Branson Missouri

26 April, 2014

FRIDAY. We arrived yesterday (Thursday) after a "bumpy" ride from Springfield due to the (unbalanced tires/loose front end???) or whatever it is. A friend who is here with us looked at the tires and said they appear to be "out of round". The yellow dot is not lined up with the valve stem. Said it is critical for motor home tires. Monday or Tuesday, I going to try re balancing them  one more time before losing my mind .LOL. If that fails, we just may wait here until the 6th and get the front end checked again.

Branson is a city in two conjoined counties in the Ozark Mountains. The city was named after Rueben Branson,postmaster and operator of a general store in the area in the 1880's. 

 We drove  around Thursday  afternoon looking for the theaters' where we have tickets so we wouldn't have to do it on the day we are going there to see a show.  Interesting city. It's built in the mountains and there aren't any level streets here. It's all hills. The main drag (street) has most of the theaters and clubs so the traffic just crawls, especially since they're repairing and paving. Traffic barriers are everywhere. The city is slowly developing new areas where business can expand and help relieve the traffic problem. The new areas are four lanes to ease the traffic flow. Below is a couple photos of theaters in the area.

Titanic Museum

                                                         White House Theater

We enjoyed a stage production of "Jonah" at the "Sight & Sound Theater" early evening. It was a fantastic acting and singing  production of the Biblical story of Jonah and the Whale. The play originated in Lancaster, PA and was brought here at a cost of $17 million and will return to PA after one year. The stage props were absolutely gorgeous and included many live animals that included Burro's, alpacas, Camels, Llamas, horses, goats, African Cow,etc. Moving them about was an engineering marvel. The story followed the Bible, in that Jonah was tasked to take a message to Nineva that they would be destroyed in 40 days, if they did not repent. Jonah went elsewhere to avoid the evil King. The whale and the scene were just spectacular. The play ended in an added flair by everyone repenting and being saved by GOD.  This is a wonderful way to spread the Christian message.  Their motto is "Where the Bible comes to life".

   

                                                  Lion and the Lamb

                                           

Today (Saturday) brought some rain showers in the morning and some clearing up in the afternoon. It was crisp in  the AM and warm the PM. short sleeve weather. AAAHHH. We went to the "Dixie Stampede", a show designed and owned by Dolly Parton. Fantastic and wonderful. It was a dinner show and the food was served "finger  food " style. The menu was Rotisserie Chicken, Hickory Smoked Barbecue Pork Loin, Corn on the cob, Original Creamy Vegetable Soup, Hot Biscuit, Herb-Basted Potato and Flaky Apple Pastry and your choice of water, tea or soft drink."  The sceneiro  of the show was for two sides to compete against each other. The arena was split-one side North and the other- South. All performance was a competition. There was barrel riding racing  competition, carriage races, pig races, buffalo round up, circled wagon singing with log sawing, pole climbing  and water bucket carrying. Certainly an evening of just plain fun for the entire family and one of the more patriotic performances we've seen. GOD Bless Dolly

"Dixie Stampede" originated when Dolly Parton's ancestors moved to Branson in the late 1800's and started a buggy/carriage manufacturing plant. As a competitive past time he started a race to see who could build the best carriage. He won it for the first nine years and then lost to Lee Parton. Turns out that Lee was a female named Dixie Lee, so he courted her and they married. He then re named the race "Dixie Stampede". The tradition  was passed down to Dolly. She built the business in honor of her ancestors and gave it it's name.

Some of the profits go to a free book for all newborns in both counties and continues with a book each month through their fifth year in hopes the mother will read to the child and get them interested in reading early in life. Her mother read to her a lot and spurred her on. Her program is now in several countries and they have given away over 50 million books.What a program and what a humanitarian she is.

                                       Belgian, one of the wagon horses, over 2,000 lbs.

                              Friesian, from the Netherlands beautiful, graceful and nimble for his size.

The show was wonderful, included races, trick riding, singing, dancing and even a pig race.  Very entertaining.

St Louis, Springfield and Branson

23 April, 2014

 AAAAGGGGHHH. It was one of those days. We left Nashville around 06:30 AM and headed West on
 I 24. As we got out of the city, the fauna turned into the beautiful scenery that we talked about yesterday, so we settled down and took in all in.  About three hours later, Nita took over driving for her shift---two hours  on and two off, when  the front right tire went flat. One of the two I had trued and balanced yesterday. Nita held on while we got off the road. She did extremely well without freaking out. Proud of her. The truck helped stabilize the bus as she slowed down and got off the road. Luckily, we were in front of a truck weighing  station and a mile marker and that made it easier to describe to the Good Sam dispatcher where we were. The service truck was there within 20 minutes and had us on our way within another 30 minutes. Dan, the service man, was  a real professional. He said he had been doing this for thirty years. To watch him work was comforting.

