The Ozarks and Branson Missouri

Our first day that we landed was 31 degrees which was unseasonably warm but lovely. The Ozarks were in bloom and it was getting prettier by the day, it was Spring time in the Ozarks! 

Pretty blooms covered this tree outside of our balcony.  These purple trees were all over Branson.

We drove around a bit.  Branson is very hilly and hard to get your bearings.  We went to the highly recommended Gettin Basted Restaurant. I chose the Moo Burger which is  a Brisket sandwich and fries, which were delicious! 

The Mural when you enter the restaurant.  My big head is blocking the 'Gettin'

Modeling my new dress purchase from Scottsdale. Jean dresses, jean shirts and jean vests are back baby!

Kim had the Burnt and Bleu Salad.  It was a salad for 3.

They had great wallpaper in the restaurant.

The second day was drizzly and dropped 18 degrees. We felt like we were in Saskatchewan with the extreme weather change. We went on a hike in Lakeside Forest Trails and we chose the Bluff walk with 321 stone steps down to the river. We made our way to the Grotto which was stunning and continued onto Ridge Trail that hooked back to another section of Bluff Trail. It was categorized as Easy to Moderate but it was not and it was very challenging in some areas and fun. A highly recommended by Us, trail system!

We set out for our hike on the Lakeside Forest Trail

These were pretty blooms on this tree.

Rocks are everywhere in the Ozarks

The Grotto was gorgeous! In wetter seasons or rain there is a waterfall that flows from the top to the bottom.

The River that we hiked along.  There were already pleasure crafts going up and down the river in March.

We hiked along this rock escarpment for quite a ways.

Pretty green vines snaking their way along this tree.

Me in the Grotto.

We were trying to figure out if we had to climb out the other side to continue the trail and we had to.

Probably not the smartest move.

There were definitely some tricky areas that we had to scramble up.

It was a great hike, we had a ton of fun finding our way back to the parking lot. We were hungry and we went to Billy Gail's Restaurant for lunch and had catfish and salad and the catfish had a really nice light cornmeal breading on it and it wasn't greasy. It was very good. We have not had Catfish since we were in Mississippi in 1990.

We came back to the Marriott Willow Ridge in Branson to relax and get ready for the musical David. David was a Sight and Sound production which is also a film company and their next film coming out at Easter time is The Great Awakening. A story of Benjamin Franklin. The musical was hands down the best musical that we have ever seen do to these facts. It had three stages that surrounded you. It had live animals including camels, donkeys, sheep, llama, horses, birds flying overhead and these creatures were going up and down the aisles and on to the stages into the back stage and constantly coming around. It was continuous because the story of David who is the shepherd boy who becomes King David, who also killed Goliath is based in ancient Israel. All of these animals had a place in ancient Israel. The horses had riders on them and the horses were beautiful. It was incredible. The sets were the most advanced gorgeous, unbelievable sets you could possibly imagine.  The sound because it was a professional sound company was incredible and the voices were all so professional. Usually a musical will have a weak link but not this musical. The voices were stunning. If you ever get a chance to see David go see it. We only paid 59 USD each and it is just dessert for the senses. There's something happening on the stage or the 3 stages at all times, it's hard to even keep track. It was beautiful, utterly beautiful.   We were not allowed to take photos during the production so we were relegated to a photo of the poster. 

It was a highly successful day

The next day we drove to the Ruth and Paul Henning Trails and hiked our way onto 3 of the 4 trails.  We hiked along a dry creek bed for most of the trail.  There were wild flowers scattered throughout and blooming trees and lots of stacked rocks indicative of the area.

The large white petaled blooms on this tree were all over the Branson area.  This was the start of the trail which was fairly flat and easy.  Even the parking lot was pretty at this trail head.

The rocks were pitted and strange looking.

Lots of natural rock stairs.

Thats actually a cliff but it is hard to tell with this photo.

The Boys.

Blooming Spring flowers were so pretty.

The purple blooms behind us.

I think I am doing 'Blue Steel' in this pose. If you have seen the movie Zoolander in 2001 then this will bring a smile to your face.

Down in the creek bed.

In the creek bed on a rock shelf.

Taking a break.

It was a great hike except for the fact that I rolled my ankle good!

Lovely bruising and swelling.  We went to Walmart and bought a slip on comfy brace/tensor.  We also bought medicine in the form of 1 dollar Mudslides.

