We woke to a sort-of dreary day in Branson this morning. We had a decent breakfast provided by the Victorian Palace Motel. We realized that Branson is very much like Las Vegas except that there is no ‘X’ or ‘R’ rated shows and there are no casinos. After a little more exploration of town and some picture taking, we headed back north to find state hiway 160 east. Like I said, we were at the north edge of the Ozark Mountains. The topography is very hilly with deep draws. We found ourselves on the spine of a ridge winding across the state. I think we averaged about 38 miles an hour. It was such fun driving for me! The road rolled left and right, up and down continuously all day. The engineers did a great job with the road by making sure that the corners were banked in relation to the sharpness of the curves and the surface was smooth as silk. It was like skiing a slalom course. Many corners were right at the bottom of a dip; it almost felt like we were flying, soaring through the sky out of a rolling inside loop. Such fun! The forest was mostly Oak scrub at first and that turned into Hickory mix with splashes of flowering Dogwood in full bloom out in every direction. It was beautiful! There is virtually no underbrush and it would be easy to walk out through the forest if it weren’t for the extreme elevation changes every ¼ mile or so. The straight sections of road were just like a roller-coaster at Palisades Park! We actually got that feeling in our tummies when you go over the top and start down again. What fun! The homes along the way were small houses, some were little shanties, and most were well kept. There will always be the few that must collect dead cars and trucks and all the other “perfectly good” junk that could be, but probably won’t ever be used for anything useful. We remarked about the fact that the homes with grass around the house were freshly mowed. It was nice to see. A couple places we crossed the river or creek bottoms and the recent rains had caused pretty severe flooding. The water was right up to the bottom of the bridges. It was kind of creepy. We felt like we were skimming across the water to the other side. Much of the drive today crossed and re-crossed the Bull Shoals Lake system in western Missouri. Some poor souls had built their houses too near the shore and all that was visible was the ridge of the roof. I understand that this all happened in just the last week or two. We hope the people affected can deal with the damage and frustrations. The last 20 miles or so was much more level as the hills disappeared behind us. There were countless picturesque cattle and horse farms on every side. The vistas seemed to go on forever into the distances with long rolling hills covered here and there with woodlots of Hickory and Walnut. The grass was long and lush and the critters were plump. The whole day was terrific! We got to Poplar Bluff around 6:00 PM and found a room right away. We checked the phone book, expecting to find many listings for Beaty, Hindal and Garrison. Those are the names of distant relatives that we were sure would be numerous. We did find a few Garrisons, but none of the others. Not one! We might investigate some of the Garrisons to see if they are related to us somehow in the morning, but we must admit that we lost some of the wind in our sails. We called some friends that live a few hours north and will go spend the afternoon and evening with them tomorrow. It’s been over 6 years since we’ve seen them. Tuesday morning should find us heading east again with the goal of Bowling Green, Kentucky by the end of the day. That’s where we hope to find no flooding and spend some time at the National Corvette Museum. Yahoo! More to follow.