We are back on the road again.  After spending a few weeks back east we drove back to Missouri.  We made the trip in two days which was pretty quick.  After the long drive we stopped and enjoyed two days with family who live about 50 miles west of St Louis.  Dee’s sister came along for the ride and stayed with family for a few additional days before flying back east.  After leaving family behind we drove another three hour’s to pick up our motor coach which was in storage in Nixa, MO.  Nixa is just south of Springfield.  It was good to get back in our coach again.  We left Nixa and traveled a short thirty five miles south to the city of Branson MO.

Branson is a busy tourist town located in the Ozarks in southwest Missouri.  It is a popular destination for vacationers and draws visitors from all regions of the country. The growing collection of entertainment theaters and other attractions has increased Branson’s popularity as a tourist destination.

Besides the many entertainment theaters for which Branson is famous, there are many other local attractions including a Hollywood Wax Museum, Dolly Parton’s Dixie Stampede, Silver Dollar City, White Water, Ride the Ducks,  Ziplines, Cave Tours, National Tiger Sanctuary, Go-Karts, Mini Golf, Horseback Rides, Butterfly Palace, and the Rainforest Adventure. There is also a Ripley’s Believe It or Not and a Titanic Museum which is housed in a half-scale replica of the famous ship and iceberg.

We stayed at the Musicland Kampground which is in the heart of the city.  It is a nice, quiet, hilly campground with clean sites and good utilities. The roads and sites are a little small for “Big Rigs” but we had no problems. The staff was extremely friendly.  You can buy discounted tickets to all the shows in Branson at the campground office.  The staff was very helpful explaining the various shows and offered recommendations.  We saw a few shows including “Hits of the 60’s” which brought back many memories. We ate some good food and had a good time.

After leaving Louisiana we intended to head west and spend some time in Texas before turning north and traveling up through Oklahoma and Kansas and into South Dakota.  Unfortunately “Mother Nature” was not cooperating.  Texas was getting hit daily with major storms, torrential rains and flooding.  Roads were closed and it was just a mess.  Dee missed our children and we had some business to take care of back home so we decided to make an unscheduled, unannounced quick trip home. I was five days before Mother’s Day and I thought it would be great to get Dee home for it so I was in a rush.

We wanted to put our motor coach in storage and fly home.  I wanted an indoor facility so our coach would be out of the weather.  I was also hoping for a place where we could plug the coach in. This would keep the coach powered up so we would not have to shut everything down.  Since we intended to go north into the Dakotas after our return I started looked for a facility between Louisiana and South Dakota. I found just what we were looking for in Nixa Missouri. It was and indoor storage bay, big enough for our coach, with a 30 amp power receptacle.  I immediately called and booked it. We have family in Missouri and we thought we could visit them on the way back so we decided to drive home rather than fly.

We quickly left New Orleans and headed north to Missouri. We made an overnight stop just south of Memphis then another stop in the Ozarks of Missouri.  Then it was on to the storage facility where we backed the coach in; plugged it in; locked the bay door and jumped in the car and headed east.  We drove all day and didn’t stop until we reached the Indiana/Ohio border at 9:30 PM.  We got a room and were up and on the road again by 6:30 AM.  We made it home by 5:30 PM, the night before Mother’s Day!  We didn’t tell anyone we were coming home so our children were very surprised to see us.  We spent a few weeks home and Dee got to spend Mother’s Day with her family.