On the road again

We had bought a spare tire in Nashville when we had the front ones re balanced to carry as a spare and "boy"  was it ever  a savior We determined that the flat was caused by poor maintenance by the tire company. They failed to securely tighten the valve stem and it vibrated loose due to the poor re-balancing work. Paduka, KY was only 36 miles ahead so we figured we would stop there and get the new (used) tire balanced. They couldn't do it so we had to drive another three hours to St. Louis, MO to get it taken care of. The company in St Louis was another branch of the company in Nashville. They looked at the rim and were shocked at the way Nashville had balanced the tire The old weights were not removed and they (apparently) just left them on and added more weights. Since the other front tire had been treated the same way and  it was out of line / trim and was eroding ( eating away unevenly) we bought two new tires and had them installed. Unfortunately, we still have a vibration in the front of the bus and we'll have to have it looked at soon.

                                                              Guess Where We Are?

Fields of ????

                                                            St Louis Arch

St Louis

So, off to Branson once again. Having been up since 5:30 AM I was beat, the hours were getting long,  the roads were getting more and more mountainous, the Southwestern sun kept blinding me and later  the night lights glared at me,  so we stopped in Springfield, MO and spent the night in a Walmart Parking lot along with several other trucks. Thursday morning we finished the trip and joined our RV club friends in Branson

                                                     Ripley's Believe it or Not

                                                   Chipmonk on our fence

Nashville

22 April 2014

What a day this has been. We had an appointment for 7:00 AM at a tire company to get the front tires trued and balanced to hopefully get rid of the vibration in the front of the bus. When we raised the leveling jacks one of them "popped" and the bottom separated from the cylinder. While recycling them, the one that had lost it's foot impaled itself in the ground. Darn! we couldn't move, -period!. A call to Good Sam ( same as AAA but only better--more RV oriented)(NEVER get AAA for a RV--they can't service you properly) got a a service person rather quickly. Meanwhile Tommy (the campground owner) and I  used a long  pry bar to dig under the cylinder and pry it upward while having the system try to retract it.We got it part of the way and then the Good Sam service person showed up and finished the raising and got the foot back on. We finally got to the tire company around 10:00AM.

While the bus was being worked on we visited with John and Katheryn Smith. John and I were stationed together in VF-101 in Key West  from 1963-1966. I checked into the squadron on November 23, the day President Kennedy was assassinated. John and I were both 2nd Class Petty Officers(AO2) and we both got promoted to First Class (AO1) while there. John,  and I were quite close friends. In fact, John worked part time for Sears when they opened their new store in Key West. Someone turned in a broken bicycle (box was damaged in shipment) and instead of throwing it in the trash, he gave to to me for my oldest son, Bobby. Katheryn was in a  Concentration Camp in WWII in Bulgaria and was one of the fortunate few to survive. She wished she had had time to tell us of her years in the camp. She mentioned she had two photo  albums, one of the horrible time and one of her family.

Boomer met some of his own kind today. John's neighbor had a couple beagles and they all met at the fence and barked and howled. Hope the video posted here comes through. It's a "growl"

We also had a phone call from my two sisters, Anne and Darlene in Virginia. How wonderful it is to talk with them. We miss them a lot and they are in our thoughts and prayers every day. Talked with son Demp Jr (Jack) and he and his mom are  doing well also.

Springtime in Tennessee is a  beautiful time of the year. The White and the Pink Dogwoods are as gorgeous as in Virginia. The air is fresh and sweet, the fields are lush and green and the pastures are full of horses and cows.grazing the sweet grass. All the trees are budding and flowering  Every where you look you can see the beauty of what GOD created for all of us  to enjoy. The past few  days have been sunny and clear as well as warm. Just plain beautiful.

Grand Ole Opry

Here we are in Nashville, TN after a drive from Lexington, SC. There were some beautiful sights going through the Great Smoky Mountains and the pass between Asheville, NC and Knoxville,TN and a few down grades coming off the mountains. Got my first lesson in using the engine brakes on the Boomer Bus. They (it) worked as advertised.

