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| Branson Belle Show Boat |
We have been in another country, Middle Southern America. The people have been very nice, but...
We walked through the Tall Grass Prairie near
a very sweet town called Cottonwood Falls, Kansas. Pat took some photos of an historic courthouse, he may or may
not get around to posting them. He has
so many things to say but doesn’t seem to get around to writing them up. Of course, he is tired from all the driving
and still working for a few clients. I
haven’t been able to help at all. When
we get a flat stretch of the road it seems to be windy! It takes strong hands
to keep the Proud Mary on the road in gusts up to 30mph.
The sadness is that at one time the tall grass prairies of
the US covered 400,000 square miles in 14 states and now only an estimated
4% remains. This ecosystem was America's Savannah with grazing herds of buffalo, pronghorns, deer and elk. The first settlers saw cougars hunting at the edges of the herds and vast villages of prairie dogs. The bluestem, Indian, switch grasses supported all kinds of bird life, including the prairie grouse or chicken as well. The flint hill region of Kansas preserve we went to was vast and
beautiful. As we walked 5 miles of it,
we saw grasses reaching to the skies and thought about the loneliness of living
on the plains and how at one time the majestic buffalo filled the land for as
far as you could see.
Branson, Missouri was an experience we will not ever repeat
even though there were two fantastic museums we went to; the Titanic and Dewey
Short Table Rock Lake Dam Interpretative Center and a wonderful bike trail along Table Rock Lake. I feel conflicted like Thumper being reminded
“Now, Thumper if you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all.” Or wanting
to speak my mind. I keep composing a
letter in my head to the mayor and chamber of commerce of Branson. This is how some of it would go:
Dear ……. We enjoyed riding our bikes along the Table Rock
Lake Trail from the state campground to the Dewey Short Visitor Center; what a
beautiful Leed Certified building blending in with the White River Ozark
Mountain Geology. It is hard to believe the
steep cliffs were once under a sea and ancient creatures lived there. I have
not been a supporter of damming rivers, but after walking through the hands-on exhibits
I understand the need for flood control and renewable hydropower. The Natural History information on endangered
and threatened species and the Native American exhibit were also
excellent.
Being handed a boarding pass of a 3rd class passenger, the mother of two sons as we entered the Titanic Museum was a little eerie as I am the mother of two sons, seeing the exquisite model, the
engineering and drafting of the great ship and learning the fates of all the
passengers and shipmen was just fascinating.
I very much felt we were reliving the time and events.
The old village of Branson is just what we had envisioned.
Walks along quaint buildings and a great catfish lunch at the Farmhouse
Restaurant made our day. But you may not like what else I have to say. The
beauty of the area and our visit was spoiled by the billboard pollution and the
gaudiness of the rest of Branson. We
could not see the majestic landscape without it being marred by a billboard.
The musical shows we went to see were ruined for us by the blatant falseness of
how our veterans and heroes were honored (you could hear it in the insincere voices
of the performers- it was commercializing instead of honoring). Poorly made political
jokes and religious talk offended us. We
consider ourselves patriotic and religious so I hope you are listening. Also,
we bought tickets for a show which was totally misrepresented as Celtic Singers
and Irish Tenors. Maybe one of the
singers was from Ireland.
So we will not be visiting Branson again and in all honesty
cannot recommend it. We see you have a
lot of empty buildings along Hwy 76 in Branson so perhaps our disappointment is
shared by others who came to Branson for a family fun vacation and found it
very lacking.
Well, will I send the letter or not? What do you think? It needs some work.
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