We were hungry and made our way to one of the copious numbers of restaurants in the Branson area. We decided on Poncho Villa Tex Mex and it was good.  There was still quite a few hours in the day so we decided to go to Tanger Outlets.  The prices were still quite high in most of the stores but in Micheal Kors the clearance prices on dresses were excellent.  If I could have fit some of the beauties into my bag I would have bought some. We went back to the Marriott Willow Ridge and I nursed my ankle that I rolled during the hike.

The next day we went to the National Tiger Sanctuary which is in existence due to the fact that the laws in the United States trafficking wild cats is still not where it should be. Humans buy these exotic animals and then wonder why they have to surrender them when they grow to full size. Yes tigers and lions make deliciously cute Cubs but once they reach 4 months then they start to become dangerous and start stalking your children. It must be very frustrating for the people working at these sanctuaries to deal with such stupidity and hopefully these sanctuaries will soon be a thing of the past and there won't be a need for them. But we have been to sanctuaries all over the United States and there are too many of them.  At this particular sanctuary, they have Tigers, Lion,. Ty-Ligers, Ligers,  Black Panthers, Pot-bellied pigs, Cougars, Wolf dogs, White Siberian Tigers and Lemurs and they're all extremely beautiful.

This was Trueman and he was a very big Boy.

So majestic looking.  This boy takes care of his two sisters and is highly protective of them.  They were all surrendered to the Sanctuary at 3 weeks old and had to be hand raised.

One of the Wolf Dogs who was barking.  Even the full blooded wolves were barking which I did not think that they barked?  The Wolf Dogs are up for adoption.

This Lemur was surrendered because apparently she was too mean.

We purchased the $40 tour which was at the senior pricing for 55+ and it took us around on a highly informative one hour excursion around the park.  The driver of the tram was very educated and it was highly interesting and we got to see all of the animals, even the cougar came out to say hi. Eventually they do respond to human voices and many of the animals can still be pet by the feeders, etc. That was a good afternoon and we made our way back into Branson.

Lots of rock along the way, with lots of forests.

The sanctuary is about a half hour drive outside of the city and we drove back into Branson and parked near the Main Street of Historic Branson. 

We ate at the Farmhouse Family Restaurant and had delicious salads and also made our way to the ice cream parlor across the street that advertises the largest scoop in Missouri and it certainly was. We continued walking around and I convinced Darren to go into the gem and fossil store because he believed that he found a meteorite on our first hike in the Branson area. It was confirmed that it most likely was a meteorite because the expert took a look at it and Darren bought a little case to put it in.  He was pretty pumped. 

In Historic Downtown Branson

We found a pink bull to pose with.

Outside the Ice cream Shop. That is one scoop that I am holding up.

Me massaging in a few sample of all natural hemp and essential oil salve made for killing pain.  This was in one of the Main Street Shops.

I also found some Sodalite beads to remake my Sodalite bracelet that I bought in St. John's Newfoundland last year. We took lots of pictures on Main Street and then made our way back to the car. and drove back to the Marriott Willow Ridge and I took some more medicine for my ankle.