Arrived around 7:00 PM and got a spot at the "Grand Ole RV Park" about 15 minutes outside Nashville and Opryland. Nita made reservations for Saturday  Night's performance, so we spent the day going to a historic home where the James Gang had "holed up". One ofthe members got arrested and the rest plus Jesse & family left the following day We didn't go inside as there were men restoring the house. Probably damaged by the flood several years ago and just not getting to the restoration until now

We stopped in at "Johnson's bee Farm" and met Robert and Bern (wife) and bought some Bee Pollen, which is a "energy pep upper" like the 5 Minute stuff and some Wildflower Honey. It's the best  of all the honey produced by the bees. We had a good conversation about the diminishing bee swarms  and the probable causes. Personally, I believe the toxic chemical from the Monsanto Company  is killing them off. The chemical is the one that the FDA approved for farmers to increase the size and growth of vegetation. Thus, the bees pollinate the  vegetables and it in turn the toxic chemical kills them. Money and politics got the chemical approved and it prevents investigating the real damage it does..

                                                                Bern and Nita

                                                             Robert Johnson

                                          Bee hive showing where a swarm had been

The Opry was a good show and a mixture of old and new performers. The line up included: Frankie Ballard, Ralph Stanley II and his father Dr. Ralph Stanley. I was disappointed that Dr. Ralph didn't sing any solo's. He is now 87 and looks to be a bit frail. Also, there was John Conley, who also hosted, Riders In The Sky who certainly looked their age. They were the background music for all the  Roy Rogers Western Movies. Remember them?. There was also Lorrie Morgan, who sang a few of her old songs, Jim Ed Brown, a long standing member, Aaron Tippin, Jim Lauderdale, Jeannie Seely, the Whites,and a first time appearance at  the Opry, The NEEDTOBREATHE Band. They are a young gospel singing group who are gaining in popularity. After a  standing ovation, they sang an extra song. Jeannie Seeley closed out the show.

Choral groups from high schools in South Dakota and Birmingham entertained before the Opry show began

Sunday, we met Joan Mc Dougal and Debbie Smith, mother and daughter, and cousins of Nita at Applebee's for a really nice visit. After being introduced to them, Debbie said "I'm a hugger" and I said I am too. What a nice way to start a friendship. They  spent a few hours updating each other  and reminisced about old times and relatives with promises to meet again sooner than the several years since the last visit. Joan gave us a gift for remembrance.Nita got a beautifully decorated Jade egg and I got two Buckeyes for good luck. Got one in my pocket now.

                                                                      Joan

                                                                     "V" Debbie

                                                                 
Next on the agenda was to locate Nita's Mother, Bernice Bloodsworth's grave at the Woodlawn Cemetery. Afterwards we drove to 711 Fatherland St. to locate the home where Jesse James and family was living  when his gang member was arrested. Odd that there wasn't a plaque in front of the home.

From there we drove to the Union Train Station which had been restored and converted into a Hotel. The lobby was absolutely gorgeous. One of the two huge fireplaces had been restored but modernized, yet it was beautiful with the clocks above it and the same on the other end but with no fireplace. I'm told that the fireplaces were so large that a person could walk inside them. Must have taken a cord of wood at a time to heat the building. The restored ceiling was beautiful as well.

                                                                      A T & T "Bat" Bldg

                                                               Union Train Hotel Station

                                                                 One end of lobby

                                                        Where do you want to go?

Next on the slate. was to go to the "Hard Rock Cafe" on 2nd Ave and Broadway. Have to get my souvenier pin to add to my collection. I have them from Philadelphia, Boston, Florida,Guam, Australia, just to name a few. While there we met a young lady (our waitress) and shared our trip with her. She reminded me of my grand daughter, Jaclyn ,in Melbourne , Australia. Paige Brown  is a 20 year old student who has two jobs as well as a school schedule and is majoring in the  Music Business Field.. She is a singer, songwriter and musician. Said she had been to Australia years ago. We talked about our going to Alaska and gave her a "Boomer Bus" blog card. She said she just may fly up there and join us for a week or so. She was a wonderful living example of the generation we hear very little about. Certainly not an "entitlement group" person. An attentive, smiling and very efficient waitress.GOD Bless her.

                                                     Jesse James, Paige Brown and Nita james

                                                             What else?

Can't go to Nashville without walking down" Broadway" in Music city, the home of Country Music. It's a city within a city and everywhere you walk there is a Restaurant/Bar packed with tourists/locals/star wanna be's/hookers,  playing & singing country music. The streets have /druggies/beggars/singers playing country music or just begging for their next "fix". We even walked by a trash receptacle that had music emanating from it. Across the alley from the Ryman's Auditorium (original one) is "Tootsies Bar" alley entrance where legend  says that Earnest Tubb (an original Grand Ole O'pry member,) as  well as many others, dashed across the alley between shows to down a "quick one", I don't think very many ever get "discovered" in any of them, but they do have "already discovered/stars" who will frequent them when in town. Usually to build up their fan base or was paid to help the owner attract business.

