June 17, 2008

We said our goodbyes to the remaining rv rally folks and gave all a BIG HUG. Sure hate to see it come to an end. We pulled out around 9am and planned to travel about 200 miles today.

We arrived at Pin Oaks Creek Campground
around 2pm. You can see the two furballs posing for me in their rally scarves just after we set up. This is a very nice park with a nice pond that you can walk around and explore. Cosmo wanted to go wading, but I was not up for the clean up. We are only staying the one night and the spot was level enough that we didn't even have to unhitch! Only one complaint, they charge for their wifi. That is the first time we ran into that, so needless to say we didn't use the wifi. I decided to try something new for dinner tonight. We had an aluminum bag for cooking on the grill. So I filled it with pork chops, sliced potatoes and carrots. Threw in some seasonings and one hour

later we had an excellent dinner with easy clean up. Next time, I will cook it on a lower flame--we did get a few burnt edges on some of the potatoes. None the less, it sure tasted good! Tomorrow we plan on another short trip. I really like only going 200 to 300 miles in a day---makes for a much more relaxed driving experience. Billy seems to drive at a little slower pace and we don't feel so pressured when we make our pit stops to eat and exercise the pups.

We went to see the Butterfly Palace. This place is too cool. First you are treated to a 3D movie about a butterfly and preying mantis. Then you go into the "rainforest" where the butterflies fly all around you. You can take photos and stay as long as you like. I got several really good shots including one of a small bird. After the butterflies you can walk through a forest mirror maze. We both got a kick out of trying to find our way out of the maze! Again another attraction I would highly recommend. After our sight seeing we had a very good lunch at Landry's. They specialize in seafood and I had their broiled sampler platter. There was shrimp, tilapia, scallops, and more. UMMMMM Goode!


We also went to the Roy Rogers and Dale Evans Museum. It was wonderful. It was great to see all the great costumes, guns, photos, and more. If you liked Roy and Dale, I would definitely recommend this attraction.
All in all, another good day in Branson. Tomorrow is a travel day---internet permitting I will let you know where we park for the night on our journey back to Lafayette.

One last photo. This is a photo of me and "the twins". That is John and Jim. We were lucky enough to spend an evening chatting with them both. Very nice and very intelligent gentlemen. They also have a great sense of humor. We will miss them!

Finally, here are some pictures of our Hillbilly Party. That is Howard and Linda accepting a small plaque with words of appreciation on it from the RV-Dreams family.
These guys are part of the group that entertained us the evening. The little guy on the left was a real HOOT! We also had a Hillbilly contest that night.
Several folks put on their best hillbilly look for the evening. The other "big event" that happened that evening was the drawing for the raffle. It was a 50/50 raffle. Half went to keeping the rv-dreams web site up and running and the other half went to the winning ticket. Bill and I NEVER win anything--it is just not "in the cards" for us. We did talk about what we would do IF we did win, but we never thought it would happen. We had decided we would donate our portion back to Howard and Linda. They do so much for all of us. Well, I'm sure you know where this is going----Our name was drawn as the winners. I think we were both in shock. It took a few minutes for us to realize we had won. I walked up to accept the money $500 big ones and then promptly returned the money back to Linda and Howard. They were very touched by our gift. It was the right thing to do. Several folks came up and told us how great it was that we had chosen to give back, but we also found a lot of other folks who were going to do the same thing if they had won. We were truly blessed that evening. Some folks may not understand, but all of us RV-Dreamers--we know---because we know Howard and Linda. As I said, It was the right thing to do!

I promise, I'll get some pictures posted and share a few great stories with you. These last few days have been a whirlwind of activity. We are up early and go to bed late. Loving every minute of the seminars and the people we have met. This is such a fabulous group of folks, those of you that could not attend this "first ever" RV Dreams Rally really missed out. We are off this am for the farewell breakfast. It is going to be hard to say goodbye. Some of us, including Bill and I, are staying for a couple of more days to take in some of the sites here at Branson. That should also give me time to upload some pics and share more about this wonderful event.

Sorry, no pictures as of yet. We have been having lots-o-fun! Yesterday we had an rv open house. We had lots of great folks come through and they were all so very nice and complimentary. What a neat group of folks, I'm so glad we can be a part of this all. After dinner, we had an rv fashion show. Folks dressed up in their favorite garb for washing windows, taking out the dog,----you get the idea. It was really funny! Well, wish you all could be here. We are off this am to a seminar on rv weight.

Oh my, I can't believe how long it has been since I posted on this blog. I guess a big part of that is that I felt I had nothing of interest to blog about.......Well, that changes today! We arrived at Branson, MO for the RV-Dreams Rally. We have already met several of our RV-Dreams friends and I can tell it is gonna be a great rally. Tomorrow is the official "check in" day and I can't wait to meet the rest of the gang! I promise to post all of the fun with as many pictures as I can manage! Till then............