Having made the decision last night to trim things down for the end of our trip, we had a kick back morning. Breakfast, time for social media, and working pictures for our blog. We reorganized the car and then took off for a 3 1/2 hour drive to Branson. We skipped a visit to a Ulysses Grant site. No presidential history visits at the end of this trip.
We made a quick detour to Saint Clair, Missouri in order to see again a pair of water towers labeled "hot" and "cold". Dick remembered this from a previous trip and it really tickles us. How funny.
Branson is a town in the middle of nowhere that grew into a musical destination. Almost immediately after checking into the hotel, we went and got some local barbecue at "Gettin' Basted". Patti was thrilled that they featured on the menu "burnt ends" of pork roast. Exactly the way she loves her meat cooked. It was delicious. Then, we had a little bit of a rest before heading out for the evening.
We had some time to go to downtown old Branson to stop at "Dick’s 5 and 10". This is a nearly hundred year old variety store. It was full of all kinds of treasures, trash and trinkets. We had to get a couple of photos of Dick with the shop and with the signs. It is rare these days for the name "Dick" to show up on printed material. Kind of a old fashion name. Both of us especially enjoyed looking at the old candy, including candy cigarettes and cigars and wax mustaches and red lips. Oh, those were some cool candies when we were growing up.
We then went to a show in the evening: Anthems of Rock. This featured many songs that we recognized. Our nephews would call them “classic”. We enjoyed the show. Most of the songs we’re ones that we could sing along with including songs like “We Will Rock You” “Rocket Man “, “Hey Jude”, “We are the Champions”, and “That Old Time Rock and Roll.” And there were some really hard rock songs that neither of us recognized. It was really clear the audience was primarily people in their 60's and 70's, many of whom were singing along happily to all the words. Of course they were all being sung by young singers and dancers in their 20s and 30s. Were we ever that young?
Had we planned on several days in the town, there were many more shows that would’ve been interesting. Also, some that were definitely not our cup of tea. But, fun to catch one.
After the show, we went back to our hotel and sought out the free ice cream that Patti had seen a sign announcing. While we were starting to eat ice cream and cookies, Dick struck up a conversation with three guys asking them whether they were real beard Santas? We both know that is an important distinction rather than the ones with the fake beards. They said yes they were and that they were doing a training for Santas. Patti came over and together we shared that we were friends with a real beard Santa in Los Angeles, Santa True, also known as Robert Seutter. Patti knew that he had been here in Branson and did a training as it turns out for the school that one of these guys runs.
We spent the next hour with the three of these guys they walked us back to where the conference was happening and we went into the show room where all of the Santa and other Christmas performers props and costumes were there. Patti bought a wonderful book about Mrs. Santa’s Closets, and Santa Spangle gave her this cute little glasses holder that says "Believe". We know that Christmas performers are very generous good people, and it was such a serendipitous thing to be able to talk with them and share the love of performing. Patti does some Mrs. Claus work, as well as other storytelling performances. Sometimes you literally are in the right place at the right time. What a blessing.
Love reading about your adventures!
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