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.