Today was my last day in Branson. I was able to get tickets for the 10am show of the Spirit of Christmas. I got a front row seat because I was by myself.
The Spirit of Christmas show is a Broadway musical style show. The dancers must have high energy because the constant costume changes and dances were amazing. It inspired my creativity to watch this.
Some of the show was kind of silly, however. While doing set changes or just giving the dancers a rest, there was an elf named Zippy that would come out to do pantomime acts. While he was dressed as a Christmas elf, the acts were not exactly related to Christmas and I would have to say bordering on annoying. Some of the music would fit better in an aerobics video. Zippy would randomly pick people from the audience to come up and dance or do calisthenics. Had I been in charge of the show, Zippy's acts would have been more Christmas related. In fact, there would have been less pantomime nonsense in general. They could have just brought someone else out to sing while giving the dancers a rest.
Still, the show was fun and I'm glad I saw it. As the grand finale, they actually made it "snow" in the theater....with soap bubbles.
After the show, I reserved a hotel for the evening. It would be in Terra Haute, Indiana, which is in the southwest side of the state. Terra Haute is a little over six hours from Branson.
I went to a Mexican restaurant for lunch. Mexican restaurants in the Midwest, South, and Mountain West tend to be much better than in my own area due to the bigger influence Mexican culture has in those areas. I had wanted to go to a Mexican restaurant on this trip but the pace prevented me from going to any sit down restaurants. The food was a little disappointing here. But, it was nice to finally have Mexican food nonetheless.
I visited a shopping area which was set up as a little village. I forgot to bring the camera with me, but they had someone dressed as Santa Claus, complete with a live reindeer.
The shopping area had a lot of unique items. There were many carved items and some food items like mixes, dips, etc. Surprisingly enough, the food items were not from the Ozarks area. A lot of them were from Indiana or New England. In West Virginia, you can get all sorts of foods made locally. I'm surprised the same wasn't available in the Ozarks. But, there were a few books in the bookstore written by local authors and published by local publishing companies.
After visiting the shopping area, I had to leave in order to get up to Terra Haute at a reasonable time.
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After about a half hour on the road, I saw signs for the historic downtown of Ozark, MO. I decided to stop there. The downtown was definitely cute though similar to other small towns or cities I had seen.
After driving a bit on I-44, I noticed a McDonalds facing the interstate with a lifesize Nativity Scene. That was very nice. Driving further on I-44, I was able to see some of the areas I could not see when I drove the previous Sunday due to the dark.
I passed through St. Louis after dark and saw the Gateway Arch lighted up. Going from I-44 to I-55 I was able to see the Gateway Arch in a number of different angles. It was briefly visible in the rearview mirror for several miles after I had entered Illinois.
I cut across Illinois and then entered Indiana. It took about two miles of driving along I-70 before the large Indiana welcome sign appeared.
On this evening, I stayed at an Econo Lodge. The price was good and I decided not to waste points. Econo Lodges can be tricky. Some are good and some can be horrible. Things didn't start out so well here in that there were no towels in the bathroom. The desk staff was very apologetic. This one was definitely clean, but also run down. There were cracks in the light switches and electric plug panels. The pillowcases were clean, but discolored. For the first time ever in a hotel, I slept with the lights on. Would I stay at this hotel again? Probably only if my travels were such that I was too tired to drive a little further.
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