Branson, MO

14-JUN-2004
This evening we went to eat with all the uncles and aunts at a Beachy Amish place where they served dinner. There were 38 there, and a widow (Sylvia Ropp) made the dinner. Good home cooked meal. In the evening we talked a while, and then left around 9:30PM. Drove to about 12:30 and slept about 20 miles north of Hannibal, MO. – posted by Roger

15-JUN -2004
We stopped at the Flying J in Warrenton, MO and after dumping etc. Travis left the outlet cover there. As we were driving he saw the dump hose coming out the side, and we discovered the bumper cover at the side was also missing. We stopped to buy one, and then discovered the back bumper weld had broken away, and the bike rack was ready to fall off. We went to a truck repair shop and they welded it up temporarily so we could make it to Springfield. We got there at 4:30 and they closed at 5:00. There were very helpful and good people. They arranged a place to go in Springfield to have it repaired. – posted by Roger

16-JUN-2004
First thing in the morning we got the bumper welded properly and then drove to Branson and got a campground at Table Rock State Park, next to a lake. Since this was a trip of a lifetime, I decided I needed to do something else I had never done in my lifetime, and decided to shave my head. My head saw the sun for the first time – ever. Travis also shaved his head, and now we don’t need to date our pictures – we can tell the date by how long our hair is! Travis and I shaved each others heads, but as we were doing it decided to keep Mohawks for a bit. It was incredible how people looked at us – especially when they did obvious double-takes. In the afternoon we went it to get tickets for a show, and bought some for the Baldknobbers – one of the first shows in Branson (started in 1959). It was raining, so we went and ate at a Bar B Q buffet, which wasn’t very good. People really stared at us with our Mohawks. In the evening we went to the show - It was good family entertainment. Nicole could not stop laughing at Travis and me. She laughed continuously. It made one realize how others suffer if disfigured, or disabled etc. People would look, and then talk to their spouses/friends and they would turn and look. Quite an interesting and fun experiment. I left some tufts of hair on top of Travis’s ears that looked really cool, but he cut them off before we went to the Boldknobber show. The Baldknobber show was pretty good. The family packs here are quite incredible. Normal tickets were $25.00 each, and the family pack cost $59.00. – posted by Roger

17-JUN-2004
We went into town this AM and took our picture at one of those old –time photo places. We were not too happy with the picture. It was not a very good place, and we were hoping for “Indian” costumes to wear with our Mohawks, but they didn’t have any. We took “hillbilly” shots instead, but the quality was not very good. We checked out a few more things around Branson, did some shopping and saw a show called “Cirque”, which was really good. Normal tickets were $35.00 each, but we got a family pass for $85.00. It was gymnastics, acrobats, etc. We had a hard time deciding on that or the Shepherd of the Hills play, but decided to do that since we could see that one in the afternoon, and thought it might rain in the evening. We left in the afternoon and stopped at a park on the way (Galena, MO) and made hamburgers. – posted by Roger