On my afternoon walk-about with my girls, Itsy and Ginger, I photographed a tickseed coreopsis
and a leaf with twisty vine on it. You just never know what will catch my fancy.
Our time in Lake Ozark, Missouri was running short.
Tonight, this night, would be dinner with our friend Margaret and the kids. It is to be a celebration dinner, celebrating Mike’s birthday in July and my birthday in August. Margaret always takes us to dinner at a fine restaurant for our birthday dinner as her gift to us.
At the appointed time, Mike and I headed out to Bentley’s, a local, family owned, British style restaurant. I saw this sheriff’s transport and thought it was cute. By the time I decided to take a picture and got my camera up and focused, we were exiting the highway. A picture is worth a thousand words, and there is no doubt as to what this van is transporting.
Bentley’s has the best Scallops Newburg I’ve ever had!
“Peg, how many other places have you had Scallops Newburg?” you wonder.
Okay. You got me. I’ve never had it anywhere else, but it is so good that I hardly ever order anything else when we go there. We don’t go there very often and I’ve never gotten tired of Scallops Newburg.
One of the best parts of dinner with Mike, Margaret and the kids at Bentley’s is the Bailey’s coffee we linger over at the end of the meal. Is there anything better than Bailey’s coffee with a dab of whip cream on top?
“Let’s go get ice cream,” Mike suggested afterward and everyone agreed.
At the ice cream store we all got our ice creams and sat down to eat it. “Here Andrew, try this. You’ll like it.” Kandyce said.
“No.”
“But you didn’t even try it. Just try it.”
“No,” he said again.
When Andrew wasn’t paying attention, Kandyce shoved a bite in. Andrew laughed and laughed. “That’s how you do it,” Kandyce said.
“I missed it, do it again,” I requested and I got my camera ready.
“Andrew,” Kandyce cooed, but Andrew knew what was coming and he started laughing all over again.
Still, he turned around enough that Kandyce could get the bite in his mouth.
Andrew was delighted with this new game and laughed and laughed!
Then his mama wiped the ice cream from his mouth.
A picture of all of us.
Pop-pop giving Andrew a big hug. Can you see all the love here?
After eating our ice cream we went outside for a little while, letting Andrew run and play on the bleachers and the stage.
Kandyce giving Andrew some love.
Andrew giving it back.
Pop-pop playing with Andrew.
The Kraft family. I love these guys and instead of enjoying one of our last nights together, what do I do? I find my heart was already missing them and these impromptu, ice cream eating, summer nights.
The next morning had us packing up our RV and heading for Branson, Missouri. We had reservations at a members only RV park. It’s one of those deals where they let you stay free for three nights and four days if you sit in on a sales pitch meeting. In the meantime you were free to enjoy the facilities. Mike wanted to see a couple of things in Branson anyway, so we agreed.
Branson Landing opened in 2006 and Mike and I have heard lots of nice things about it, all of them ending with, “You should go there!” Our first day in Branson we went to the Landing.
“What’s Branson Landing?” you ask.
First, if you don’t already know, let me say that Branson is home to many theaters like the Roy Clark Celebrity Theater, Andy Williams’s Moon River Theatre, Dolly Parton’s Dixie Stampede, Glen Miller has a theater, and so does Bobby Vinton. The ever increasing number of theaters and other attractions caught the attention of 60 Minutes and they did a segment on it in 1991 and called Branson the “live music capital of the entire universe.”
Branson took a street on the Lake Taneycomo waterfront and closed it off to traffic. All along this street are shops with Bass Pro being an anchor. They have a shuttle that runs back and forth all day and it seemed like every time we thought about getting on it, it was going in the wrong direction!
I’m not much for shopping but I saw a store that featured games. “Let’s go in,” I said to Mike. “I want to see if they have Quiddler,” a card game my beautiful cousin Rosemary taught me to play the last time I saw her. I didn’t really believe they would have it, but we were just browsing anyway. We walked around a little but didn’t see it. “They don’t have it, let’s go.”
“Wait, let’s ask,” Mike suggested.
We located the clerk stocking a shelf in one of the aisles. “Do you have…” Mike said and handed it off to me.
