June 11-17, Branson Missouri and Memphis Tennessee
June 11-14, Tuesday-Friday, Branson, Missouri
When we got to Branson Landing RV park our friends Gordon
and Nancy were already here. We had met
them on our Alaska Caravan last summer and they moved to this park from another
for a night to visit with us. They only
live an hour away near Eureka Springs and Holiday Island MO. The campground is on Lake Taneycomo near
Branson Landing. Branson Landing is a
great shopping area anchored by Bass Pro Shop and their floating
Wednesday-Our mission this morning was a post office or mail box to send off our Father's Day cards. Walking from the RV park we went the entire length of Branson
Landing then up through the historic downtown area. Cantina Laredo was the first stop for lunch and the fish tacos
were very good. Many shops including
Dicks 5 and 10, (which is more like $5 and $10 now), the flea market shops,
bakeries and such including the oldest ice cream shop in Branson made for great
afternoon entertainment. I was having
so much fun that at one point Tony left me in the flea market shop and walked
to the post office and then came back.
Seemed like a win, win proposition for both of us! Back at camp that evening we had grilled
chicken thighs and shish kebob veggie skewers.
YUMMY. One of my new favorite
cooking hacks is a jar of good pesto.
Rub it all over the chicken and grill.
OR brush it inside and out on portabella mushrooms, layer in mozzarella
cheese, and fill with cherry tomatoes and bake. Remember last year, I used pancake mix to make everything from
cakes to muffins and topping for fruit crisps. 
15 hours a week plus one 40 hour work week a semester on the campus
grounds or in campus sponsored stores and activities in exchange for free tuition. Students who are accepted for the summer
work program earn free room and board for the summer. One of the places the students can work is in the campus
restaurant at the Keeter Center.
Reservations are required and our lunch was delicious especially the
cranberry, cinnamon biscuits. Mackenzie
our server said the students lurk around waiting for the misshapen batch of
biscuits or leftovers not served at the end of the day. 
The students were friendly including the ones Hard at Work
weeding the various flower beds and in the green houses and all were quite
willing to chat and tell you about their major of study and their campus
experiences. The campus tractor museum (including a barbed wire display - who knew??), the mill (you can purchase student ground cornmeal and flours), green house (student grown plants including orchids), stain
glass shop (items for sale here also), and gift shop (student made jams,
jellies, salad dressings and area renowned fruit cakes) made a great off the
beaten path tourist destination. We
kind of snuck into the beautiful limestone chapel overlooking the lake because
all of the acid washing workers seemed to be at lunch. There just happened to be an unlocked door
that did not have caution tape across it.
The university is big on patriotism
and honoring veterans and there are
markers and statues and museums to keep that forefront in the students and
visitors minds. As part of one program
students sign up to escort veterans to countries where they fought. Students learn history and duty to country
from the veterans. What a novel concept
in this day and age!
Branson in general is family oriented and very
patriotic. There are statues and
museums and military memorials all around town. We especially liked the one of 50 soldiers, called "Storming
the Beach", representing one soldier from all 50 states and is said to be
the largest life size bronze military sculpture in the world. Leftovers from lunch at College of the
Ozarks and a coupon for reduced ice cream at Cold Stone served us well for
dinner. Tonight's entertainment was the
Presleys' Country Jubilee. It was the
original music show on the strip (Hwy 76) in Branson and is still going strong
today (52 years). The first building
for the show was built (1967) with a flat floor so they could use it for boat
storage in case the musical show idea was a bust. A mix of comedy, gospel, old time country and family
entertainment is provided by four generations of
Presleys and others, it was a great FUN evening. They end all of
their performances with song and tribute to veterans. Very Moving! One of the
musicians (fiddle, banjo, guitar) is the owner of the local craft mall. I would highly recommend this iconic Branson
show. You can even catch them on their
own Saturday Evening TV show (on RFD TV-Rural Free Delivery). All of the townspeople seem to be very community
oriented including Johnny Morris the owner of Bass Pro shops. His name is all over town as a supporter of
many of the local veterans memorials and sculptures. One of the other local well known acts is the Dutton's - we have
seen them perform in Arizona where they winter and do a great show also.
Friday-Lazy overcast day. Coffee, work on our blog, clean the bugs off the trailer and
truck, and pack up outside stuff because it is supposed to rain later and
tomorrow. Later this evening we are
driving the hour to Springfield to meet my niece Jackie for dinner at her
favorite Vietnamese place (Pho Kim) - supposedly the dish Cashew Chicken was
invented in Springfield. She lives
about two hours away but is working this week about an hour from here and is
heading to a Marching Band conference next week. The summer band camp group at Ava High School has employed her
for about 10 summers. She is a flag
instructor and choreographer and has been heavily involved since her own high
school days doing flag and rifle drill routines. She has her own U-tube videos on learning flag handling
skills. She has chaperoned many groups
to New York performing in the Macy's All American Thanksgiving Day Parade since
her own performance when she represented Mountain View High School. She is a talented seamstress too, and in the
past has made costumes for her own competition group "Spintronix". We got so caught up in catching up for the
next couple of hours, that we forgot to take a picture and did not realize it
until we were long departed. DARN IT! Diesel is $2.69/gal here.
June 15-17, Saturday - Monday, Memphis Tennessee
Saturday-You definitely know that you are not in
Kansas anymore when you see Pimento Sandwiches and Boiled Peanuts for sale at the local gas station! Or for that matter
Arizona, though we did see lots of blooming Yucca as ornamental landscape features
rather than desert indigenous plants.
We are getting closer to the deep south and more rural lifestyles. We passed "Boat and Motor Repair"
hand lettered in RED, the "Flippin' Diesel Shop" (Flippin is the town
name), plenty of Baptist Churches and in some cases signs for two down the same
road. Highway 412/62 took us along
several stretches designated "Purple Heart Trail" which is a national
network of roads and trails
Having done a lot of the major sights in Memphis the two times we were here before, we got our laundry done, played cribbage, golfed, drank some wine, (OK maybe a little bit more than SOME), went to church (St. Phillip the Apostle), and out to eat a couple of times. The "One and Only BBQ" restaurant was very good and we beat the Father's Day rush after church. Their Beef Brisket was some of the most tender, tasty that I have ever had. Tony is more of a pulled pork aficionado and Rob went with the Junkyard Dog (beef hot dog with pulled pork and slaw). Some of the older, high end neighborhoods were calling our names, via estate sales. There was one rifle
that Rob was interested in so off we went.
Of course there were a few other sales that were in neighborhoods we had to
pass ON THE WAY BACK, so why not stop. Not
really what the guys wanted to do for the Father's Day afternoon but it is hard
to stop at just one sale. The exterior
of the houses were better than the interiors which were choppy, musty, and in
need of updates and modernization. In
the end Rob and I were the only ones that bought anything. My purchase - tiny biscuit cutter used for making tea biscuits, that cost me a
whole .50 since things were half price on Sunday, the second day of the sale. While Rob spent a whole buck buying Mercedes
emblem. That evening we sipped our wine overlooking their neighbor's pond, listened to the frogs and watched the moon rise. Great times with Friends! We count our blessings daily.
Thanks for the upday
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