Hey, y’all from Branson Missouri! We were reading the pamphlet on Tulsa and found that there is a large flea market at the fairgrounds this weekend. It was on the same road as the motel, but when we got there all we found was a horse show. As much as I like horses, that’s not why we went there, so we decided not to stay. We almost turned right out of the parking lot, but I thought if we drive all the way around the fairgrounds, we can say we checked out the whole place. On the other side we found this giant pavilion and sho’nuff there was the flea market. It was typical except that there was tons of jewelry and Thea was in heaven! We spent an hour and a half looking and meeting some of the people there. It was fun even though we didn’t drop any cash. I almost bought a hand-made inlayed Zuni ring, but didn’t have enough money on me. It was real nice, but maybe it’s for the best. We found some lunch and aimed the car east towards Missouri. We followed route 66 almost all the way to Joplin and then found hiway 60 and then south on I-65. We passed through many little towns and hit a few stop lights, but it was very pleasant scenery the whole way. We didn’t choose I-44 because you miss so much and they want $3 toll to use it and the traffic is no fun. I am continually amazed at how the country side changes as you cross the state lines. Oklahoma was lush, but mostly flat. As we traveled further into Missouri, the terrain morphed into longer rolling hills and deeper and deeper draws with higher hills. This is horse country and so there are many large horse operations along the way. It is also tornado alley and many of the trees look shredded with tall piles of branches after the clean-up. We were told that much of the damage was also caused by recent ice storms. As we neared Branson, we stopped at the visitor center and found that we could make arrangements for a room and a show. Branson is an amazing little town. It’s the Las Vegas for Country Music. We saw a show called “Country Tonight”. It was wonderful. I really like live shows and this one was excellent! The band had some older musicians, but the dancers were young and full of energy. The singers were also younger and sang with lots of power and purity. I was impressed and very glad we chose that one. It would be good to spend some time here because there are about 100 shows going on every night. Right now there are few big names, but during the summer there are many famous country singers to enjoy. When you think of where we are on the planet, it makes me wonder, “Why here?” This is the northern edge of the Ozark Mountains. There are many hills and very deep and steep hollows and yet the town of Branson is spread over 7 miles through them. The exteriors of the theaters are as imaginative as anything you’d see in Vegas and there are many hotels and motels to choose from along with all the amenities you’d ever need. I’ll try to include some pictures in tomorrow’s post. We are so glad we stopped here and wish we could stay longer….maybe some other time. We hope to make it to Poplar Bluff tomorrow afternoon. We might spend part of the day Monday trying to find some records of our family who lived there at one time. Both Thea and I have relatives from Poplar Bluff so we hope our search proves fruitful. We shall see. I wanted to say that yesterday I posted 2 separate days because I couldn’t get onto the internet until then, so click the ‘Previous Post’ spot at the bottom of the page. That will take you back to the events of Thursday. Sleep well.