“Quiddler,” I finished. I expected him to say, “What’s Quiddler?, but he didn’t.
“Yeah, it’s right over here,” and he led us back to the card section. I had just missed it. It was there on the bottom shelf. So I am now the proud owner of a fun card game called Quiddler.
As we walked down the street looking at all the shops, we turned a corner and there were condos and hotels right on the Landing! How cool is that!
“I bet it would be pretty cool to stay in one of those,” Mike said.
The crown jewel of the Landing is its town square, an open air plaza right in the center of the mall that features a 7.5 million dollar fountain. You can sit and watch a choreographed show with water shooting 125 feet in the air, fire and music.
We had lunch at Garfield’s, a chain restaurant, but didn’t buy anything except Quiddler on this trip to the Landing but on our second visit we stocked up on fudge. Yeah. You don’t need to say anything. I know fudge isn’t something someone who seriously wants to lose weight should eat.
Our next day in Branson we went for the sales pitch but managed to get out of there without buying anything. They made it sound like a good deal, and I’m sure it is if RV’ing was something you did full time, but the price was much too salty for us.
Our meeting over we had just enough time to freshen up and head out for our dinner reservations aboard the Showboat Branson Belle, something Mike has been talking about doing for several years now.
As you board the paddleboat they funnel you into a single file, stand you behind a small ships wheel and take your picture. Before the end of the night someone is coming around to your table trying to sell you the photo.
“Want it?” Mike asked me.
I took one look at my fat little self and said, “No.”
“Let’s get it anyway.”
You know what? The food was good and the show was a lot of fun. They had magic and tap dancers, and lots of funny musical skits.
This is the view of the stage from where Mike and I sat and this was one of my favorite parts of the show. It was called Yes No With Christopher James. The rules are simple — aren’t simple things just the best! — the only rule is you can’t answer any of his questions with yes or no or any variation of yes or no. Christopher James picked an audience member, brought them up on stage, sat them on a stool in front of a microphone, and with three minutes on the clock, started chatting with them. Of the four people he chatted with on this night, he managed to trip them all up in the first minute or two, except this one woman. She was very clever in her answers and went the whole three minutes with him. It was just plain fun.
It rained that night and the next morning, when I took the girls out for a morning pee, I saw the rose of Sharon’s with rain droplets clinging to them, and thought it was pretty. I went back for my camera and this is my current desktop photo.
“What do you want to do today?” I asked Mike when I came back in from an hour of interval running.
“Last night on TV I was watching a show about the new Ferris Wheel. It just opened up yesterday. You want to ride it?” he asked.
Well, I didn’t really even have to think about it. “No.”
“It’ll be fun! Let’s go,” he pleaded.
“The last time I was on a Ferris wheel with you, you said, ‘Look Peg, I think that bolt is coming out,’ and you kept it up until I was afraid.”
“Yeah. I’m sorry about that. I won’t do it again,” he promised.
I reconsidered my automatic answer. “Okay then.”
Once we left the Ferris wheel we headed down to the Landing area because we thought we would like to take the scenic rail tour. As luck would have it, we arrived 10 minutes after the last train ride of the day departed.
“We should’ve come here first then gone on the Ferris wheel,” Mike said.
“We should’ve checked the train schedule on the internet. That’s what we should’ve done.”
Should’ve, would’ve, could’ves do no one any good.
We took a different route home and this stop sign tickled me.
REALLY YOU GOTTA STOP it reads.
The next morning we were up and on the road early. Our next destination was Iola, Kansas to see cousin Suzy before we left for our mountain home in Pennsylvania.
I did take some road pictures but I’m going to skip them this time. There are plenty of other pictures for you to look at.
Suzy’s grandmother and Mike’s grandmother were sisters and Mike spent many summers at the family’s farm in Iola.
“Look at this,” Suzy said and showed me her hands.
“What happened?” I asked looking at two very large blisters on her hands.
“I don’t know, they just appeared. I went to the doctor today and he said not to pop them.”
“Peg, is that a Blizzard cup? That looks like a Blizzard cup!” you say.
