Branson

This year, we came to Branson, Missouri for vacation. We got this really cheap deal on a hotel, if we agreed to go tour the Big Cedar Lodge, owned by Bass Pro, and listen to their spill on their timeshare. More on that in a minute.

The drive up here was beautiful, lots of amazing views and mountains. The kids get so excited when they see mountains. My ears struggled a little with the last part of the drive, but nothing too bad. Then we took the exit to get to our hotel and were slammed head first into Tourist Trap, USA. Everywhere you turn, there are huge signs advertising shows, big parks with go-cart tracks and putt-putt golf, novelty shops, old-time photo shops, tourist traps, tourist traps, tourist traps. You almost forget that you are in the middle of these gorgeous mountains. I have to say, I did know about all the shows available, but I was not prepared for the Las Vegas-style setup of things. And can I just say, I could see the uncertainty creeping into Richard's face as we sought out our hotel among all of the chaos. So, we finally arrive to our hotel and get checked in around 4pm. We decide we want to go eat dinner and randomly pick a place out of the coupon book the timeshare people had given us upon check in. We went to this place called Fall Creek...famous for throwing hot rolls at you from across the dining room. Doesn't that sound charming and appealing and you want to drive there right now to eat? Well, dont. The food was really overpriced for the quality. Not to mention, they have guys that take your picture and put it in a cute frame and then come back to sell your likeness back to you. Or the guy that comes and asks your children if they would like for him to draw a picture of them made up as their favorite super-hero or pop-star and then look at you and say, "that will be $10 per child". It was hard for me to be nice after the 3rd stop he made by our table to see if we had "made up our minds" when I had made it very clear what my mind was thinking the first time around. So, we left that meal unsatisfied and set back about $85.

We took the kids from there to this little putt-putt place, spent $40 and got to do 2 things before our credits were all used. So, then we decided to bring them back to the room and go to the hotel pool. I cringe at the thought of all the kids that were in that pool. We let them play for about 45 minutes, which was as long as I could stand, and then made them come back and take showers and go to bed.

So, first day down and I was disappointed. We didn't really know what to do for the next day that wasn't going to totally blow our budget for the vacation. We had also made reservations for the next night at the Dixie Stampede, which is owned by Dolly Parton (who Brian keeps calling Paula Deen which just makes me laugh). That was almost $200 for the 4 of us to go, but did include a meal we were told. So we did some asking around and finally decided to go visit the Talking Rock Caverns. We got up early yesterday and had breakfast in the hotel, which was pretty good, and then headed out to the Caverns. We had to wait for our tour time and decided to take a short hike around the property they had marked off. I think I would have enjoyed it more if I had known about the history of the caverns before we went on the hike. Anyway, we returned in time to go down in the caverns, and what an amazing sight that was! The kids thought it was the coolest thing and listened to every word that the guide said. The whole tour took about an hour. We left there and grabbed a quick bite at the Sonic that was on the main road and headed back through the Tourist Strip to go to our tour at Big Cedar.

Can I just say, pulling into that resort was like entering another land. It was beautiful! Gorgeous views, the facilities were clean and beautiful. No flashing signs anywhere advertising shows or tattoo parlors. We were there for about 4 hours and had fallen in love with the place, and all the others they showed us in the presentation. I don't think either of us were expecting to feel the way we did about the timeshare idea. I had always just sort of attached the idea of timeshare with old people that stayed at condos on the beach. This was something totally different and the flexibility and affordability of the program was really impressive. Anyway, we know are owners of a timeshare. We are looking forward to getting to use it, we've all ready planned to come stay for our anniversary in November. So, we left the peace and serenity there and had to come back to the Tourist Trap part of Branson. It was mildly depressing and I'm not convinced they don't put you up here to show you what your "options" are. It worked.

We had just enough time to get cleaned up and head to our show at the Dixie Stampede. I will say that we thoroughly enjoyed the show, after getting through the 3 sets of pictures they make you take (which they present to you in the dark of the show and ask you to pay $20 each. I was not friendly with that guy either). The kids loved it and participated to the fullest. They divide up into seating sections, one for the "North" and one for the "South". We had requested the South, but were seated in the North. Apparantly, lots of people request the South. But, you know, the North did win, so I guess it wasn't too bad being over there. One thing we had heard about and prepared ourselves for was the lack of utensils in the place. You eat the food with your hands. Now, everything is finger-friendly food for the most part, except you have to drink your soup. Which was probably my favorite part of the meal. Brian devoured every part of his except the soup. He has texture issues and won't eat anything that isn't solid and has a crust or skin on it. Unless it's pasta with butter. Then he'll eat his weight in it.

Anyway, today we are headed to Silver Dollar City and I'm hoping it will be fun. I'm going to whack anyone that tries to take our pictures. Or kick them in their shin. They will get the point.

To be continued....