Branson Day 5

Dick Clark's American Band Stand Theater was our afternoon and evening destination after having a free morning at the RV Park. The afternoon matinee was an enjoyable hour listening to Dave Sommerville the lead singer from original Diamonds. Their hits included "The Stroll" and "Silhouettes" and much much more. The second hour was the 3 remaining members of Bill Haley's Comets whose hits included "Rock Around the Clock," "Shake Rattle and Roll," and "See Ya Later Alligator". They included the original sax player 73 years old the original drummer 84 years old and the original bass player 74 years old. The drummer still plays a mean set of drums, he was featured on a drum solo that must have been 5 minutes long. Next was a tour of 57 Heaven. That is a collection of nearly 70 beautifully restored 1957 cars all owned by one person. After touring the museum we enjoyed the dinner theater featuring Bob Anderson's musical tribute to Frank Sinatra & Friends. He is a fantastic singer and it was a very enjoyable show. All in all it was a very nostalgic afternoon and evening.

Branson Day 4

Shoji Tabuchi Show All one can say about this show is that it has to be the most extravagant and well produced show in Branson. Shoji can and does play any type of music on the violin. He is accompanied by a cast of 29 performers that are equally talented. His daughter Christina is also featured on vocals several times through out the show. His wife Dorothy is the producer and choreographer of the show. At the end he told us that it requires a total of 80 people to put the show on. The rest rooms in the theater are the most elaborate you have ever seen. The men's features a huge pool table as you enter. You then enter the main rest room that features black marble latrines, sinks and stools on lion head pedestals. The women's rest room had orchids on each sink, Chrystal chandeliers and sink lighting, private stalls, many bouquets of flowers and much more.

College of the Ozarks College of the Ozarks is a 4 year college with enrollment capped at 1500. To be accepted the student must show financial need, academic ability, sound character and willingness to work. Each student must work a set number of hours at one of 80 campus jobs or industries to pay for part of their tuition. With that and the help of scholarships and donor contributions every student graduates from college debt free. Some of the things they work at are the dairy, the fruit cake and jelly kitchen, the restaurant located in the huge Keeter Center, the grist mill or the green houses. The Keeter Center was built in 4 years by 250 of the students. The Ralph Foster Memorial Museum is also located on the campus. A person could spend a whole day in the museum.

Branson Day 3

We boarded the bus at 9 AM for the ride to down town Branson and Branson Landing. Branson Landing is a reclaimed area of down town along the river that is all new shops and eating places. I guess this must be a trend at many tourist areas. I don't know that I agree with it as they seem to destroy a lot of old & historic areas to put in a fancy shopping area. The afternoon found us at the Yakof Smirnoff show. He is a Russian comedian that puts on a two hour show featuring his comedy along with Russian dancers. The show has a deeply patriotic theme that really makes you think about ones self and this great country that we all are so privileged to live in. From there it was on to the Plaza View Restaurant for Dinner. We then went to the Clay Copper Theater for the Clay Cooper Country Music Show. This was another great show featuring Clay Cooper, his very talented wife and 4 year old son Colt along with some other very talented musicians.

Branson -- day 2

Acrobats of China
What can one say about this show but amazing. A two hour show featuring amazing acts of balance & strength performed by a troupe of young Chinese acrobats. I swear I had acquired a whole new set of aches and pains after watching this show.

The Duttons Show
I can't believe that one family can possess this much musical talent. All members of the family play the violin and in the final curtain call of the show they all appear on stage along with the grandchildren down to 3 or 4 years of playing violins. The 5 adult children that are in the show could all play a multitude of musical instruments. They all have beautiful singing voices as well. Evidently none of them play the drums as the drummer was the only non family member

Branson, MO

We arrived at America's Best Campground shortly after noon yesterday for the Good Sams Branson Spring Samboree. We will be here until the 30th. when we will move to the KOA Campground for the Newmar Kountry Klub regional rally through the morning of May 5th.
We enjoyed a great kickoff supper along with entertainment last evening. This morning was breakfast of pancakes & sausage along with 2 hours of great country music. This afternoon we have the Stony Hill Winery tour and the Acrobats of China and then this evening it is The Duttons show. As you can see we are going to busy for the next 3 1/2 days.

