From Kansas we went to Branson, Missouri. Branson is the Live Entertainment Capitol of the World. It is full of theaters and shows, three times a day, every day. You can go to one in the morning, afternoon, and evening all week long. It is a hot vacation spot and particularly for a one day drive radius although we met people from Chicago, New Jersey, and Idaho, too. It prides itself on good, clean entertainment. It is a family destination but, I guess, due to the travel flexibility of the retired, the average age of the city at any given time is probably somewhere near 70. It is a favorite bus trip destination. It is really rather funny to see an audience that is all silver haired and to hear the conversations going on around you from an all-senior group. Although it might be slightly different when school is out but we saw very few younger couples and only a few children. Kind of hits you in the face that you are now part of the "senior citizen" crowd.
We stayed at a time share for a few days and they had a package deal that was too cheap to pass up so we did go to a couple of shows. One of the events at the time share was a mixer where they provided dinner and lots of shows sent someone to give a teaser of the show. We saw short performances from a ton of current shows in town. In itself, it was a great evening and we saw some great entertainment from singers to magicians to musicians. One of them was an older guitar picker who was phenomenal. Also some terrific singers. Really made you want to see some of the shows. We only had one evening that wasn't committed and we had already purchased tickets to an Irish dance show which was also very, very good.
We went to a lunch show on the Showboat Branson Belle. It included a boat trip around the local lake plus lunch and the show. We had great weather while we were there so it was a good day. We were in Branson between two storm systems so we lucked out on that score. The show was good, too, and included a 5-men singing group, a 4-men tap dancing group, a woman singer, and a 5-piece band. Plus we had a good lunch. Between all the meals we ate, we bought very little food and had some excellent meals which meant we ate too much.
From there we went to Greenville, SC to meet a nephew that we had never met before. He is the son of Doug's oldest brother that the family had lost track of since the brother's divorce. Doug had "found" him through Ancestry and Facebook. Amazing what information is out on the web. That is where we are now and we have had a very nice time getting to know another member of the family. We will be sure not to "lose" him again.
Greenville is also a very pretty city. There is a park downtown called the Falls Park on the Reedy River. It is a very nice oasis in the heart of the city. And their suspension bridge over the river is also unique since it is suspended only on one side. A really pretty park and river walk area.
I also liked this intersection corner. Don't see anything like this in Colorado Springs.
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