Bread Company (known elsewhere as Panera Bread) in Eureka, Missouri. This Bread Co., however, was not the cleanest Bread Co. I have ever been in. There were gnats flitting around the soda machine, and some of the tables were dirty.  Plus, it seemed to take forever to get the breakfast sandwiches we ordered.  Hubby made a crack that perhaps the chicken had to lay the egg before they could cook it for our sandwiches. After we finally got our sandwiches, we had to wait for about a half hour for the rain to let up so we could continue on our trip. About three days later, I got an email from Bread Co. apologizing for how long it took to get our orders.  If they had sent me a survey, I would have let them know about the Eureka store.

 

We stopped for lunch at Cracker Barrel in St. Robert.  After that, we made our usual stop at the rest stop outside of Conway.  I looked for the Best Read Guide and the Sunny Day Guide so we could read the articles and look through the coupons, but apparently, neither of those guides are being printed anymore.  There were plenty of other brochures and guides to pick up.  If you stop there, be sure to pick up the cards to buy one entree and get one half off at McFarland’s, Florentina’s Ristorante Italiano, and Heroes Tastes and Taps (formerly Montana Mike’s).  The Travelhost brochures are still being printed.

We rented a condo this summer at the Suites at Fall Creek.  One of the reasons I selected this condo is that it would allow us to check in at 3 PM rather than 4 PM.  It was a ground-level condo; however, it did have a flight of stairs going down to the front door. Hubby has bad knees and I try to find a condo with no stairs, but sometimes, it's hard to find one. I started looking this January for our July trip and the condo we rented last year for our July trip was already booked.  People really want to travel this year. 

We got everything into the condo from the car and I started unpacking our bathroom supplies.  I noticed there was no toilet paper on the roll by the toilet.  There were no spare rolls under the sink, so I looked in the second bathroom but there were no spare rolls there either.  I searched all of the drawers, closets, and cabinets but couldn't find any spare rolls of toilet paper.  So I called the condo owner. Apparently, the previous renter of the condo had taken all the toilet paper and the housekeeper was supposed to refill it but forgot. So the head housekeeper brought over some toilet paper.  I looked in the cabinet to check out the coffee.  The container was there, but the coffee was not. The previous renter must have stolen that too.  

We turned on the TV to discover that we didn't have Bally Sports Midwest or ESPN to watch our beloved St. Louis Cardinals.  I spoke to the condo owner.  I didn't ask her to, but she went above and beyond the call of duty to have a tier added to the cable package so that we could watch baseball.  That really elevated our experience. 

On Saturday night, we went to the Baldknobbers show at the Branson Famous Theater.  We had seen the Baldknobbers years ago at their original theater, which was torn down (along with the hotel) for the WonderWorks attraction.  We were disappointed in this version of the show, however. The vocalists and musicians were good, but the comedy was flat.  Droopy Drawers was very much missed.  It rained while we were in the theater; it was the only time it rained while we were there.  It was very warm while we were in Branson, which made it difficult to do many outdoor activities.  

On Sunday morning, we watched our church's live streaming service on my laptop.  After lunch, we went to Grand Village to look around the stores that were open.  Some of the stores at Grand Village don't open until Tuesday.  We then went to Walmart and Price Chopper on the Strip for supplies, and then went back to the condo to make supper.  We relaxed at the condo the rest of the evening. 

On Monday morning, my son and I went to Tanger Outlet Mall.  I behaved myself and only bought a couple of items at Bath & Body Works and one item at the Vera Bradley Outlet Store. I was looking for the bookstore I went to last year, but it wasn't there anymore.   We then picked up our show tickets at the Clay Cooper Theater.  On Monday afternoon, we saw the Dean Z: The Ultimate Elvis show.  (Note: we bought vouchers through KKOZ, but they aren't running deals presently.  The link is for OzarksDeals.com.) We had seen Dean Z's Christmas show in 2020 and enjoyed it so much that we wanted to see his regular show, but Dean's regular show wasn't running the week we were there last summer. The July 4 show was the only show that Dean Z was performing that week, so we got lucky. 

 

Dean Z is an excellent Elvis impersonator.  He has the moves and voice down pat.  He is very personable and interacts very well with the crowd. Dean has an excellent live band and there are no accompaniment tracks.  Before the show, a video played and Dean explained that he would be performing with a live band and that he wouldn't be performing to tracks.  His all-girl backup vocalists, the Deltatones, were also very good and one of the Deltatones is Dean's wife.  Matt Gumm, who you may know from other shows at the Clay Cooper Theater, was the drummer and he was great.  We enjoyed this performance so much that we bought the DVD of the show.  There was a long line after the show to get Dean's autograph and have your photo taken with him.  