Picking up more medicine for my ankle.  I found a 26 oz of 7 X Distilled Vodka for $6.12 USD.  It would be very easy to turn into an alcoholic here in Missouri. The next day we set out for  Top of the Rocks Ozark Heritage Preserve which our focus was the Lost Canyon Cave Nature trail overlooking Table Rock Lake. It's a beautiful setting.  We bought our tickets for 50 US dollars each which does seem overpriced. But actually when you're done the day you feel like you have definitely not wasted your money. This reminded me of Sedona. Lots of pretty rocks along the way Some of the surrounding countryside during the trip. We started out by getting in a lineup for almost an hour for the golf carts and once we got a golf cart, Kim drove the four of us and it was super fun! She took us through caves, lookouts and you could stop along the way strategically and take pictures and it was beautiful. There are a ton of waterfalls and scenic overlooks.  About 1/3 of the way into the drive, you stop at the Batcave Bar to pick up your complimentary drink. The cave is quite pretty. They had canned alcohol beverages which I do not like but coincidentally liked both of the ones that I drank. I chose the Hoop Di Do and the Cannon which were distilled in Missouri. They were delicious and then coincidentally the trip became even more fun. Inside the Bat Cave Bar. These are the cocktail choices. The Bat Cave Bar Inside the natural cave is quite beautiful with the waterfall and lights. Outside the Batcave there is a scenic stop to take it all in and snap a few photos. Kim was responsible and only had one drink while driving the Golf Cart. Outside the Batcave Bar. There are a tremendous amount of waterfalls throughout the property. A pretty covered bridge. The trip took us about an hour and 10 minutes to do the drive.  This chapel on the property overlooks one of the Ozark Lakes. This is one side of the sinkhole. The sinkhole is behind us and they are still working on it to make it stable and safe. Picture taken from the covered bridge. The gigantic sinkhole is behind Kim and Rich. A Woodpecker doing its thing. We then got in a quick line for a shuttle which took us up to higher ground where we could take even more pictures and see the sinkhole that happened in 2015. Apparently Missouri has over 16,000 sinkholes, due to the sandstone and dolomite rock base.  We toured the Ancient Ozarks Natural History Museum which is included in the price and to be honest we weren't super excited about the museum, but it ended up being one of the best museums we've ever seen. The private collector that owns this has the most extensive First Nations tomahawks, spears, arrowheads, clothing, photograph collection that you could imagine. The collection includes Civil War History uniforms, artillery etc. The Abraham Lincoln collection is extensive and and  the Museum continues chronologically. It was an excellent Museum which took us over an hour to go through and we could have stayed 4 hours. This was very interesting about the Buffalo populations and how they were utterly decimated, horrific really More interesting info on the Buffalo Awful. Tourism -Buffalo Killing. Teddy Rooseveldt Their collection of original US of A  flags was extensive. Original uniform of Washington Original US money dating back to 1869 and Confederate times. Darren in among a lot of military equipment. Abe Lincoln Original Roy Rogers outfit A poor Buffalo head. Annie Oakley's gun Gorgeous collection of original outfits worn by Osage Indians. Enlarged from original photo of Geronimo on the far right. The beading of the original Missouri peoples eclipsed our Plains Indians in Canada.  Little boys boots dating back to the 1800s Statue of Tatanka or Sitting Bull A child's beaded frock. Beading on female dresses. Super interesting info on some pre-historic animals to the area.  This is the Bear Dog. Very large ugly bird called the Terror Bird was re-created for us.  This bird was ginormous and much larger than me. The Hell Pig was a very large dinosaur looking pig that was re-created for us.  It was frightening to look at and more information is below.  It made the rhinoceros look tiny. At the end of that we caught the shuttle back to the parking lot. Blooming trees were everywhere. We drove to 'Gettin' Basted for some more good home-cooked (restaurant style) food. That night we had bought two for one tickets for a show called Anthem of Rock.  It was fun, the music was really good.  Some of the singers were excellent and others not so much.  The British guy and the girl that looked like Stevie Nicks were amazing singers!  It was still worth the 25 USD each that we paid for a fun night out at Kings' Castle Theater.  It was another great day in the Ozarks!! My ankle on ice and Kim decided to keep her Mudslide ice cold. This was the photo of the photo of us that we did not buy at Anthem of Rock  The next day we drove to Table Rock Lake State Park and we're surprised to see such an extensive large brand new visitor center facility that had a great 20-minute video on the making of the Ozarks, which are all man-made from a system of six dams damming up the White River which eventually drains into the Mississippi River Basin. They had been built by the US army corpse in order to control flooding in the area which was extreme in the early part of the 1900s and created a lot of hardship for the Missouri people. The creation of the dams also left the country with a lot of clean natural power in the form of electricity and many of the dams were privately owned. The brand new visitor center. There was much information on the Osage peoples Information on the flooding in the area before the dams were built. We then went on a walk along the Table Rock Lakeshore Trail and that was fun. It was a nice flat paved trail with some elevation changes. Great for a sprained ankle. We came upon the large paddle wheel boat that was not running due to high winds that day and continued on and then my ankle said 'stop' and we turned around and came back but we still did close to 9,000 steps on the trail. My new Doo. The Libners on the shoreline. The Paddle Boat behind Kim and Rich. It was a bit windy that day. The Boys played Corn Hole while we shopped at the River Boat Landing. Paddle Wheel Boat behind us. Great Ladies store behind us. We then went to College of the Ozarks for lunch because this particular university is a Hard Work University which is its second name.  There are 8 other institutions like this in the USA.  The students have to work 15 hours a week to pay their tuition and they work in their area of their future career. The meal was excellent and the students serving and cooking for us were excellent. I had chicken fried chicken which I'm not sure if that means a chicken fried my chicken?  I don't know but it's a Missouri thing and it was delicious. Rich in front of the gargantuan fireplace.  College of the Ozarks was founded in 1906. We walked around the gift shop where all of the gifts are made by student businesses and then we went home and I took some more medicine for my foot. That night we went to the show called the HayGoods.  The HayGoods are a group of siblings, five boys, one girl that are ultra talented, play a mind-boggling amount of instruments and sing as well. They put on a spectacular show which is highly entertaining and they've been doing this for 34 years. The oldest is 44 years old and they got started very early in life. The interesting thing is they are from the Ozarks and coincidentally are the most popular show in Branson. It was $58 for the ticket and well worth it. We all could have stayed for a second show. It was phenomenal. Two of the brothers tap dancing upside down in the photo below.  Their Mom made them take tap dancing lessons when they were boys.  They could not afford tap dancing shoes so they nailed crushed pop cans onto the bottom of their cowboy boots. The brothers are super funny and the oldest Timothy on top of the John Deere lawn mower was called Banjo Boy. The youngest brother Michael zip-lined onto the stage upside down playing a guitar.

