Tag: Travel

Entertainment in the Ozarks

I just got back from five days in Branson, Missouri.  The countryside is breathtaking, the rock formations fascinating, and Table Rock Lake is deep and clear. Branson also happens to be known for it’s entertainment. If you love nature but also crave activities, this is a wonderful place to spend some time. Be prepared however, a lot of other people have the same idea and the one thing you probably won’t enjoy is the traffic.

Some friends and I had initially drove up to see the Broadway show, Menopause the Musical. If you are a man you probably won’t appreciate the humor, but women will love it. Getting older isn’t always fun, but it’s certainly amusing when viewed through the lens of this show.  Teri Adams, Patti Gardner, Megan Cavanaugh, and Donna J. Huntley are touring the United States with this particular musical parody production, so if you get a chance, go see it;  it is worth the price of a ticket.

There are a lot of other shows to be found in Branson, including one on the water. Presented on a showboat known as the Branson Belle, “Forever Young” is a new production and which, if I’m not mistaken, has some original music.

Another especially fun night found us down on Branson Landing at a Piano Bar.  Ernie Biggs Dueling Piano Bar lives up to it’s name and entertains you with just that, dueling pianos. It’s a great place to spend an evening!

What I ended up liking the most was something I wasn’t even sure I would, and that was the Butterfly Palace. I have never experienced anything else like it. Patterned after a Costa Rican rain forest complete with several species of orchids, it is hot and humid but the butterflies are absolutely beautiful. As you enter, they give you a small vial of nectar with a plastic flower on top and before long, their winged charges will come to feed.

They call us the flyover states because we are the places you fly over to get from the East coast to the West coast and back. Stop in between and take time to look however and you will find plenty of places worth mentioning. Branson, Missouri is definitely such a place, so go check it out!

Oh, and don’t forget a good book, just in case you need a little down time. 

Happy reading, Linda

 

The beauty of Arkansas

  Sometimes I forget what a beautiful state Arkansas is! It was a sunny spring day where the thermometer hovered between 55 and 65 degrees. I was in Northwest Arkansas and suddenly I came upon a one way bridge. I hadn’t had this experience in a long time and had forgotten that Arkansas still has some of these bridges. Now this bridge wasn’t one of those that are about 200 feet long, this one spanned part of Beaver Lake and was at least half a block long. I eased out on the bridge and here comes a car in my direction, not exactly going at a snails pace. “Ok,” I thought, “it doesn’t look like he is going to stop.”  I put the car in reverse and backed off the bridge, which made me more than a little nervous. This car came sailing past me with a toot of his horn and a little wave.  I turned to my friend Char and commented how uneasy I was, not being able to see what was on the other side.  Now it is my turn, I hope. So I start across for a second time. I had made up my mind if anyone else started across, I was not backing up. It all worked out or I might have been setting in the middle of a one way bridge, not being able to go forward and refusing to go backward.  I exited the bridge and found myself in the little town of Beaver, Arkansas. I guess this is where Beaver Lake got it’s name. It is a beautiful small town with a interesting General Store. I would have loved to stop but was pressed for time so that is a project for another visit. 

I had went to Eureka Springs to take a course from the Village Writing School on Blogging. In the internet world it is Blogging which makes it sound complicated while in reality it is writing, which I can handle without too much trouble since that is what I do. 

If you haven’t been to Eureka Springs it is a charming town, there is only one drawback, you have to like to hike. There is little flat ground and as I am getting older, I am not fond of hills. Now Char told me we could catch the trolley and in the summer that would probably work, but the trolleys were on a spring schedule and didn’t come by all that often. Note to Linda: You need to buy a motor scooter.

   We found a charming restaurant called Fresh. It was in a converted house and the remodel was amazing. If you have to wait to be seated there is a gift shop, laid out on several levels, where you can browse. Now I don’t know if we got special treatment or if they are always this nice but they let us order a steak off the dinner menu even though it was lunch time.  We had beautiful fresh green salad with their homemade dressing. They have a limited selection of salad dressing and I wasn’t very pleased with that at first, as I am a fan of Ranch dressing, but the creamy pepper was a great substitute.  The steak was outstanding!

We stayed at the Best Western and it was one of the older style, built where you can park in front of your door. I personally like this because you don’t have very far to carry your luggage and I, like most women, I have a lot of luggage to carry. I think they may have recently remodeled, for every thing was clean and fresh. 

Eureka Springs is a town of quaint shops and interesting sites, just bring your hiking shoes. The drive through Northwest Arkansas was perfect. I love the scenery. If you live close I hope you will visit Northwest Arkansas. 

Even when I travel I have a book with me. To me books are a necessity! As always I wish you Happy Reading, Linda

 

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