We left the theater and decided what to do for supper.  We saw that the parking lot at Florentina's was unusually empty, so we decided to go there.  Our waiter was very attentive, as always.  I got my usual, the lasagna.  We used the buy one entree get one half-price card I referenced earlier. We then went back to the condo to relax.  Our condo was located on a pond and there was a beaver that walked into the yard area and ate the grass.  We went up to the parking lot at the main building of The Suites at Fall Creek to attempt to watch the fireworks at Chateau at the Lake.  We saw where people were parking at the Wyndham sales building across the road - we may try that next year.  

On Tuesday, July 5, we went to Coral Reef Mini Golf to play mini-golf.  There was some remodeling since the last time we were there that made the facility look nicer, and the air conditioning was working correctly - it wasn't as humid as it usually is.  It was crowded that day. Everyone must have had the same idea.  

After we were done playing mini-golf, we went to Beyond the Lens.  We waited in line to get our tickets and make our reservation for the FlyRide movie experience.  This is an interactive experience with video games to play, photo opportunities, and lots of learning experiences.  We enjoyed our visit.  The FlyRide movie experience was really awesome.  There are shelves for you to put your belongings in before you strap into your seat.  You need to hold on tight, for your seat moves up and down and back and forth.  You will get a whiff of various smells, one of which I think was lavender.  The landmarks were glorious.  That movie is the closest I will get to many of those landmarks. 

After the FlyRide movie, we went to the gift store and I purchased my usual refrigerator magnets. We also purchased the photo package, which included 2 8" X 10" photos, smaller photos to be cut to size, and placed in the clear magnet and key chain which were included.  The photo package included a link to the photographs taken by the cameras in each exhibit.  You waved a special card in front of the scanner below the camera and the camera would take your photo.  This attraction, I believe, would be better for kids above the age of 5.  

After our Beyond the Lens experience, we visited Andy's Famous Custard for sundaes. However, it was so hot that we had to eat our sundaes in our air-conditioned vehicle.  We then went back to the condo and relaxed for the rest of the evening. 

On Wednesday morning, we visited the Creation Experience Museum.  I have been wanting to visit this museum for years, and hubby finally said we could go.  No vouchers are needed for this activity; it's free, but you do have to make a reservation to take the tour.  Love offerings are welcome. The link is for the museum's website.  This is the back of the sign, but a dinosaur welcomes you to the museum.  The current museum is small, but there are plans for a bigger facility once enough funds are raised.  

We were supposed to be there by 10:15 AM for the 10:30 AM tour, but we got there at 10:00 AM and there just happened to be 3 slots left for the 10:00 AM tour.  Our tour guide's name was Drake and he was very knowledgeable and personable.  There was a little boy who kept touching things he wasn't supposed to and Drake was very patient with him.  Drake started with the beginning of the universe in the book of Genesis and took us all the way through the crucifixion of Christ. There were lots of artifacts and displays to look at.  Here is a photo of a cutaway of Noah's Ark:

There was a movie about crocodiles at the end of the tour.  After that, we went into the bookstore.  I purchased the usual refrigerator magnet and I signed up for the newsletter. Warning:  if you do not believe in the Biblical view of creation, this museum may not be for you.  We enjoyed the tour very much and would visit again.  

We were hungry, so we went to Pizza Ranch on Hwy. 248 for lunch.  There is a buffet with pizza (of course), breadsticks, fried chicken, mashed potatoes, vegetables, and a nice little salad bar. Soda was included with the buffet, which is better than Golden Corral since you have to pay extra for soda there. There was also a soft serve ice cream machine.

After we stuffed ourselves at Pizza Ranch, we headed to Branson Landing. We always go to Bass Pro Shops to buy t-shirts and/or other clothing.  It was busy, so we had to park a ways away from the store.  But there was a little shuttle that took us a little closer to the store.  It was free, but tips were requested.  Bass Pro was the only store we went to since it was too hot to walk around much.  We then went back to the condo to relax before we went to Danna's BBQ for dinner. I got a Piggy Melt, which is pulled pork on rye bread with cheddar cheese and onions, and an order of French fries. 

After dinner, we got a phone call from my sister-in-law, who had gone to our house to check on our cat Sox.  She found that Sox had crossed the Rainbow Bridge.  Sox had been sick for a while so it wasn't totally unexpected, but it was so sad that he had to die alone.  

Some observations:  The Jim Stafford Theater and the Caravelle Theater have been torn down.  The sign for the Jim Stafford Theater remains, however.  The St. Louis Bread Company building that is being built across from Dolly Parton's Stampede is still not finished. The Branson Center Stage restaurant is closed. 

Despite the heat and our cat dying, we had a nice trip and I can't wait until November for our Christmas season trip to Branson.

Thanks for reading! See you next time!

Diane

2020 Branson trips review

Yes, you saw that title right - trips, as in plural.  We have made 2 trips to Branson already this year, approximately 2 weeks apart. The first trip was on Memorial Day weekend.  The second trip was this week (June 8-12).  

