We knew we had some miles to make today if we were going to make Branson before too late. We want to stay at Table Rock State Park, and when I called, they told me it was first-come, first-serve (I later learned that they take reservations up to 48 hours ahead, but it was only about 24 hours out when I called). So we were on the road by 9:20 a.m., looking for fuel. We wanted to wait until we got into Missouri to fuel because gas was cheaper here than in Indiana or Illinois. We were below 1/4 tank, which we don't like to run that low, but we found fuel for $3.499, and we needed a lot -- $197.77 worth! (56.52 gallons). We took a wrong turn when we crossed the bridge and had to go north a
few blocks before we got turned around, but other than that, we got out
of St. Louis fairly easily.
Other than the Mississippi River and the Arch, it was just a pretty drive through Missouri green hill country.
We did pass a moving truck loaded with a pick-up, which was loaded with a riding lawn mower.
We got to the campground just before 3:00, after fueling again in Springfield, Mo., when Joe spotted gas price at $3.399. We were lucky because we got the last full hook-up campsite available. Good thing Joe put the pedal to the metal today. He put in 273 miles today. This campground is right on Table Rock Lake. We had scoped it out when we were here 2 years ago and knew we wanted to stay here if we ever made it back to Branson. It's a little bit of a drive into town, but the campground is very nice, and the price was right ($26/night). There were a few other empty campsites (probably being held on reserve), but it filled up completely by the Friday night.
We settled in and I called the ticket broker we used last time and got on their web site to see what shows were available. We had thought we would not go to anything tonight, but once we started looking at the shows, we succumbed and booked reservations to the Clay Cooper show, which was very entertaining.
Friday we had an afternoon show, "Rock, Roll and Reminisce," which of course was 60s music, our favorite. We really enjoyed this show. After the show, we drove downtown and walked into some of the shops. For dinner we decided to take Jim's recommendation and go to Mel's Hard Luck Diner, where the waiters and waitresses also sang. While we were in here, a guy came by handing out coupons for his show, " the Doug Gabriel show, at 8:00 p.m., so we just decided we might as well take that one in too. It was very good, had several members of his family involved, and of course there was some audience involvement. For this one, Joe ended up on stage as a member of the horn section (he was one of 3 kazoo players). Joe's kazoo was defective, imagine that. But he ended up with an autographed kazoo as a souvenier. I didn't take my camera into the theater this time, so I had to copy these photos from emails the wife of the other male kazoo player took (she had a better seat than I did so her phone pix were better than mine).
Anyhow, that was fun, and it was a great show. We found our way back to the RV in the [very] dark, but didn't sleep well. We had a 10:00 a.m. show on Saturday morning so we were on the move early. Traffic here is a lot like Gatlinburg, TN -- the main street just crawls. This morning's show was the "Good Ole Boys," and was the same guys who did our first show. We made a Walmart stop for some groceries when we left the show, then headed back to the RV and took naps. We still have another show today, the "Showboat" dinner show at 8:00 p.m. (see why we took naps).
It stormed during the night and was raining when we headed into town this mornng, but it stopped while we were in the show and now it is just very hot -- probably in the 90s. We are thinking the boat ride (paddle boat) should be very enjoyable at sunset.
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