As regular readers know, Louie and I planned to take a short trip to Branson over our spring break.
Well, his spring break. I don’t technically have a spring break, but I took a few days off, and we made plans to go, and boom, break it is!
We left Wednesday morning for Branson. Branson is approximately 4 hours drive from St Louis, and neither of us had ever been. The funny thing is that we couldn’t remember the genesis of this trip, but we think it must have been seeing some sort of ad for Branson and saying, huh, we’ve never been, maybe we should check it out. Things came together fast and about two months ago I booked a highly rated cheap hotel, the Seven Gables Inn. As I was researching things we’d like to do, I also found a few things to do along the way.
It was a rainy day when we started out, so I revised our trip order and made our first stop Mansfield, Missouri, where Laura Ingalls Wilder lived most of her adult life. I only realized that she moved to Missouri recently! I loved the Little House books as a kid, and about a year or two ago I read a new book about her, Prairie Fires, and really enjoyed learning about the background and more of her life. Before this trip I also reread all the Little House books in order to have more of a sense.
In any case, it took us about 3 hours to get to the Museum. We paid our $14 and we told the next house tour was in about 50 minutes which would give us time to tour the museum. We watched a short video, looked at a bunch of exhibits in the museum (no pictures allowed) and I really enjoyed seeing various artifacts, including Pa’s actual fiddle that features so prominently in all the books. If the weather had been nicer I believe one could walk from the museum to all the sites, but it was pouring rain and very muddy, so we drove to the farmhouse for the tour. This was the “offseason” and there were only two other people on our tour of the house. Evidently the house was kept the way it was when Laura died in 1957 with just some upkeep and a few places where things were redone in the same style. It was really neat to see where Laura had actually lived and brought the books and our country’s pioneer history to life! 1957 doesn’t seem that long ago, and therefore it wasn’t that long ago that Laura and her family were heading west for a better life (and not that long ago that our country systematically slaughtered Native Americans and stole their land, but…I hope I can appreciate the pioneer spirit as well as feeling sad about how Europeans and Americans destroyed native peoples and their cultures everywhere they went…and continue to! But I feel like I’m digressing, so…)
The farmhouse that Almanzo built by hand!
Below—the “rock house” that their daughter, Rose, had built for them. They lived there for a few years, but always felt more comfortable at the farm house. We visited the Rock House after the farmhouse and I can see why—the Rock House was beautiful on the outside, and very nice on the inside, especially the bathroom, but the farmhouse seemed more home-like and comfortable.
Everybody we dealt with at the Museum and the homes were very nice and knowledgeable. It was a great stop on our trip!
We drove another 1 to 1 1/2 hours to Branson then. The last 30 miles of our trip was a road with a constant bombardment of billboards advertising shows and other activities in Branson. The roads were quite hilly/mountainous, and the terrain quite beautiful. We chose to ignore some of the overtly political and religious things (a giant cross with tears on it that I simply refuse to google) that we saw and just focus on our own experiences.
We checked into our hotel which was exactly as I’d pictured. I would definitely recommend the hotel for a budget stay as the location was fantastic, it was clean, and the owners and employees were incredibly friendly.
We had splurged for an in-room jacuzzi and a king sized bed.
After getting settled, we decided to head towards the river to the Branson Landing and the historic downtown area. We drove down the strip along the way, and like Pigeon Forge or Vegas, there is plenty of craziness and neon. Branson, as Louie loved to say, is completely “off the chain.”
In addition to a giant replica titanic, you’ll see a ferris wheel, King kong climbing a building, various airplanes, a giant meatball and fork, and more!
We parked near downtown and wandered around a bit. There’s an area right by the river called the Landing, which is an outdoor mall. It’s just like any indoor mall except it’s outside and you are in Branson! We did a moonshine tasting (free!), some poking around various shops including what we thought was a giant Bass Pro Shops, but my understanding is that it was actually quite small for that store. We walked along the river a teeny bit, but it wasn’t the relaxing walk we’d hoped as there was music coming out of every lamp post, including quite a lot of static and some issues with the music. Then we saw a few fountain and “firework” shows which were like you might see in Vegas but not nearly as good, but still quite fun.
The fountains created a rainbow, which was fun. After all that, we went to Cantina Laredo for Mexican food. The margaritas were actually quite bad, but the food was really good, so we’d recommend it, but don’t order the regular marg.
Basically, so far Branson was exactly how we’d expected and we were having a great time!
We didn’t stay up too late, and the next day we managed to make it for the hotel breakfast. The reviews on Trip Advisor tended to rave about the breakfast, but for non meat eaters it wasn’t quite as good. They did have actual Krispy Kreme doughnuts (Boston Crème is my absolute favorite donut) and make your own waffles.
We wanted to do some hiking while we were in Branson and I’d found a map of trails around Table Rock Lake in the State Park. It was sunny enough, but VERY windy, so we bundled up a bit and headed out.
We did a 3 mile loop in the White River Valley Trail System. The hike was good and bad: the good was the trees, the rocks, the moss, the natural beauty. The bad was the variety of power lines we kept crossing around—it was located very near the Table Rock Dam, and therefore there were many power lines coming from the dam heading out, and the hike kept passing through the open areas. There was a decent amount of mud, but that was unsurprising.
We did our first hike and then went to the visitor’s center at the dam. It had some really nice displays to learn about the dam and the animals and nature in the area. There was a walk along Table Rock Lake that we might have enjoyed, but the wind was so strong that we only walked a tiny bit to see the lake a tiny bit.
We found a nearby diner for lunch called the Hungry Hunter, and had a very nice lunch. After lunch we did another short hike and then headed back to the motel to clean up. Louie had some work he needed to do and I just relaxed.