The family camp that we usually attend on Memorial Day weekend was canceled due to COVID-19. We decided since we couldn't go to the camp that we would go to Branson instead. The reason I didn't report on the Memorial Day trip right after it happened is that we live in Illinois and at that time, Gov. Pritzker strongly urged Illinois residents not to go to other states because of COVID-19.  I didn't want to get turned in for leaving the state.  

Earlier this year, I left a job that I'd been at for 18 years for what appeared to be an excellent opportunity. However, my position was eliminated during the third week of May because of COVID-19.  We decided to go ahead and take the Memorial Day trip anyway.  I needed a rejuvenating trip to the Ozarks. 

As long time readers of this blog may know, we usually take our summer trip during the July 4th week. Thankfully, the firm that I left in February is hiring me back for my old position.  I don't start until June 15 and I didn't think that they would let me go on vacation two weeks after my restart date.  So we decided to go this week instead. 

Rather than comment on each trip at length, I thought I would use categories and split each category by the date of the trip. If you see a word in bold print, that is a link to the Groupon deal or in the lodging section, or to the condo we stayed at.  

Lodging

Memorial Day trip

Since this was a last-minute trip and we wanted to spend as little as possible, we decided to stay in a hotel.  We found a good deal on Priceline for the All-American Inn.  It is located off Hwy. 165 next to the Yellow Rose Inn, which is now a Ramada.

We chose this hotel for its location, its price, interior corridors, and a free breakfast buffet. However, due to COVID-19, the free breakfast buffet was not offered, but we could get room service if we wanted.  The room was a typical hotel room.  Our room was room number 101 - we must have been the first to reserve a room. The hallway was warm, so I turned on the hallway air conditioner.  The room was warm when we checked in, so I turned on that air conditioner as well.  The owner should have done this before we checked in, I think.

The only other problem we had was the shower.  The water was scalding hot.  We let it run for a while, hoping it would cool off, but it never did.  I had to use a washcloth to wash off with, and I decided to wait until we got home to wash my hair.  

June trip

We had our usual condo reserved for the July 4th week. I would have asked the owner if we could switch weeks, but this week was already partially booked, so I had to cancel.  I did find a very nice condo on TripAdvisor.  The son was happy that the TV in his bedroom had a PlayStation 4.  

The condo was located in the Greens at Thousand Hills, near the golf course.  It was located right off of Green Mountain Drive, and it was close to everything without being on the Strip.  It had a lovely kitchen with granite countertops and there was even a Keurig machine.  All I had to do was bring my favorite K-cups.  There was a small outside patio with a barbecue grill.  We enjoyed our stay at this condo. 

Shows

Memorial Day trip

We only saw one show during this trip - Anthems of Rock, at the King's Castle Theater.  It was the first performance ever of this show, which was exciting.  In all our years of visiting Branson, we have never been to the opening night of a show.

We had never been inside the King's Castle Theater before.  It had medieval decorations in the lobby.  The seats were very nice and comfortable, and the seating area was huge.  Social distancing was maintained, and there was no one else sitting in our row but us.  

The singers were very good and the choreography was excellent.  The music selection was from the 1970s, the 1980s, and the 1990s.  The video screens showed the album covers of the songs that were being performed. There wasn't a live band - there was a backing track.  That may matter for those of you who dislike shows without a live band. There were a few songs during which one of the singers played an electric guitar on stage, however. If there had been a live band, there wouldn't have been room for the dancers.

June trip

We had bought tickets for Rock 'n Roll Royalty, but it was canceled because of a cast member having emergency surgery. We didn't know it was canceled until we arrived at the Americana Theater. Since we bought our vouchers at Branson 2 for 1, they did not have our phone number to let us know the show was canceled. We took our tickets back to 2 for 1 and exchanged them (and added some funds) to see the Hughes Brothers show on Thursday night.

On Wednesday night, we saw Raiding the Country Vault at the Americana. The music was very good and the tidbits on the slides about the country artists were very interesting. However, the grammar Nazi in me (I'm a legal assistant) cringed at the typos on the slides - for example, Tammy Wynette's title slide read Tammy Wynett and Charlie Daniels read Charlie Danials. There was no intermission and no meet and greet after the show.

On Thursday night, we saw the Hughes Brothers Show.  This is my favorite show that we have seen this year.  The harmonies, the musicianship, and the choreography were all top-notch.  The first number was "The Greatest Show" from The Greatest Showman. My son is seldom impressed by musical numbers but after that song, he told me, "That was amazing!" There was even a little comedy thrown in.  The kids, young and older, were very talented as well.  If we go back to Branson for a Christmas trip, we are going to see the Hughes Brothers' Christmas show.  There was an intermission and there was also a meet and greet after the show, although the performers stayed on the stage and the audience members stood on the floor. 

