Second day in Branson

Thursday, August 4 - We were not sure what we wanted to do today, but thankfully there was a cloud cover, and it was only 80 degrees.  Right beside our campground is a big plastic ball kids ride in, I think it's called Ballknockers, anyhow, I caught one coming down this morning.

Other "to do" things here include a Zip Line, and a tourist trip on The Ducks (we never got to see them splash into the water, although Joe kept trying to follow them).

Typical of us, we opted in favor of the fish hatchery and dam instead of the museums, so we drove out there.  They had a short video of the Shepherd of the Hills Fish Hatchery just below Table Rock Dam, which is the largest trout-rearing facility operated by the Missouri Dept. of Conservation.  Then we walked out through the hatchery itself and saw fishes of various sizes.

We drove across the dam, so I got an overview picture of the hatchery.

We drove past the lake and checked out the Table Rock State Park campground for future reference -- this is a place I would enjoy returning to, and this state park would fit our needs nicely (especially if it is not 112 degrees).  Fortunately, the clouds hung around until about noon, and I think we stayed below 100 degrees -- a welcome relief from yesterday.

We thought this site (or any along this row) would work for us, and it has water, sewer and electric (50 amp), and the R means we could reserve it 6 months in advance.

We headed back to town, grabbed a quick sandwich at Steak and Shake (a first for us), then fought the traffic down to the Americana Theatre for our 2:00 Elvis show.   We again had great seats -- 5th row, right in the middle.  The theatre wasn't very full, but it was nice to be up close.

He was no Elvis, but he put on a good show and was properly respectful of the King.  He began the performance with Elvis' early songs.  He even tossed a few teddy bears into the audience (I never caught one, darn it.)  Remember, you can click on the picture to enlarge it.

He changed to the black leather suit and performed some songs from the later 60s.  Then he sat down on the stage with his band and sang with them like Elvis did in the 1968 Special -- I really liked this part (of course, I've seen that special several hundred times).

After intermission, he of course came out in the white jump suit, with neck scarves to pass out to the women in the audience. 

The lady in front of Joe got one, and a kiss, but again, I missed out.

He was very entertaining, had a good voice, interacted with the audience in an Elvis manner, although sort of self-deprecating like he knew we knew he wasn't the real thing, and put on a good show.  And he was easy to look at.

Two girls did background signing and dancing in the 60's style, and they were good too.

 He acknowledged our veterans and troops and dedicated the finale to our soldiers with a very passionate rendition of An American Trilogy.

We left the theatre and drove back out to a Craft Mall that we had seen this morning.  We spent a half-hour walking through that, then came back to the RV for an hour's rest (and me to do the blog) before our evening entertainment.  Looking forward to another good show!