I would highly recommend this show while in Branson.  Apparently they do a Christmas show and I would love to see it.

The next morning we tried to find the Roark Creek Trail head but we could not find it. Therefore, we drove down to the Branson landing and walked along the creek and boardwalk and saw the fountains and flames that spew to music.  There is a very good shopping area and lots of restaurants.  We walked around there for a bit and got some steps in. 

On Branson Landing

Flowering Cherry Tree in March

Branson Landing Shopping

Along the hike we saw this bird which was almost the size of a Goose but was hanging out with the Ducks.

It's quite a lovely area and Kim and I discovered Belk Department Store which is a Missouri chain.  Prices in there were fabulous and they had a big sale.  I needed another suitcase so I refrained from purchasing anything.  We also walked into a Trump store and I took a few pictures of the Biden and Harris Toilet Paper and the life sized mannequin of Trump.  Missouri is definitely Trump Country.

We were hungry and wanted to find a restaurant and we knew we had such a good salad at Farmhouse Family Restaurant that we went back and ate our salads. We got home after 5:00 pm and I had my two bottles of medicine and soaked my foot in ice and phoned a few family members and got ready for the night. 

Kim and I decided to go to the show called Six which was six brothers from a family of 10 brothers. No girls and their Dad wanted them to sing Barbershop and they wanted to sing Rock but they didn't get their way. They started singing on the streets of Los Angeles. One of the brothers was a marine in the US military and he eventually joined the group later after his service to his country. They ended up somehow 20 years ago singing in Branson and have been doing the show for 20 years since. When they first came out on stage they looked like a bunch of old men with bellies and they could barely move when they were doing their dance steps and one of them did a twirl and almost fell down. Kim and I looked at each other and thought 'oh goodness', "what did we get ourselves into?" but from that first awkwardness it just got better and better.  They were very self-deprecating in their humor and their singing was amazing. One of the singers who's the bald one with the beard has the most amazing Rock star voice and he's the base.  He sang The Sound of Silence and that was just stunning.  I could listen to him sing solo in a concert on his own.  At Intermission Kim and my cheeks were so sore from laughing so hard. These guys are hilarious! We had a 15-minute intermission and then we were excited for the second half. It just got better. I would highly recommend Six. Our tickets were really cheap. We got a two-for-one so they were $23 each. They were so good I would go to them again in a hot minute.

The next day we drove 41 minutes from the Marriott Willow Ridge to Dogwood Canyon which is owned by the Pro Bass /Cabela's dude that is from Missouri. He also owns the Top of the Rock that we went to earlier in the week.  This guy does not do anything on the cheap. Everything is well done and beautiful. When you first enter Dogwood Canyon, it is stunning to look at and you are just in the entry to the driveway. It's a recreational area and it's for picnicking, trail hiking walking and biking. There's also a tram tour that you can take to go see the Buffalo. We did not choose to do that.

Countless Waterfalls at Dogwood Canyon.

Beautiful rock bridges and rock landscaping.

The pretty creek was all along the hike.

More bridges.

Flowering trees and singing birds.  There were numerous butterflies flying around the areas as well.

This rock escarpment was super cool.

This type of covered bridge was also at Top of The Rock.  It is very photogenic.

We wanted to hike and you can walk on the paved walkway which is good for a sprained ankle. We also went off on a unpaved hike as well, a very short one just to see if my ankle could handle it. It's beautiful scenery.

My ankle did not like these very steep stairs.

