Message board topic:

We vacationed in the tourist rap of Branson Missouri.  All 3 grandkids came along, one 8, one 11, and one 21.  It's about 2 and a half hours away but pretty decent highway all the way.  Cheri got me up hours early so we wouldn't get there too late.

Being as hot as it was, and not on a weekend, I was surprised at how busy it was.  There's just one main strip, and no matter where we went, the traffic was bumper to bumper and crawled along at a snail's pace.  The prices were insanely high and that cut back considerably on what we did.  The most interesting thing was visiting a zoo, with lots of snakes, enormous alligators and crocodiles, big cats, (lions and cougars) a large aquarium full of sharks, dingos, bats, sloths, kangaroos, etc.

Did a lot of shopping and eating out, (which we could easily have done right here).  Food was crazy expensive too.  One buffet cost $80 for just 4 out of 5 of us.  The motel had a really good, free breakfast though.

As hot as it was, I wanted to do a little swimming but it was a long distance to the pool and there was no shade anywhere near it, and I figured I'd get burned pretty quick, so I never did.

One of the highlites of the trip was when we were sitting outside about 10 or 11:00 PM, an entire family of skunks waddled across the parking lot and went along the side of the motel.  The next day, we saw a fawn running along the street, but no sign of the Mom.  The second night, the skunks were back, traveling the same route, and a larger deer ran up our street and across the next one.  I was so surprised by the skunks, and more so when the oldest grandson actually got video of them from the window in our room.  Great video too!  As close as out motel was to everything, it was still surrounded by miles of forests.

I had a hard time sleeping.  My days and nights were turned around backward.  I kept waking up at night with the most awful worries about the furkids and the house.  When we got back though, everybody was OK, but Cheri's son who kept a daily check on everybody, forgot to make sure Van Gogh had any water.  What she had probably lasted her almost the whole time.  Taylor wasn't around when we got back and I don't think she got fed at all, but a few hours later she showed up.

Cheri's Mom wanted us to take her car because it was bigger than mine and had more room.  It didn't do too bad on the gasoline though.  I think it took $36 for the whole trip.

I took my computer along but never turned it on once.  Nice to know I'm not thoroughly addicted to it.  The kids and I played a few games of chess in the room.  The youngest is getting better at it, but Karly's attention is more focused on the guitar now.

The oldest grandson met a girl at the pool and it turns out she only lives about 12 miles from here.  No telling where that might go.

All in all, I'm relieved to be home.  John

It sounds like you had a nice trip over all, even with the hear, home critter worrying and not swimming.

THe expense of a tourist town does not surprise me in the least. They KNOW people will come there and WILL be trapped and have to pay the prices. I always hated that about traveling. Same happens in an airport, the prices for food is just silly in them.

The zoo sounds fun. I cannot remember when last I visited a zoo. I guess my "zoo" are the animals I see out here in the wild. Like your trip I see skunks, prarie dogs (I hate seeing them, more on that further down or a new post), eagles, mule and white tail deer, antelope, bull snakes...

That was not a bad gas cost for the trip. WHat are your gas prices? We have not been below $3 in a LONG time and I think I last paid $3.29 (wait, who am I kidding, $3.2999 - gotta remember they love doing that).

 

I forgot I said about the prarie dogs. In late May and early June the babes are born and the parents come out. They are EVERYWHERE and that is bad, a LOT are by streets. You see them poking their heads up everywhere,a nd the run across the roads and get hit over and over and over. The portion of the road I take to the interstate had been just covered in smashed prarie dogs. It breaks my heart. I am one of the few who hits the breaks if one is on the road I think, most don't.

The walk from the house to the cluster mailboxes is about a half mile and I pass a lot of prarie dog mounds on the walk. THey poke their heads out of the mounds and squeak at me as I walk by. I have tried to make a squeak sound at them and a few times I seemed to have angered them as a bunch come out and start angryly squeaking at me. (laugh)

There are absolutely no prairie dogs in this area.  When I lived in Chicago, I lived across the street and 11 floors up from the Lincoln Park Zoo, and every morning I'd wake up to the sounds of seals barking.  I'd go over every day and visit.  They had a prairie dog village built on a hillside there and I always wondered how in the world they kept them from burrowing out.

The last time I visited a zoo was decades ago.  The band was on the road in Brownsville Texas.  My bass player at the time, whom I credit with having been about as sharp as a bowling ball, finished off about 3 quarters of a large bag of popcorn, folded the bag closed, and tossed it across a fence and a sort of moat, onto an island where they had monkeys.  One of the monkeys took the popcorn bag, slowly and carefully opened it and ate the popcorn.  Nothing surprising there, but then he carefully tore the bag and smoothed it flat, and licked off the salt and butter, then placed the paper over his head like a scarf, and placed an empty water pan over it.  I'll never forget how slowly and carefully he did all this.

Hey, maybe your prairie dog neighbors are trying to strike up a conversation with you.  John