November 5, 2009: Branson, MO

The hotel breakfast area was in a restaurant with a large seating area. There were lots of people in town on bus trips from the surrounding states. Sitting there listening to the people, it seemed to just take me back about twenty years. The people reminded me of my grandparents in the way they talked. It was very nostalgic.

I planned to see the show Spirit of Christmas at the 10am show. This show is in the Branson Variety Theater and was one of the less expensive shows. It was like a Broadway musical. The hotel had a desk where people could get tickets, sometimes at a discount. By the time I got there, it was after 9:30 and I still would have to drive to the theater. After looking it up, the clerk found that they do not do a 10am show on Thursdays. I decided to attend another show for dinner and just explore the surrounding area during the day time.

I visited a few of the same places I had visited last year when I stopped at Branson. There were winding roads through the Ozarks that I probably would not want to drive in the evening. Yes, they had yellow signs with arrows showing how the road curves, but they also did not have guard rails in some places. These were two lane roads. Fail to navigate properly, and it was a loooong drop. (In Arkansas, I recall seeing guard rails on the roads I traveled in the Ozarks last year.)

The drive took me through some farm areas. The GPS was goofing up and I ended up having to take some gravel roads. It simply was not possible to go more than twenty on the roads and I stirred up quite a bit of dust.

In Monett, I got the lowest priced gas on the trip at $2.37. I drove to their "downtown" which was a nice historical strip. I had lunch at a family diner. The waitresses seemed to know many of the customers and people came in to chat with each other. It was a nice small town. It again gave me a nostalgic feeling.

Getting back to Branson, the GPS again seemed to have problems. I wanted to attend the Shepherd of the Hills show, which was not on the strip. I managed to get there about thirty minutes early, but I was getting nervous with the GPS sending me in circles.

The Shepherd of the Hills is one of the major attractions of Branson. Outside of the Christmas season, it is used for the Sons of Pioneers dinner show. (I tried to go there last year but arrived too late.) It is named after the book The Shepherd of the Hills written around 1907, which was one of the inspirations for Branson.

The Christmas show was a western themed show. Cowboys sat around the "campfire" on the stage. The show began with some songs talking about life for cowboys in the nineteenth century. They also joked about what we could expect for dinner, suggesting they threw whatever they could find into it, even motor oil. What they served resembled what was given at the Circle B Chuckwagon show from the previous evening, but there was just much more. They had grilled corn on the cob dripping in butter, with the husk hanging off the end. There was a huge piece of cornbread, a huge helping of beans, and a quarter piece of chicken. There was also a bit of apple pie.

A young daughter of one of the performers was brought out, riding a pony. She sang a number of Christmas songs. There was a running joke that the pony was going to sing too, though it never happened because his throat was too hoarse.

The main part of the show included a number of Christmas songs sung with a western theme. It was interspersed with the various performers needling each other. There was a lot of talk about life in Texas. One of them asked if another was from Texas. He was told not to ask that question because if the person was not from Texas, it would embarrass him. One of the performers claimed to be from Illinois, which led to all sorts of jokes about not being authentic.

At one point during the show, one of the performers got on his knees and read from the Bible. It was amazing.

After the show ended, the ticket was valid to see the Lights on the Trail. This was 2 1/2 miles of a driving maze showing Christmas lights and displays. It was beautiful. Obviously, I tried to get a photo of everything. The poor people behind me were probably annoyed, but oh well.

The Lights on the Trail again made me feel nostalgic and thinking in some ways we have lost a lot in the last few decades. The major theme was on keeping Christ in Christmas. There were lots of animated figures as used to be seen in shopping malls. They also did have the fictional Christmas stuff like the Gingerbread Playground, all sorts of elf related things, Santa Claus, etc. They had some rather creative things like a UFO Christmas, Dinosaur Christmas, Christmas at the Beach, etc. There were historical displays showing the different time periods in American history. Overall, it was a wonderful time.

The ticket also included a trip to Inspiration Tower, which gave a view of much of Branson. At night I didn't find a lot to see. But still it was nice to get to see this as Inspiration Tower is frequently talked about.

After the show, I visited a restaurant specializing in desserts. I wanted to try a funnel cake as I've never had one before. But, I noticed something very interesting on the menu. I ordered "Cakes and cream" which consisted of a funnel cake with an ice cream sundae on top. What I got was huge. They slathered hot fudge all over the ice cream and all over the funnel cake. Had there been another person with me, this would have been good to share. It was huge. It was delicious. But it was one time and I think I would not have a funnel cake (especially not one with a sundae on top) again due to the calories, grease, etc.