Attractions

Memorial Day trip

We didn't visit any attractions on this trip. There were very few attractions open. The son and I did go to Simply Red Salonspa to get haircuts. At that time in Illinois, a dog could get a haircut but humans could not. I hadn't had a haircut since mid-February and my hair was super long. 

June trip

We visited the Titanic Museum for the first time since 2006. I found a good deal on Groupon, which is still available.  Our reservation was for 9 AM. We had to wear masks and stay 6 feet away from other visitors. We opted to use the audio tour players. If memory serves me, you used to have to pay extra to use the audio tour players. We went because the violin that was played on the deck of the Titanic before it sank was on display, and I wanted to see it. My third class passenger (Sophia Abraham) survived, but the passenger and crew member that my hubby and son had did not. l purchased a very nice jacket in the gift shop for only $30, and of course, I had to purchase a refrigerator magnet, which is our go-to souvenir.

Restaurants

Memorial Day trip

We went to Saint City's Sports Bar & Grill Friday evening.  We had a Groupon for this visit, which is still available. It was the first time we had eaten inside a restaurant since the end of February - in Illinois, you still can't eat inside a restaurant. The food was great, the tables were 6 feet apart, and the employees all wore face masks.  The son and I played pool while we waited for our food. 

We went to Branson Landing on Sunday and had lunch at Garfield's. The employees wore masks but we were not required to wear masks. 

On Saturday evening, we went to Florentina's Italian Ristorante, one of our favorite Branson restaurants.  We had an OzarksDeals.com voucher, which is unfortunately no longer available.  The tables were all spread out 6 feet apart and all employees wore face masks.  There were paper menus.  The food and service were excellent as always. 

On Sunday evening, we went to Crazy Craig's Cheeky Monkey Bar on a Groupon that is still available.  The food was great and the service was good, but someone was smoking cigarettes or there was smoke from the BBQ smoker and I am highly allergic to cigarette smoke.  

June trip

Since we were staying at the condo, we ate there for dinner.  The only time we went out for dinner was Thursday evening when we went to the Grand Country Buffet.  We hadn't eaten there in a long time and we'd only had the breakfast buffet.  Due to COVID, only one of the buffets and salad bars were open.  The food selection would have probably been better if not for COVID.  That was the only thing that disappointed me.  The employees all wore masks and only every other table was used.  

Other fun stuff

We went to Coral Reef Indoor Mini-Golf on both trips on a Groupon deal which is still available.  The golf course has been redecorated in a Jimmy Buffett-style theme.  There is a very large chair for novelty photos.  You can purchase show tickets at Coral Reef.  There was a mini-arcade. Drinks are also available for purchase.  

We also visited Grand Village and Branson Landing. I visited the Tanger Outlet Mall twice.  The IMAX complex will not be open until July 1.   Silver Dollar City and White Water are opening to the public on Monday.

If you're still trying to decide whether or not to visit Branson this summer, I would encourage you to go.  The traffic is lighter.  Employees of all restaurants, shows, and attractions are wearing masks, and sanitizing methods are being employed.  Visitors do not have to wear masks unless they want to, except for some of the stores at Tanger Outlet Mall.  There are lots of hotel rooms and vacation lodging available.  Most stores are open for shopping. Let the beauty of the Ozarks calm and soothe your soul, like it does mine.  

That's all for now! Thanks for reading!

Diane

Branson trip report 2018

We made our annual summer trip to Branson the first week in July.  We did some new things this year and revisited some favorites as well. Click on the links to be taken to that website. 

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 were in unit 116, which was the end room.  We stayed in a studio kitchenette with 2 queen size beds.  It had an electric stovetop, a full sized refrigerator, and a microwave.  It was one big room with a sliding glass door and a small deck on the back.  After we got all of our luggage inside, hubby and I made a trip to the Walmart in Branson West for food and other supplies.

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 last stop at Branson Landing was at Parakeet Pete's Steampunk Balloon.  I found a great Groupon deal for the balloon - $11.00 for 2 people.  The son and I rode in the balloon - hubby is afraid of heights.  It was a slow ride to the top and the balloon made a 360-degree turn, which led to some spectacular views.  There was a nice breeze up that high, which cooled us off some. The ride lasted only about 10 minutes, so I'm glad I didn't pay more than I did for it. The son and I were the only ones riding on the balloon.

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 lunch on Wednesday, we went to a place that I had wanted to go for a long time, the Shrine of the Holy Spirit.  It is located right next door to the Mansion Theater on Expressway Lane.  There is a chapel in the middle (which was locked when we visited), a gift shop and a bookstore (which was also closed).  The chapel is surrounded by a large wall with panels that had Scriptures engraved on them.  We stopped in the gift shop and chatted with the cashier.  I purchased a few items, including a refrigerator magnet, my favorite souvenir.

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