October 22, 2018. Goodbye For a While. We have been on the road for 23 days. Tomorrow, we will return home. We have enjoyed our stay here; less so at the Lake. I think we were just too familiar with the Lake area. There is no scent of newness about a place you've visited countless times over fifty years. It is easier to get excited about something you haven't seen or done before. We have been to Branson before, but it has changed a lot since our last trip, in the early 1990s.
Here are a few pictures from our last day here. We returned to the Landing, for no particular reason. Well, we were looking for a place to walk and the Landing supplied that.
The pictures are some random sights along Highway 76, the Landing and the condo. The final picture is Annie Farkley watching the sunset from the deck. I've also included pictures of several trees which have turned. The weather guy says the full colors will be here in 7-10 days. But, I expect to see autumn splashed on the trees as we head north.
So, that's it from here. I will be back when the open road calls again.
Goodbye.
October 20, 2018. A TOTR Tribute to Native Americans. We were so taken by the Top of the Rock that we returned today to tour the Natural History Museum. It was amazing. I have never seen the number of artifacts as those on display there. One of the security dudes told us that the display represented only 20% of the collection owned by Johnny Morris. The relics are switched out regularly to encourage return visits.
We had lunch at Arnie's Barn then traveled the short distance to Big Cedar. We haven't been there since the early 1990s. It has been enlarged substantially since then. A chapel has been added, I assume as a wedding venue.
There is another Morris attraction near here, Dogwood Canyon. We won't get there on this trip, but it looks like something we would enjoy. It includes thousands of acres of woods, waterfalls, streams and caves. There is also a treehouse there which was built by the Treehouse Masters crew. It will be on our agenda if we make it back this way. And, we might.
We will be heading north on Tuesday. While we have seen a sprinkling of colorful trees here, it is too early this year for a generalized display of color. Maybe we'll see more as we travel north to the colder weather and shorter days.
That's it for tonight.
Goodnight.
October 19, 2018. Top of the Rock. The McCullicks recommended that we tour the Top of the Rock, south of Branson, off Highway 65. So we did. We made reservations earlier in the week and drove to TOTR yesterday afternoon.
Top of the Rock is another Johnny Morris development. Morris is the founder of Bass Pro, which owns Cabelas. He also owns Big Cedar Lodge. TOTR features a nationally recognized par 3 golf course, designed by Jack Nicklaus. There is a driving range designed by Arnold Palmer. Arnie's Barn is the pro shop and a restaurant. It was originally constructed shortly after the Civil War near Arnold Palmer's home in Pennsylvania. It was disassembled beam by beam, board by board and moved to the golf course as a tribute to Arnie. The facility is accented by numerous bronze sculptures including Crazy Horse and End of the Trail.
There is also a nature trail which winds through the Lost Canyon Cave and alongside water falls. There is an Ozarks Natural History Museum. And, there is an excellent restaurant, the Osage Restaurant, which highlights excellent food and a sunset bagpipe player followed by the discharge of a Civil War cannon. Finally, there is a chapel which was built by Morris for his own daughter's wedding. It is now rented to others for the same purpose.
Annie and I had a wonderful time We thoroughly enjoyed the nature trail. I took nearly 100 pictures, many of which are displayed above. I may show you others in another blog. The colors, the lake and the geological formations all contributed to a visual banquet.
We ran out of time and weren't able to visit the museum. We may go back tomorrow for that. It is reputed to be the best repository of native American and Civil War relics in the area.
But, for now, goodnight.
October 18, 2018, Ho-hum, More R & R. The last couple of days have been relaxing, but not terribly exciting. We stayed around the condo on Tuesday and did a little walking. The pictures show our proximity to Silver Dollar City and the hilly terrain here.
Yesterday, we spent several hours at the Tanger Outlet Mall, walking the entire horseshoe shape of the mall. I was looking for a lightweight windbreaker so we entered every outlet which carried men's apparel. I was abysmally unsuccessful. If nothing else, we did walk several miles in the pursuit. The mall still showed some summer color with roses and pansies which belie the season.
We drove to Table Rock State Park, a place we have stayed several times in Harvey. One of the things we enjoyed while camping in the fall was the Halloween decorations. Campers, it seems, have a lot of fun decorating their campsites during the holidays. Halloween is a favorite. Here are several of the sites where campers were celebrating the season. It was nice to see them. It took us back to when we, too, were campers. We both miss that.
We have been watching the sunsets off our deck each evening. The sky shows varying colors depending upon the cloud cover. In addition to a streaked red sky, we spotted a doe and a fawn grazing beneath our deck. It was beyond dusk when I took the picture. Because of the low light conditions, my picture of the fawn was too blurry to use. With some editing, the doe shows up pretty well.
Tonight, we have dinner reservations at Top of the Rock, a well-recommended restaurant owned by Johnny Morris and adjacent to the Big Cedar Lodge. There is a nature trail and museum which features the geological characteristics and history of the Ozarks. Sundown is celebrated by a bagpipe solo and Civil War cannon discharge.
I didn't get to this last night, so I can't say goodnight.
Goodday.