Calico Rock, AR

We arrived in Calico Rock Sat. evening this is our 3rd. major stop as we will be hear until Fri. morning. We stopped in Amarillo, TX and due to high winds and bad weather forecast for Oklahoma City we stayed an extra day there. We stopped over night in Bethany, OK and enjoyed a brief visit with cousins there before proceeding on to Calico Rock on Sun. Most of you know that Nancy has relatives here in Calico Rock and this is usually a spring & fall stop over for us. We left I-40 north of Little Rock and traveled up Rte 9 to Mountain View and then Rte 5 to Calico Rock. Along I-40 we saw many fields under water and coming north on Rte 9 into the Ozarks we saw many trees blown over from the tornadoes in Jan. or Feb. Some times you would see entire hill sides fattened. We were going to stop at Jo-Jo's along the White River north of Mountain View for catfish but found they were closed. After arriving in Calico Rock we were told that the floods had completely covered the restaurant & camp grounds on two different occasions. Here in Calico many buildings in the down town area were flooded twice. This was the second highest recorded river level in history. If any of you recall seeing the house going under the bridge on national TV last month that is the bridge over the White River at the south end of Main street here in Calico Rock. Needless to say I have not even purchased a fishing license as the river is to muddy and to high for fishing.

Grants, N

This morning finds us in Grants, NM. the second stop on our indirect journey back to Hazen Bay,ND. We left Cottonwood, AZ yesterday morning after spending 8 days there. We drove north on I-17 to Flagstaff and the east on I-40 to Grants, NM. We had strong south southwest winds most of the day but this motorhome seems to be real stable in the wind so it wasn't much of a problem. We did have a one of the NASCAR semi's pass us that the wind blew the back of his trailer over about 3 feet just as he got by us. It is supposed to be windier today so if it is to bad we will probably stop until the winds go down.

and pretty 4 hour ride. We also visited the town of Jerome and learned some of the mining history from that area. Jerome was the sight of some copper mines the largest being one that was owned by a man named Clark thus the name of While in Cottonwood we got to visit several of the tourist attractions in the area. On mon. we rode the Verde Canyon train that runs up the Verde river from Clarkdale to Perkinsville. It was built in one year 1912-1913. It served to connect the Verde Valley with the town of Drake. The town of Clarkdale sprung up around the United Verde Copper mine smelter that served the the copper mines just up the mountain at Jerome. The railroad is still in use to Drake but the tourist train only goes to Perkinsville. Perkinsville. is where the Perkins family had a ranch and a station & water tank were there for the steam engines of the era to take on water. It was a very scenicClarkdale where the smelter was located. Jerome is located on the side of a mountain and was nearly a ghost town until the 70's when the hippies & bikers move in and revived it to it's present day charm. Because of the location and the views from there it is a major destination for artists. The shops reflect the hippie & artist influence on the area. Jerome is only 4 or 5 miles up from Cottonwood and Clarkdale is just a mile or so up the Verde River from Cottonwood. We also really enjoyed the town of Sedona located in the red rocks between Cottonwood and Flagstaff.

Cottonwood, Az

Here we are in Cottonwood, AZ the first stop on our journey back to Hazen Bay, ND. We arrived here on Sun and will move on next Tues. It was 39 degree's here this morning and we both asked ourselves why we had left Parker Dam. Oh well we can't have the weather we want all the time. We will plan to arrive in ND on Mon. before Memorial Day. We have certainly enjoyed our time i the west this winter but look forward to being back in Florida this fall.

Oatman, AZ Ghost Town

Today we went North on us 95 past Havassu City to I-40 and then on North to the old gold town of Oatman, AZ. It is located in the Black Mountain range about 20 miles SW of Kingman or 20 miles SE of Bullhead City, AZ on historic Rt 66. Gold had been found in the area and the town was established in 1906. By 1931 over 1 million lbs. of Gold had been taken from the mines in the area. By the mid 1930's the boom was over and in 1942 the last gold mine was closed. Burro's were used in the mines and were released into the wild as the mines closed. The burro's that came into town on a daily basis are descendants of the original burro's. We arrived in town about 11 AM and by 12 noon we had not seen a burro. I asked one of the shop keepers about them and he said they do come into town daily but at no set time. About 12:30 they just started showing up on the east end of main street. You can tell that certain ones have their favorite shop keepers as they seemed to hang out around certain shops. I think some of them feed them more than the carrots that the tourists feed them. When we left town around 2:30 the burro's were just standing around on main street sleeping. They were full and wouldn't eat any more when people tried to feed them carrots. I believe a burro is like a mule and stops eating when full, unlike a horse that will continue eating until they founder themselves. Today Oatman is a tourist town with tee shirt shops a couple of restaurants and other novelty shops. More pictures can be found on my web album site. www.picasaweb.google.com/millerkmtrue

Parker Dam, CA

Tomorrow brings us to an end of our month here at River Lodge Resort. It is so nice here on the Colorado river that we have decided we are going to move down river about 5 miles and spend another 5 days in this area. We have not seen any of the burro's that frequent the area yet, but do see evidence of them being in the park during the night. One night I did hear one braying near the motor home. We have really enjoyed the 85 degree weather here and are not looking forward to the cooler weather we will encounter as we move east & north on our way to Hazen Bay.