There was a winery right by the motel called the St James Winery, so later in the afternoon we headed over there for wine tasting. Naturally we ended up buying a few bottles, including a peach wine that I’m looking forward to having again.
Our big evening plan was the Dolly Parton Stampede! This was something several friends recommended that would give us the most Branson of Branson experiences. The show included dinner, so no need to eat beforehand. We got there in time for the preshow which was a trio of bass, banjo, and guitar, all brothers, who also sang. They did a variety of styles of music to please the crowds, and we enjoyed drinking coffee out of a boot.
Then it was time to take our seats for the show. There was horseback riding, tricks, dogs, bison, longhorn steers, audience participation, odd displays of possibly misplaced patriotism, and lots of fun. It was a very strange experience for Louie and I, but we enjoyed it. The dinner wasn’t anything to write home about (especially the vegetarian option of pasta with red sauce and some veggies), but it was fun and definitely unique. The performers really were top-notch.
The next morning we slept a little longer and missed the hotel breakfast. We found a coffee shop called the Kaffee Haus and had some tasty muffins and french press coffee there before heading a little further south to a place called “Top of the Rock.” We’d seen an advertisement for it that included a trail you could drive on a golf cart, and we thought that sounded pretty neat. It cost $10 to enter the property, but you get a $5 coupon to spend there. It wasn’t very busy, but I could see the place getting really hectic and overcrowded during some seasons. We found parking easily and filled out the paperwork to rent the golf cart, and off we went! It was just the two of us in the cart and Louie was the driver. They had a plastic over over the cart since it was still quite cold and windy.
Top of the Rock is sort of like Disney World in that you aren’t sure if any of the nature is real or if it’s all man-made, or what, but it’s quite a lot of fun, a little overpriced, and you just find yourself handing over your money. We absolutely LOVED the tour, even though it was ridiculous. You follow a paved road for the carts, and there are various places to stop, park, get out, whatever you want. There’s even a place where you go through a cave and there’s a bar if you want to order a drink (non-alcoholic or alcoholic).
You can see a little row of golf carts parked there.
We drove over that bridge.
Some of the pictures out of the golf cart window weren’t as great, but you can maybe get a sense of it that way.
Anyway, we were a little sad to be done, but gave the cart back. Then we took the shuttle to the other part of the park, and had a very nice lunch at a restaurant called Arnie’s Barn. The restaurant overlooked the golf course, which we did not partake in.
As part of a package deal with the cart tour (the Lost Canyon Cave Tour I believe it was called) we got tickets for the Museum of the Ancient Ozarks. The whole place is owned by the owner of Bass Pro Shops, just fyi, and we aren’t sure if all the museum facts were correct and some things were definitely worded strangely, but overall it was a very nice museum and we learned quite a few things that we hope are correct, especially stuff about animals that used to live in this area of the world and are now extinct. The museum took us around 2 hours to go through.
After that, we headed back to our car and then back towards the motel. We decided to stop by another winery first, and got to the Curling Vine Winery right before it closed. We tried a few tasty wines and bought a couple more bottles to make it an even six for the trip. People knock on Missouri Wines (well, they knock on Missouri generally I suppose) but we enjoyed quite a few of the ones we tried. The prices are super reasonable too!
For dinner we decided to go to the Center Stage Bar and Grill which is connected to the Kaffee Haus that we’d eaten at breakfast. I ordered a trout dish that was a little too sweet for my taste, but the fried okra and mashed potatoes with the meal were good. After dinner we relaxed in the jacuzzi and reflected on a fun trip.
The next morning we got up, checked out of the hotel and headed for breakfast. We chose the Pancake and Waffle House, which in retrospect was a fairly poor choice. It was fine, but there was awkwardly long waits for everything for no apparent reason. We waited in a line to get seated, which would have been okay, except that we realized after awhile there were two entrances, one with barely any line and the other with a line out the door and the host just kept alternately sides. Then we waited to get coffee (for 10 to 15 minutes after being seated), we waited to order, and we waited for our check. I guess that’s a tourist restaurant for you—no need to be better as people are just stopping through anyway! The food was mediocre, but nonetheless, we ate and moved on.
Our last stop was along the way home. We decided to visit Wilson’s Creek National Battlefield which is about 1 hour from Branson. There was a $20 admission fee but I bought an annual NPS pass since we’ll need it this summer. The weather was absolutely gorgeous: sunny, warm, and the wind was finally gone. The visitor’s center has some good information about the battle (we skipped the movie, but I imagine that gives great info) and then there’s a five mile driving tour with plenty of stops. We did a lot of short hikes, probably hiking about 2 to 2 1/2 miles total. There’s more hiking one could do, but we spent about 3 hours total at the site and felt we got a really good sense of the place and a good overview.
I don’t know much about Missouri’s role in the Civil War. Growing up in SC we learned tons about the Civil War (and the information was not always correct, in terms of the role of slavery and how the north treated the south), but it was mostly SC’s role in the war. Louie and I were very glad we made this stop as NPS sites are almost always well done and worth visiting. The weather was also just amazing, and it was a great end to the trip.
We walked along Wilson’s Creek a bit. There were some gnats in places, which made me remember, oh yes, when the weather gets nice, the bugs come out…
Louie did a lot of sign reading.
The battle was actually just fought in somebody’s corn fields, and this was a recreation of their house.
The significance of the site is that it was the first battle of the Civil War in which a Union General was killed. And other stuff, that I totally knew yesterday but have already forgotten…isn’t that the way these things go!
So that’s our Spring Break trip to Branson. It was a nice getaway, and even though Branson isn’t what you might think of as Louie and my typical getaway destination, we had a great time. If you have any questions or comments, don’t hesitate to ask!
)
