Dixie Stampede

We invited our friends over for biscuits and gravy this morning and then in the afternoon we all went to the Dixie Stampede for their Christmas show. On the way in we checked out some of the horses.

It is a dinner theater in a large indoor arena. The pre-show act was a juggler that had a really good show. His name was Albert Lucas and he cleaimed that his dad was the plate spinner that appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show several times. (Trivia for my older readers). After the pre-show, we moved into the main arena for the dinner show. The lighting and effects were great and so was the food. I only had my small camera with me and the lighting wasn't very good for pictures, but the riding and the acts were first class and we really enjoyed it.

Silver Dollar City

One of the Branson attractions in called Silver Dollar City. It is a large theme park located near our RV park. We spent the day there today with our friends. It was pretty busy, but not as busy as it is in the summer. They a lot of shows and crafts people working there to watch. Now is their Christmas special time so they have a lot of lightsand Christmas decorations up.

The blacksmith shop.

The candy shop with 16 lbs of peanut brittle poured on the table and broken into pieces.

The glass blower.

Janice with Santa.

Janice with Santa and Mrs Claus

We watched a show in the saloon theater and then went down to watch this Cajun band play.

The lights at night were beautiful.

Then we watched a lighted Christmas parade.

This tree was a multicolor light show set to music.

And one last picture with Santa. It was a long day today and we are tired.

Day 1, Post Election

We stayed up waaay to late last night watching the election returns, so we got a late start this morning. We made plans with our friends for the next couple of days. Silver Dollar City on Wednesday and The Stampede on Friday. Today we did a little driving around and a little shopping. Drove down the Strip, and shopped a little downtown and at The Landing.

The Landing is on the edge of a small lake and has a couple of water fountain shows. This one is a small fountain.

This one is on the edge of the lake and the show is set to music.

It's a little hard to see, but there are gas explosions occurring on top of the pillars when the music has a heavy bass note.

It was a short but fun show to watch and we enjoyed the day. Looking forward to Silver Dollar City tomorrow.

Branson, MO

An easy drive today from Pittsburg, KS to Branson, MO with our friends from KS.  Checked into Tall Pines RV park. It is a very hilly wooded park, but nice wide road and level sites. We are kind of tired and decided to just stay home tonight. Praying for God's will to be done in the election.

Big Brutus

This area of Kansas is apparently famous for at least two things, a history of coal mining, and fried chicken. We sampled one of the chicken restaurants on our first night here and today our friends here came over for lunch and then took us out to see Big Brutus. It is a big electric shovel left from the coal mining days here. It operated from 1963 to 1974 and was left in its final strip mine. In 1984 it was donated to be a museum and a memorial to the coal mining industry in southeast Kansas. Approaching it from the museum building, it is an imposing structure.

Here are a couple of pictures to give you a little perspective on the size. Note Janice standing in one of the tracks. It is taller than a 15 story building.

And the cute old couple in the scoop. The scoop will hold three railroad cars of material.

Best part of all was that you could actually climb through the machine! Here is the rear of the operator's cab.

The operator's cab with Janice and our friends in it.

Bob "operating" the machine.

The cable and winch used to raise and lower the bucket.

Bob standing in one of the tracks.

Our Kansas friends.

Some of the other machines there, it started to rain so we didn't get to see them all up close.

It was a real enjoyable day and a big thanks to our friends for taking us there and sharing it with us..

Our rv park here has about 12 sites, all of them pull through with electric and water. There is a sewer dump at the end that we will be using tomorrow when we leave for Branson.

Pittsburg, KS

On Thursday we drove from Eagleville, MO to Pittsburg, KS. We are staying at a small city RV park here. Our friends from the refuge in Texas live near here in Girard, KS. We met them at a restaurant called Chicken Annies for supper on Wednesday. Thursday morning we drove around Pittsburg to see what was here and stopped at a pet store and a flea market. In the afternoon we headed over to our friends' house and had supper with them. Today they were having a garage sale so we went over and visited them during the sale. They were able to pick up their repaired RV on Friday, so they are making plans to go over to Branson with us next week. We have never been there before and they have been there several times, so we are glad to have them along. Should be a fun time. We have reservations there starting Tuesday night.

Heading South

The month of September went by fast in Bismarck, ND. We always enjoy spending time with our kids and grandkids there and this year was no exception. The time always goes fast though. We stayed at a KOA while we were there and had some pipeline company workers for neighbors. They kept us updated on the current events with the protest, and we enjoyed their company. We have always met the nicest people in RV parks wherever we travel. I was able to enjoy visiting with my daughter there while running the grandkids to school and other events and sharing time in the kitchen. One weekend was yard sale day up there and I spent some time with my son and then future daughter in law and one of the grandkids checking out the sales. We hated to leave, but at the end of the month was my son's wedding in Fargo, so that was our next stop. All of the kids and grandkids came up for the wedding and we had a great celebration. We now have a beautiful daughter in law added to the family and I think that she will add a lot of fun to the group!

Here a shot with Grandpa, Grandma, and most of the grands.

Now I have five daughters!

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We spent an extra day in Fargo to relax after the wedding before heading back to Sioux City. Back in Sioux City for a few weeks in October we finished up some projects there and helped one of my sisters clean out her house in Cherokee and have a yard sale there. One of the projects that we completed there was putting new slide covers on the motorhome. The last week of the month we headed to DesMoines to have a quick visit with the kids and their families there and now we are headed south. We stopped for the night at the Eagle Ridge campground at Eagleville, MO. We are going to head to Pittsburg, KS next to visit some friends there that we met in Texas last year. We have had a very nice fall this year and the weather is still nice, but we are anxious to be further south since it is November.