Branson, MO July 2012

Whew!  It's STILL hot in this part of the country.   Temps between 98 and 104 degrees so we are trying to do all indoor stuff :)  Today we saw a Tribute to Neal Diamond show and the guy was really good.  We recommend it.  Our second show was watching rescued pets to tricks. Weeee!

Deck next to the RV.  Nice!

We have and AWESOME camping spot at a KOA here.  Nice shade, our own private wooden patio and fire pit - but of course no fires! HA!   Because this area is under a severe drought, there won't be any July 4th fire works around here tomorrow.  Lot's of disappointed kids I'm sure, but better safe than sorry.
There is still a lot of evidence of the tornado that hit Branson in Feb 2012.  Hotels, restaurants & other businesses that had their roofs torn off or more.  Branson, like many other places across the country has also been hit hard by the bad economy and it's obvious that a LOT of the businesses that were destroyed by the tornado just packed up and left.  Empty buildings everywhere.  So sad.  This has been going on since 2008 when we first started traveling the country - lot's of closed businesses.  Hate to see that.

BRANSON SUMMARY
We've been in 100+ heat for a week and we have eaten out more times in the last week than in the last 6 MONTHS because it's just too darn hot to cook - either inside or outside.  Whenever we eat out, we're constantly reminded WHY we don't like restaurants anymore... the food usually sucks.  The exception in Branson would be Dannas BBQ and Burgers which positively had the best burger and fries I've had in years.  Even Kathy ate almost all of hers and the burgers are HUGE!  The BBQ looked great too, but we didn't have the time to try their BBQ.
Branson is a tourist destination that caters to country western or Christian gospel type people.  That's simply not our speed so Kathy & I have no need nor desire to ever come here again.  Been there, done that kind of situation.  Oh yeah - the traffic is awesome too!  Takes you 10 minutes to go 1/10 of a mile.  People were literally walking faster than we were driving! HA!  We're glad we came because it WAS on our bucket list, but now we can cross it off!

And now - it's off to Hannibal, MO to see Mark Twains house, then we'll be on our way to Michigan and cooler weather!