                                                     Tootsies Alley entrance

The original Ryman Auditorrium  is located on 5th Ave. They have tours (daytime) or you can just walk in without taking the tour.I was there in 1956 around August (I think) and I remember it well. Really a gorgeous auditorium. A round circle of flooring, near the microphone,  was removed and laid in the center of the new O'pry house as a circle of fame.

                                                     Ryman Auditorium Facade

As a treat, we stopped in at Savannah's Candy Kitchen and bought an ice cream cone and some delicious freshly made Pralines. Yum,yum

                                                           Fresh  Pralines cooling

                                                       Savannah's Candy Kitchen on Broadway

Chesapeake, Darlington Raceway (NASCAR) and Lexington

Hello All
Didn't realize how long it's been since we wrote on our blog. Anyway, here goes:.
Boomer is already in bed so I'll (Jesse) will write a few lines

We arrived in Chesapeake on March 21st and were able to get a lot for the motor home in the same RV park we were in before. Different spot but OK, we were just happy to get it. First priority was to visit with my sister, it's been a long time since seeing her. We then graduated to the VFW to visit our NASCAR friends and joined them again at Marv & Cristy's home on Sunday for a birthday celebration for Bren and Carol.  Good to see them. Monday was a visit for my PETSCAN for cancer check up, and Sunday we drove to  Martinsville for a NASCAR race, Monday was another Dr. visit, Tuesday a visit to my oncologist. HE GAVE ME A GREEN LIGHT. NO CANCER! It's still in remission. Told me to come back in six months. Glory be to GOD . Foot Dr (Podiatrist ) said feet look good.

We also had a good visit with my son, Dempsey Jr, and took him with us to the race in Martinsville . He always enjoys them and especially with us and our NASCAR friends.We visited  with  our WWII friend,John Peter Powell, and took him to lunch and, as always, enjoyed our conversation. John is 95 years old now and is an interesting person to talk with. He can tell interesting stories about his old friends, baseball (in the twenties-thirties) and has an amazing recall. He retired as a Commander. having  served  on the Battleship Iowa as an  Engineering Officer. One of his sons, Jeff Powell, was my surgeon in 2008 for a clogged nose nostril caused by a broken nose in 1982 (should have stayed out of that fight--trying to stop two girls from fighting)

We arrived in  Darlington, SC on Thurs, Apr 10. and  met  our NACAR friends and  daughter Jenny and husband Rick for a few days of "tailgating" before the race and were joined by Jenny's daughter Ginger and husband Matt on Saturday. We drew driver position in  a race pool ($80.00). Jenny won first place with Kevin Harvick winning and Ginger won second place with Dale Earnhardt Jr.. They split the pot $60/$20. We had seats between the 1st and 2nd turns and were able to see the cars exiting the pits and both sides of the track.  Sunday, we drove to Lexington.

                                                           Big "D" (Dennis)

                                                        Stefanie and guest (?)

                                                        Tail gate setup

Jenny and Rick

Matt and Ginger Rawl 

                                                 Our view of the raceway

After getting some much needed work done on the Boomer Bus--we had to replace the steps. they got broken when the leveling jacks were lowered and they hit the cement patio in Chesapeake. Plus we added a night security light, washed the bus and defrosted the freezer and refrigerator. I wired an RV electrical receptacle for Matt so we could have electricity for the bus and for anyone visiting Matt & Ginger in an RV the future. We had to make two trips to Ft Jackson Hospital.to get my medications refilled. Gonna send a nasty gram to the CG of the hospital. That's no way to treat a visitor in need

Foot note. Space prevented posting all the Darlington photos. Sorry.

                            We enjoyed good food and a great time at Nick's House of Pizza.

                                                            Ginger and Matt

                                                             Jackson and Blane

                                                             Macy and Jenny

                                                         Jackson and Macy

                              Jenny with Alena and her three sons, Blane, Bryson and Blake

We enjoyed all the good company and all the great dinners, especially the one at Nick's Greek Restaurant in Columbia. The house special meat Stromboli was delicious . But alas, it's time to head West, so we are away tomorrow morning.

