Branson, Missouri, thoughts. Bonnie and I have just returned from a grand tour to Branson, Missouri. It was not a place on my bucket list to visit, but we saw some nice things. The first thing I suggest to do is stop by the Purple House for discounted tickets and hotel reservations. Most such places are scams, either selling bad tickets or just a cover for time share sales. But the Branson 2-for-1 tickets place in the purple-painted house at 1100 West Highway 76 in Branson offered very good deals with no hassles and not even asking for any personal information. Normally, show tickets cost from $25-$55 or more. The Purple House really did give 2 for 1 prices and good seats. We traveled a different route than most folks do from the Louisville area, driving south I65 to I69 (Westerm Ky Parkway) to I24 (Paducah), then along a 30-mile stretch of nice rural road (state roads 62 & 286) to Wickliffe, then crossing the Ohio & Mississippi rivers to I57 in Missouri; from there, we drove along Missouri state road 60 across the state to state road 65 into Branson. It was a total 8-hour drive. All but the bit of road between Wickliffe and Paducah were fine, four-lane roads with almost no traffic. It was a long but very pleasant drive. Following that southern route across Missouri, we saw seemingly endless flat fields of corn, soy beans, and rice. Harvesters were working hard bringing in apparently burgeoning crops of corn. Soybeans were about ready to harvest, and rice crops (which was a surprise to me) looked about ready as well. I really recommend a country restaurant called Wallys that was along I57 near the Missouri border. We saw several shows at Branson. I personally enjoyed the Billy Dean show the most. I came away with a new respect for his songs. We also saw the heavily produced and flashy Haygoods, which was entertaining. But I considered the simpler Billy Dean show to be better music. We also saw the Iconic-Branson show, The Shoji Tabuchi Show. I think this show, which is sort of a Japanese Lawrence Welk country violinist, has seen its best days; but he was very likable, and I enjoyed the show. We also toured the Titanic museum, which was certainlly worth the visit. We saw the Amazing Acrobats of China show, which did show some amazing acrobatics. But somehow I just did not like the attitude. Especially compared to the friendliness and God-and-America stance of everyone else. Almost every other show ends with the old political trick of getting everyone to stand up and cheer at the end of the show because of a rousing talk and song about loving our country. It is a little hokey, but it works and is nice feel-good stuff. It seemed to me that the acrobats show could have at least paid some respects along that line to their host country. But that might just be me. All-in-all, a nice, likeable, place to visit. For me, maybe once is enough, though I might well go back again some time.
Posted on: Sun, 14 Sep 2014 15:35:38 +0000