Road-Tripping to Branson

October 25 - November 6, 2021 (Part 1)

A couple of years ago, as we were anticipating Bob's retirement, I was mentally planning several big bucket list trips. I had actually gotten so far as to book a 28-day cruise to the South Pacific for February 2020 and a land tour of Turkey for May 2020. And beyond that I was dreaming of traveling to all seven continents. After all, our 2019 cruise to South America and Antarctica had given us a great start on this goal.

Well, it wasn't meant to be. We cancelled the South Pacific cruise before final payment. Something just didn't feel right about the trip. Perhaps I had a premonition of what was coming? And by the time we were to have been in Turkey the whole world had shut down. As many others, I assumed the "pandemic pause" would be over in a few weeks and then we would continue on with our travel dreams.

Now, nearly two years later, the ability to travel is slowly returning, but not even close to what I would consider "normal". So instead of writing posts about our international adventures, I am using this blog to write about our close-to-home jaunts. Perhaps these travels aren't exciting or interesting to others, but they still fall under the category of our "souvenir memories" and as such, I will record them. Lord willing, I will be able to look back on these times in the future and say "remember when we had that pandemic..."

With our Black Hills trip in the rearview mirror, we decided to squeeze in one more fall trip. One advantage to living in a large country, such as the U.S., is that the seasons do not change simultaneously in all locations. Our timing had been good to catch fall colors in the Black Hills in late September but by traveling south in late October we could once again catch the beautiful autumn foliage.

Our two weeks in Missouri was a combination of tourist sites, nostalgia, and family time so rather than give a day-by-day account, I will do the condensed version covering some of the highlights.

Touristy stuff first...

In May of 1977 Bob and I graduated college and got married two weeks later. He was scheduled to start grad school in June and I had a new job to begin right away. Combine lack of time with our lack of money and that meant our honeymoon had to be quick and cheap. In the late 1970's, Branson, Missouri was the answer. Traveling in our orange, VW Beetle we drove from Illinois to spend a few nights in a small, rustic (rundown?) cabin on the shores of Lake Taneycomo. I tell people that we went to Branson before it WAS Branson. No strip lined with theaters and attractions, no gift shops or restaurants. Just a small hillbilly town in the Ozarks. 

Bob sitting on the steps of our honeymoon cabin at the Cloud 9 resort with our little orange VW on the right. I'm pretty sure we paid less than $30/night for this "luxury" accommodation. 😆

Over the last four decades we have gone back to Branson a few times, and each time we went to Silver Dollar City...an 1880's themed amusement park. This time our trip would coincide with the parks fall festival, something I had always wanted to attend. 

Bob and I met my sister at our AirBnB condo in West Branson around 5 pm...us leaving Minnesota first thing in the morning for the nine-hour drive and she departing St. Louis around lunch time. The two-bedroom, two-bath unit worked well for the 3 of us. The condo was located away from the main strip in Branson but was on a hill overlooking a beautiful valley with fall colors just beginning to appear.

The view from the balcony of our condo. 

Not wanting to rush to see everything, we purchased two-day passes at Silver Dollar City (SDC). The weather forecast was not in our favor however. Knowing that our first day would be the only day without rain, we made it a full day, staying in the park from opening to closing time. Our iPhones showed we walked about 7 miles total, not an easy feat because SDC is VERY hilly. By the time we returned for our second day later in the week, the cold, wind and rain made us glad we had covered most of the park initially.

SDC was decorated with thousands of carved pumpkins (some real, some fake) and was showcasing many craftsmen demonstrating pioneer crafts and trades. The park features many rides, including quite a few roller coasters. Being there mid-week meant the crowds were small and we were able to walk onto any ride without a wait. 

Bob fit in well with his orange shirt!

A highlight at the park for me was watching a cooking demonstration by Kent Rollins, one of the celebrity guests at the festival. Kent is a cowboy cook and well known for his YouTube videos on chuckwagon cooking. He made Jalapeno-Cheddar Biscuits and afterwards we got a chance to taste. Those biscuits were about the best thing that I've ever put in my mouth!

Me and Cowboy Kent Rollins.

Kent chopping jalapenos.

Another craftsman we enjoyed was award winning pumpkin carver, Barry Brown. After dark, it was fun to walk through the "Pumpkins in the City" area featuring thousands of intricately carved, illuminated pumpkins, many of them created by Mr. Brown. 

Pumpkin carver, Barry Brown.

In hindsight we would have been OK with just a one-day pass to SDC. The weather was downright miserable when we returned. A tour of Marvel Cave is included with a park admission, so while Bob explored the cave, my sister and I caught some of the musical shows that we hadn't seen on our first visit. <After doing the Wind Cave tour in the Black Hills, I didn't feel the need (or desire) to go underground. 😄> Rides were out of the question in the cold rain but if we had wanted to ride there would have been no lines at all. The park was basically empty.

The music shows are what draws most people to Branson. I was OK being outdoors at SDC around maskless people, but did not want to sit in a crowded theater under those conditions. I would have loved to see the Sight & Sound Theater production of "Jesus", but without a mask policy in place at the theater, that show will just have to wait.

The one place in Branson that required masks was the Titanic Museum and the tour we took was quite interesting. Although I had expected to see more actual artifacts from the ship, the hands-on exhibits gave a lot of history and insight into the 1912 catastrophe. No photos are allowed inside the museum so the following were copied from the website branson.com.

The Titanic Museum building is designed to look like the ill-fated ship...complete with iceberg.

This exhibit lets you experience the incline of the ship's deck at various times as it was sinking.

A built-to-scale replica of Titanic's grand staircase.

At one exhibit, we had a chance to sit in an actual size lifeboat and at another we could dip our hands in 28-degree water (the temperature of the ocean water when Titanic sank.) As we entered the museum, each of us was given a boarding pass with the name and brief biography of an actual Titanic passenger. At the exit we could check a manifest to see if our passenger survived. (Mine did...Bob's did not.)

Here are the three of us waving good-bye before we sail off on the Titanic.
(Haha...you can tell by the watermark on the photo that we were too cheap to purchase the original.)

Shopping at the Branson Landing, driving through the College of the Ozarks campus and relaxing and spending time with my sister at the condo occupied us the rest of the week. Other than dinner at a SDC restaurant, our meals were all prepared and eaten in the condo.

At the end of our stay in Branson, my sister drove back to St. Louis which took her about 4 hours. Bob and I also headed to St. Louis, but it took us TWO DAYS! Stay tuned for Part 2 for our trip down memory lane in Missouri...our nostalgic look back in time.