We moved on from Memphis on Tuesday as planned, headed for Branson, MO. We had a great “scenic” route laid out, but decided to take I 40 on into Little Rock and then US 65 north to Branson. This was a good call because US 65 is about as scenic as one needs to get. It cuts directly, or maybe indirectly given the curves, through the Ozarks. It has plenty of hills and curves, enough to keep both Carol and me happy and the views were just great. So I know you are all just waiting to ask the question, what is in Branson and why did you have to go there?

The what is over a 100 theaters with just about every kind of music and entertainment you can imagine. I could take my 5 year old grandson to any show without having to answer any untoward questions. It started as a Missouri Ozarks showcase of country music. Many of the big names from Nashville built their own theaters there. There are several seasons. We arrived in the lull between summer family and fall bus seasons. When school is not in session the place is filled with families (so we are told) and the family entertainment venues are jumping. The buses bring in retirees by the thousands for a few shows a couple of nights in a cheap hotel and all the chain food you can imagine, oh I didn’t mention buffets, really big.

This picture is the Lobby of The Remington Theater where we saw the Oak Ridge Boys.

We set up in Chastain’s RV Park just on the edge of the district (by about 500 feet) and set out to choose some shows to attend.

This is not easy since there are more schedules than you can think about. Many shows are offered at 2 PM and again at 8. Some are on at 10 AM. We thought we would go to a couple of them. By the time we were done we got to five shows in three days. Tuesday night we went to “Country Tonight” which had several good country singers and other entertainment of a very country nature. Wednesday we saw The Oak Ridge Boys at 3 and Acrobats of China at 8. Wednesday at 2 we went to The Magic Show with Brett Daniels and at 8 we saw Cirque produced by Neal Goldberg. All of the entertainment was well done and very professional. The performers all came into the lobby to greet the patrons after the show. The theaters are huge, holding up to 4,500 in the case of the Grand Palace and most of the audiences during this interim week numbered in the low hundreds. The performers did not seem fazed by the small audiences and appeared to put out the full effort for us. It was fun and very personal. I do not recommend Branson as a place for most readers to visit. The hotel accommodations run to Fairfield Inn and other mid to low level chains, I am sure there must be some high end, but we did not see it. The food is almost exclusively national chain. We did get into one local restaurant, Jim Owens Steakhouse which was acceptable and was able to put together a decent vegetarian meal for Carol. Not a place I would go out of my way to eat in, but acceptable.

As for why, because it is there. We don’t need to repeat this particular excursion and given its location in the Ozarks, 50 miles south of Springfield, MO, it is not likely that we will happen to be passing by.

We had been making plans for a swift return to Rochester after leaving Branson. Given the direct interstate route it was clear that we would pass through St Louis, MO, Indianapolis and Columbus, OH. We have friends in each of these places and began to set up stopovers of a couple of hours in each for a visit. Accept for the first in St Louis this was not to be. We got a call from Dan that Malena had a kidney stone and was in great pain and Dan seemed to need some help with the kids getting ready to start school and many unknowns about Malena. Since we had to go through St Louis no matter what and did not have to make any decisions until we were ready to leave there, we decided to go ahead with our visit with Carol Slepian. We three go back to Kindergarten together and the Carols were very close through school and have stayed in touch ever since. Her husband, Jake, was at work performing surgery so we could not get to see him unless we stayed over which was not to be. We spoke with Dan and Malena while we were visiting and made the decision to go through to Covesville as quickly as possible.

To visit Carol, we had gotten off the Interstate in the heart of St Louis and found our way to a synagogue near her home that had an open parking lot. Carol called the office there for us and cleared the way for us to park for an hour or so. It is Central Reform Synagogue and we acknowledge their welcome here. We managed to get out of town ahead of the Friday rush hour, just barely, and crossed Illinois and much of Indiana as darkness (and Shabbat) approached. We got to Corydon, IN and located a WalMart just off the Interstate. They gave us the expected permission to stay the night in their parking lot and so we did and I went in and bought a cantaloupe to have fruit for breakfast and to satisfy the unspoken suggestion that one repay their kindness by doing some business with them.