Yes it is. Boy, I can’t get anything past you guys! But in my defense, I only had a mini Blizzard.
I just love Suzy’s! I love her eclectic sense of landscaping. From her old iron tools on the fence to the old iron farm equipment decorating the yard,
even to her bone shed, which the family has affectionately dubbed the Pet Cemetery.
“Donnie will be here tomorrow,” Suzy told Mike.
“He will!” Mike was surprised but glad he would be able to visit with Donnie on this trip.
Donnie, Suzy’s older brother, is a successful entrepreneur. He has a home in Hawaii (which he is currently trying to sell) and two homes in New Orleans. Besides those he owns the family farm and a garage in Iola. The garage is home to 40 some classic cars which he opens to the public as a living museum and is free of charge.
Monday.
♫Monday, Monday, ♪ can’t trust that day♪♫ Monday, Monday, ♫ it just turns out that way ♫♪
There.
I sang to you.
Monday we headed back to the Lake. It would be our very last night in Missouri, and we had a dinner date with Margaret and the kids at the kid’s house.
Kevin and Andrew saw us pull up to a parking space in front of their condo and opened the window. Look at those handsome faces, would ya!
I took lots of pictures of Andrew being Andrew and he kept us entertained, that’s for sure. Besides showing me he could dribble a ball, he hung upside down from the couch
and rolled across the floor.
Did you ever do that when you were a kid? Roll? Let me tell you, we did! My brothers and sisters and I would lay down at the top of a grassy bank and roll down. Laugh and giggle, run up the hill and do it again. We won’t talk about the grass stains on our clothes.
Sigh.
Life was simpler back then.
But this is one of my favorite pictures from that night.
Andrew showed me some new things in the condo that they had recently acquired. There was a new picture over the couch and a new shadowbox for Kat. (I opened the glass door to reduce the glare.)
Kandyce wouldn’t be home until 6 pm so she had prepared two casseroles for Kevin to put in the oven and they were done shortly after she arrived home. We had a shepherds pie, which is layered potatoes, meat, and veggies, and a hash brown casserole. Both of them were very yummy and I had seconds. Kandyce and Kevin are both good cooks and there is nothing better than family around the dinner table.
“Let’s go get ice cream,” Mike said. “I’m buying.”
And I found myself at the ice cream store, again. I’ve had more ice cream in the past two weeks than I’ve had in the past two years!
We were sitting at the table and Kandyce was trying to get Andrew to eat his Superman flavored ice cream.
“What’s Superman ice cream?” you wonder.
It’s just three fruit flavors layered together.
Andrew only had a couple of three bites then he didn’t want anymore. “Here Andrew,” Kandyce coaxed. “Take a bite.”
“No,” Andrew says. I don’t know how that kid stays alive! He hardly eats anything!
Kandyce had a bite ready for Andrew but he wouldn’t open up for it. In a playful mood she touches it to his nose and Andrew was so surprised that he laughed and laughed. I just love to hear him laugh!
“I missed it, do it again,” I requested.
“Andrew…” Kandyce cooed. Knowing what was coming Andrew started laughing,
then he turned around enough that Kandyce could dab ice cream on his nose again and he was off on a fresh fit of laugher.
I snapped a few pictures, then I said, “Andrew let me see.”
Andrew, his laughter subsiding, turned his ice cream frosted face to me.
He is such a good sport, and so is his mom and dad for the do-overs that allowed me to capture these moments.
With the night over, goodbye hugs and kisses given, Mike and I get into the Jeep to head back to our RV.
“Let’s go see if the Celebration II is back yet,” Mike suggested. It was out on its maiden cruise, a cruise we were invited to be on but declined so we could spend one more night with Margaret and the kids.
We got there just as it was coming back into port — is that the right word?
Tuesday morning, our last morning in Lake Ozark, Missouri, I ran some last minute errands. The post office, the store, and I wanted to kiss Miss Helen and Mr. B goodbye.
Miss Helen was fresh from her bed, so I didn’t take any pictures of her, but here is my favorite Jersey Boy, Mr. B.
And with that —
We shall call this one done!
You are all in my heart.
No comments:
Post a Comment