Mike and Sandy were invited to join Bakersfield friends Buzz and Doreen for a visit to their time-share at Branson, Missouri, in November, just as the Christmas season shows were starting up.
Branson is like the Las Vegas strip in some ways -- a long street filled with entertainment, hotels, restaurants, shops, etc. -- but very different in other ways: there are no casinos, just shows, etc., and in typical mid-Western fashion, most of the shows have a patriotic or religious overtone.
The Stormy Point Village resort was their home for the week, located (as you might have guessed) on a point protruding into Table Rock Lake that apparently has a lot of storms.
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Before we got deeply into all the shows and fun of Branson, we took a day and drove south a few hours to Bella Vista, Arkansas, where we visited with Sandy's cousin Dorothy, who celebrated her 92nd birthday recently. Dorothy lives near Bentonville, so we all went over to visit the Sam Walton Museum, located in the building where in 1950 Sam Walton opened his first dime store -- which over the years grew into thousands of Wal-Marts and Sam's Clubs, all around the world. On the way, we drove through the quaint 1800's mountain town of Eureka Springs.
Some of our days were spent seeing some of Branson's famous shows. One of the most impressive was SIX - a group of six brothers who sing very well, but who also make with their mouths the sounds of various musical instruments - you would swear there's a band just off stage accompanying the singing -- but there isn't.
The Andy Willisms show was OK, but not really great - he's in poor health and didn't appear in the show this year. Pierce Arrow was another good show; great singing, plus a hillarious comedian.
Silver Dollar City is an amusmement park on the outskirts of Branson with beautiful Christmas lights and trees, lots of musical programs, and a Disney-like "electric light parade."
Since a lot of the shows are at night, we had some sightseeing time during the day. We enjoyed "historic old Branson," now mainly stores showing you "how it used to be," and a tour of the College of the Ozarks, famous for its nickname and policy of having all students work around the campus farm, restaurants, kitchens, etc. We drove up the Interstate one day to eat lunch at Lamberts, famous for waiters who throw dinner rolls to the guests (just Google Lamberts Restaurant).
Later in the week we saw more shows - a musical variety show and a comedy-magic show (no cameras allowed - obviously afraid we'd capture the secrets of the tricks). We even had time to bore Mike and Buzz while the ladies ran amuck at a factory outlet mall.