Jeanne Robertson and The Texas Tenors

March 17 thru 22,2014.
Jesse here. We attended the FMCA, Family Motor Coach Association, at the Georgia State Fairgrounds and enjoyed the activities as well as friends and events.  The grounds are beautiful with large barns, conference and meeting rooms.  We had Georgia peach cobbler with ice cream and other goodies.

Well, after a few days of sitting in seminars and learning more about the maintenance of the MH , traveling in the MH (Boomer Bus) and general permanent living in it , we were entertained by the FMCA each evening. In addition, our RV club cooked steaks the second  evening and hamburgers the next. There was no entertainment on Monday but the Tuesday evening entertainment was:

"Jeanne Robertson". She is a former "Miss North Carolina", stand up comedian and she spent 90 minutes talking about her life and her husband, whom she called "Left Brain". She remarked about her height which happens to be 6'2" and her age which is 70. All in all, she was entertaining  and kept us laughing.

Wednesday it was "The Texas Tenors". They are a trio of singers who won the "America's Got Talent" contest back in 2009. I remember watching their first and a few other shows  they were on. They were on tour from their Branson, MO  show palace and they sang a mixture of songs that included Italian, western, pop, classical and whatever, plus the Lee Greenwood song "Proud to be an American" which got a really fantastic audience reaction. Everyone stood while they sang. Such a heartwarming feeling being among so many patriotic.people. we could see how and why they won the competition.they were really good.

All good things must end and so it did. We got a late start leaving there Thursday and headed North toward Virginia. We got as far as Lexington, SC and spent the night in the Walmart Parking lot. While there, Nita's grand daughter Valerie,  met us at the "Buffalo Wings Grill " for a bite and a  wonderful visit. Others in the family, we will see at Darlington. SC Speedway in a couple weeks.

We arrived in Chesapeake late Friday afternoon and were able to get a lot in the same RV/Modular Home park (R&H) we were in last time.  It's centrally located to everything we want so we are happy. Went to see Darlene  and really enjoyed our visit.   Boomer napped on the bed with her and as usual, he was welcomed by all.

Bye til next time

FMCA Rally, Perry, GA

Anita here, after a few weeks home at Cliffs Landing, we are on the move  again.  It was good be home and to see everyone, well almost everyone.  Our time was limited because we spent so much of it moving back into the house I moved out of two years ago.  We did get most of the "stuff" moved and left the furniture for Jake to move later.  Speaking of Jake, we spent a good deal of time with him, he's still in Army Reserve, but he's home. Yea.

After slowly moving all (most) of our loose home "stuff" we drove to Pace, FL and took in a "Gene Watson" concert at the Farmers' O'pry in Chumuckla, FL (just North of Pace). We took Jesse's nephew, Jimmy and his wife, Denise and had a good ole country dinner  of catfish, butter beans, potatoes, fried okra   with peach cobbler and ice tea. Yum!. Sorry, we didn't have the camera, so, no photos.

We had a wet and windy drive from Pensacola yesterday and it's still raining.  I had my third driving lesson and it was so different from the first two.  They were easy, nice, etc.  Yesterday, I could hardly keep the big bus on the road.  The wind was gusty and so strong.  I only drove less than two hours but it felt like  all day.  I was exhausted.  The traffic was heavy and that didn't help.  I do think I'll be able to face "whatever", now. Well, I don't know about mountains, maybe.  Jesse drove most of the way and in all the heavy down pouring rain we encountered. Was a task, it was. At least just about all 303 miles was either interstate or four lane roads.We lost the water pump (coach, not engine) somewhere along the way. Must have gotten a short or lost it's ground. Tiffin had a crew here and they fixed it today. Plus the axle  on the front awning motor broke and they tied in in for now.They "duck taped" it to the side of the motor home. Now, everyone can laugh and say" there goes the Alabama Rednecks in a fancy bus. LOL  They also worked on a water leak we developed and Carpenters in Pensacola failed (couldn't/didn't) to fix. they had repaired the water pump problem as well and it somehow shorted? again. Thank goodness one of our new friends loaned us a five gallon camping container of water to help out. New friends are great. Thank you Lord.

We were welcomed by our FMCA local chapter, the BATS, (the Bay Area Travelers) with a spaghetti supper.  We joined the group in Atlanta when we were parked across from them.  Members are from Southern Miss. and AL, and North West Fla.  A great group of new friends.  We will see them again in Branson, MO in late April.

Jack (Jesse's son) called. His mom is in the hospital in Portsmouth, VA. He doesn't know what is wrong, so if you will, put her in your prayers that it's nothing too serious.

Tomorrow the learning and meeting of new friends will start us on a new journey. Keep the Faith. We love all ya'll's