chase_acow

I took my mom and her partner to Silver Dollar City in Branson, MO for the holiday lights last week. It was . . . a time. : ) We all really enjoyed stopping at Top of the Rock for the golf cart nature trail and museum on Wednesday. It would have been a little pricy probably for the value, but Carl's a Vietnam vet and we got the whole thing for half off.

( pics I did not take, and were probably doctored, but are still pretty )

We went to Cheddar's where I was disappointed in my steak. there is a theme

Thursday we were going to go to the 14 inch pancake place, but it was stuffed and packed past full, and Carl didn't want to wait. I mean, mom and I didn't really want to either, but unfortunately, then I had to drive us to Cracker Barrel. I bought a bag of super long twizzlers, however breakfast was a disappointment.

Then we went junk store shopping. Fine.

THEN it was Silver Dollar City time. My plan the whole time was to bounce from food place to food place, order whatever holiday thing they had and share it between the three of us so no one got stuffed but we'd get to try a bunch of stuff. We started with a funnel cake, and mom wanted the cheesecake chocolate one . . . fine I guess, I wanted the gingerbread or red velvet, but I'm easy going. I think the cake broke my mom, because of course it's a big plateful and Carl decided he didn't want even a bite. So I'm only eating the gooey fantastic bits and then I'm ready to throw the rest away. But it was a lot to throw away and mom got it in her head that we were going to be spending way too much money just to throw most of it away. So I didn't get to try anything else of the tasty stuff I'd investigated online. Fine. I guess.

They did about an hour long musical rendition of A Christmas Carol which was really pretty okay. But it was so loud I ended up with a headache that followed for the rest of the day.

The "funny" show was super lame. But it was the fun kind of super lame? At least until the vaguely amusing and really dumb show ground to a halt so one of the women dressed as an old timey saloon girl could tell me about her lord and savior, drone a bible verse, and lead the crowd in Joy to the World. The intrusive voice in my head wanted to yell "Hail Satan! I mean, Santa, I'm dyslexic!" but I resisted. I should have expected the overtly religious parts of the show/city/decorations, but I didn't and it was a bit of a shock to my little secular heart.

For similar reasons, we skipped the Living Nativity.

Ate at their BBQ place. It was disappointing.

The lights were so good! And we got hot chocolate with the works for toppings and it was delicious!

Carl did not want to stay for the kid's parade and honestly I was pretty done.



I am very glad I never have to do it again.

On Friday, the only thing Carl had asked to do was to go to this restaurant Flaming Margaritas. It sounds like a fun place, right? You look it up on Facebook and it's a vibrant, hip place where people are having fun and the food looks good and big Mexican fair. There's no way I could be disappointed, right? Right?!? Unfortunately that was the older location. They wanted to go to the new location on the Landing. This place is beige on beige on beige. It is not fun and hip and it has tacos, but they were lame. I ended up with a surf and turf burger that was way over cooked and pretty bland.

Alas I was cursed the entire trip to sad food choices. I got home Friday night and ordered my favorite chicken and waffles from Hatch for breakfast on Saturday morning to make up for it.

I went to work on Saturday, and then drove to the other family Sunday, still exhausted and over peopled. But this is part 2 and requires background about my brother's arrest for coke in the early summer.

I packed up on Sunday and in order to ignore some Bad Things(tm) I don't want to go into here, I went to the movie theater for the first time since Tenet to see, of all things . . . Jeffrey Dean Morgan phone in it as a disgraced journalist who unleashes something and then wants to cash in on the miracle maker until oops he grows a conscience. I was very amused by surprise Cary Elwes with a truly horrifying accent, put the monster to shame really. It was still fun to be back in there with like two other people and munching popcorn in my heated recliner.

Got up early on Monday and drove down to Hugo. It's so nice to have a vehicle with air-conditioning and the music I want to listen to coming through the speakers. No trouble, lot of it was pretty. They have real pine trees down there, the kind with the funny looking bare trunks that grow straight up for twenty feet before they start with the branches. I like to visit tall trees to remember they exist. I am however also happy to come home where I can see any invaders on the horizon.

The cabin I stayed in (because there was the chance of bad weather Tuesday) was a nice little two room number. One room had a window unit (it felt like cheating then I said who cares I'm on vacation and turned it on the second night), bed, fireplace, a table and three chairs. It led to a screened in porch which was awesome to have for Pepper to stay in. She was not fond of lounging in the great outdoors. I still constantly thought about monsters in the mist and aliens so solid walls vs a tent didn't really keep the paranoia at bay.

I read, I made good fires, I ate good hotdogs. I'm really glad I went.

I got back yesterday and have been taking it easy before I go to work tomorrow. The cat is loathe to let me out of her sight.

( pics! )

19th: We tried to go shopping down Magazine street, but it really isn't quite the interesting buzz that the guides would like it to be. I did get a super great copper crown with the most reflective gems in it. It wasn't expensive or anything, but wow, I knew it was mine the second I spotted it. Neither mom or Carl believed me at first, but I got it! \0/ I was feeling real grumpy, so I split up from them and went back to the house. In the afternoon we went to their oktoberfest and I was amused and a little sad to go from all the diversity and skin colors of New Orleans to a vague sea of pale. It wasn't as good as OK's fests in food and beer, but where it won was the giant kleiner feigling balloon and the shots of that fig vodka. I love it so much. We got addicted in college, but it's not easy to get my paws on it here. When we were done with that we walked across City Park to a mini golf course. I'm not real sure why I decided we should do it, but it was fun. So hot, dripping with sweat and steam but fun. I wished they'd had a tram or something back to the parking because by now my feet are the most painful things I've fest in my life.

20th: We packed up the house got in the car and drove down to one of the parks north of the French Quarter. They were doing a Mac&Cheese festival and it would have been awesome except that it was so hot again. The food was so good and we tried about five different kinds, but it was hot and everything else was hot. We should have brought lawn chairs, but we're dummies. Since it was so hot, we gave up and walked down to the bars where we spent a few hours sitting in the air conditioning in one place nursing a drink before we moved to the next, got another mint julep or crown and coke and sat there for another four watching whatever football was on TV. I went to Boonedocks, a cop bar there to look for our patch, but it was too dark in the rafters to see most of them. We also ate more oysters, and these were sooooooooo good. Oysters Rockafeller, cooked with spinach and cheese and stuff. The parade was a bummer, we waited for so long, but then they started off with a bunch of personal vehicles decorated, and then I realized the street was so narrow, they wouldn't actually be able to get any of the bigger vehicles I'm used to down it. We decided to cut our losses and left. I drove out of town in the dark and for a couple of hours headed back home before we made it to the town I'd decided we'd spent the last night.

it's 05/12/2019, I just wanted to come back to try to remember the vacation

first dinner down in New Orleans. Our table had shrimp po'boys, jambalaya, red beans and rice . . . and . . . spaghetti and meatballs. I don't think my mom gets it.

it torrentially down poured on us walking back to the house. it was maybe eight blocks? didn't think we were gonna make it. took all three of us about an hour to figure out the washing machine.

our airbnb is a shotgun style house about four blocks off Magazine St. I didn't want any part of the French Quarter, but I also wanted some place with personality. It was the wood floor, I admit it. I picked it for the beautiful wood floor. I am a floozy for that rich orange/brown shine. The ladies who manage it met us there, I felt bad we were almost forty mins late because of Carl's extremely safe driving and the ALL THE RAIN I ran into driving the last bit into town. But they were nice.

We're going to knock out the French Quarter tomorrow.