Very interesting information along the hike.

If you like rock then Missouri is where it is at.

On the unpaved hiking area.  Darren lent me one of his hiking sticks which did help on this part of the hike.

There is rock and more rock, lots of trees, wildflowers everywhere and all following Little Indian Creek. There are a countless bridges and waterfalls,  and we only went halfway into the 3.2 mile hike. 

Dogwood Canyon is made for photos.

How picturesque is this?

So pretty.

Lovely.

Once all the trees leaf out, it will be truly stunning.

The iron railing on this bridge was gorgeous.

This flowering tree beside the rapids/waterfall was so pretty.

On the porch of the Chapel which overlooks another waterfall, I snapped a photo of Darren who found two meteorites on this hike.  He was pumped.

Near the parking lot there is a huge building which consists of the restaurant and the museum which we checked that out and that had more Museum artifacts similar to the excellent Museum that we saw at Top of the Rock. The restaurant area has an absolutely stunning tall waterfall that is very picturesque. 

This waterfall was super gorgeous carved into the Missouri rock.

Blooming flowers and the Restaurant and Museum in the background.

Seriously pretty photo.

There were birds along this hike singing the whole time, probably because of the running water and the waterfalls and it's just so scenic and pretty. Probably one of the prettiest places I've ever walked in my life, it is just so gorgeous and we had fun doing that. We did about 10,000 steps and could have done 20 or 30,000 but I had a bad ankle so we headed back to Branson. 

We went to McFarlain's Family Restaurant which was on the list of places to stop and eat, we had a late lunch there and I had to try their Chicken Fried Chicken and I'm going to have to say that their Chicken Fried chicken was better than College of the Ozarks restaurant at Keeter Club. I don't like the white gravy on the chicken I could have done without that.  To me white gravy is a tasteless gravy which tastes like flour but it didn't take away from the goodness of the Chicken Fried Chicken. Whatever that means? White gravy is popular in the south.

The Corn Bread that was given to us before we began eating.  That was butter on the top of the warm bread.  It was the best Corn Bread I have ever had.

 We made our way back to the Marriott Willow Ridge. We were changing units because we were here a full 2 weeks and they moved us into a different two bedroom, two bathroom unit and that was quite seamless. This gave us a different and better view from our balcony.  

On the balcony icing my foot with my Mudslide Medicine on the table.

We had to get ready to go to another show that night.

We had booked ABBA because who doesn't like ABBA?  This show was a bit of a letdown.  2 of the 4 singers were good.  I would not unfortunately recommend this show unless there are some drastic changes.  We did expect some cheese in the shows when we came to Branson and ABBA delivered.

The next day we hit up the Wineries.  We first went to Lindwedel Winery.  It was only 8 minutes out of town and set high up on a ridge.  It was a very pretty drive.  She set us up with 5 wines of choice for only 11 USD.  They make a fortified wine which they call Port and we wanted that included.  There was also a Seyval Blanc and Chambourcin.  We liked everything except for the Seyval Blanc which had the rankest aftertaste.  Apparently you love it or hate it and we hated it.  They had a nice outdoor sitting area and it was 27 degrees that day and cloudy.

We had our flights of wine ready to go.

Branson in the distance.

We drove around the area because it was quite pretty in the Cottage Country.  Bright colored rentals in the background.

We made our way to our second Winery called St. James.  This one was in Branson and it had a restaurant.  The wines here were predominantly semi sweet to sweet which I don't like but their Port was good.  The tasting was 20 USD and we stayed for lunch and had a salad and dessert.

We called him Jesus.  He was the guy helping us with our flights of wine and wine choices which was tough because they were predominantly a winery of sweet wines, yuck.

The next day the Libners had to fly back to the cold of Saskatchewan. We had to drive them back to Springfield which is one hour from the Marriott Willow Ridge where we stayed.  Our plan was to spend the day touring around Springfield but it was raining so we drove back.  Along the way home along the highway are sheer rock walls and new waterfalls had sprung up with the rain, that was very pretty to see along the drive home.

Darren and I hiked a bit on our own and worked out and played Pickle Ball at the resort and basically chillaxed for a couple of days.

One of the days we set aside for a drive to Eureka Springs, Arkansas because we had never been to Arkansas before.  That was a great day trip and it deserved its own blog.

We really liked Missouri and would return in a heartbeat to check out another timeshare and do some new shows and or camp at the numerous pretty campgrounds or do both.  We really liked the people, they were real friendly.