September 23, 2008 - Branson, MO

I decided I'd stay a second night in Branson. Since shows happened at night I didn't want to have to drive through the twists and turns of the Ozarks in the dark in order to get to a hotel outside of Branson.

Branson has a main "strip" where all the shows take place. There are of course restaurants and souvenir shops as well. The surrounding roads have lots of billboards advertising specific shows. I noticed there was a 3pm show called "Legends in Concert." I misinterpreted the meaning of this. I thought it meant talking about legends in a musical setting. But, it was a 3pm show and I decided I'd go to see it since I had such limited time in Branson.

Springfield, MO
My first stop for the day was Springfield, MO. This is about an hour north of Branson. As I began, there was a scenic overlook for the Ozark Mountains. See the photos.Had I stayed at my job, I would likely be going to Springfield in early October for the Higher Education Web Development conference. I've attended it in Rochester, NY since 2005. This year it was moved to the University of Springfield. I didn't get to see much of Springfield because of the 3pm show I wanted to see back in Branson.

On the way up to Springfield, there were billboards advertising a Russell Stover store. I had never seen a whole store devoted to Russell Stover. I briefly stopped there. I tried a gourmet mint truffle. The center did not taste like mint at all.

Ozark Mountains
The Ozark Mountains are quite beautiful. They have some rock formations, but they're mostly covered with trees.

The Strip
Once I got back to Branson, I drove on the strip for the first time. It is a long, slow drive due to the amount of traffic. There is so much to do and see on the strip. It's like Las Vegas with the shows, except it doesn't have any gigantic hotels. It also does not have any gambling.

Hollywood Wax Museum
Before I got to the Legends in Concert show, I stopped at the Hollywood Wax Museum. I didn't actually tour the museum, but I took photos of the outside of the building. They have a tacky/humorous equivalent to Mount Rushmore, on a much smaller scale. See the photos.

Legends in Concert show
When I went to the Legends in Concert ticket office, I found that these are imitators of famous performers such as Elvis, Liza Minelli, etc. It wasn't what I initially thought it was. But, it was too late to go to any other afternoon shows and I was interested in seeing something. I bought a ticket.

The first act was an imitator of Garth Brooks. He tried to excite the audience by occasionally getting into the faces of various elderly women and singing directly to them. Then he walked behind some of the chairs and just poured his water bottle all over people (thankfully, not me). There were two large televisions showing the real Garth Brooks performing. On the stage in Branson, there were dancers who are used in all the acts. The imitator then asked people to dance, claiming that he wanted to break the record from yesterday's performance and get at least fifty couples out there. After the dance, he announced that a record had been broken because this is the first time in his act that anyone danced.

After "Garth Brooks" was done, "Liza Minelli" came out. This was even cheesier. She actually talked about "her" awards and "her" career. (The Garth Brooks imitator simply played the music and did ridiculous stunts.) While I can understand the imitation singing part, I kind of thought the idea of talking as if she was the real Liza Minelli was over the top.

At various points in the Liza Minelli act, I decided that this was all I could take. I just was not being entertained by this. But, I didn't want to be rude and walk out. However, I noticed someone else walking in with popcorn. So, since she left without disturbing anyone, I decided to do the same. Yes, I did not get the full value of the ticket, but this was becoming a waste of my time. I have never seen an imitation act before and probably never would again. It simply does not appeal to me.

I drove to the next hotel. I went to a different hotel even though I was staying in Branson again because it would allow me to get more points. This hotel actually gave discounts for some of the shows. But, the discounts didn't apply to anything that seemed to interest me. The hotel would even obtain reservations for their customers.

White House Theatre
There is a White House Theatre which looks like a tacky version of the real White House. They have breakfast and dinner shows. See the photos.

Dinner Shows
On the way to the hotel, I did see an ad for a dinner show that seemed interesting. But I assumed you could just walk in at any old time and catch part of the show. The show started at 5pm and I didn't get there until 5:30. I then realized that I should have been there at 5pm because everything is scheduled.

I then became interested in the Tall Timber Logger Show. This is one of those shows where loggers spin on logs in water. From the video I had seen on the Internet, this is more like the "bloopers." They purposely fall in the water in humorous ways. A show like this is of course not in one of the small theatres on the strip. It's a few miles out, near a dam. I called DiscoverBranson.com to see if it was too late to get tickets. The person answering the phone could not seem to provide me with any info and then finally said the show wasn't happening at this point. That conflicted with the dates given on papers provided to me by the hotel. I called the hotel, but the staff member who handled show reservations had already left for the day. I tried driving out there based on the map but I couldn't find anything.

On the way back, I noticed a historical show called Sons of the Pioneers. I thought I might try that. But, by the time I got there, I was informed that dinner was already in progress. Seating for dinner began at 3:45pm! By that time it was about 6:30pm.

In the end, I went to a restaurant. I had a nice meal. There was a singer there. He was advertising teeth sparklers and announced that one of the employees came from New York just to demonstrate them. That perked my ears up a bit, though I later found that he just says these sorts of things. On another occasion, he "introduced" a waitress. He said her name was Flo. Then he said "Come on Flo, tell everyone 'Kiss my grits!'" (reference to the 70s show Alice).

I went to purchase some postcards at a souvenir shop. They were priced at 25 cents each. The clerk joked that if I paid 50 cents each, he'd buy me dinner at Taco Bell.

Lights on the Strip
As I made my way back to the hotel, I could see all the lights on the buildings on the strip. It's definitely like a miniature version of Las Vegas, minus the gambling. I could have gone to a late show, but by then I was just tired and ready to go back. I also just don't think these kinds of shows would really be that interesting to me. I was looking forward to moving on the next day. Northern Arkansas was next on my trip.