Happy Together!

October has been a month of family, long-time friends, new friends, mixed emotions, and a little dab of Motown. 

17 day gov't shutdown cannot shut the beauty out of the Ozarks

Barn and his bullet -- he was part of the Motown show and could really punch out a tune!

super small theater but some mighty big voices

Ron took this pic -- and he actually called me a cracker

10-12-13:  Today is Gus' 30th birthday!  Cannot believe our youngest is this old!  Today is also our 4th anniversary for fulltiming.  We went to see Motown in downtown Branson with Dawn and Ron.  Kind of a good show -- but not something I'd recommend paying for. Mainly because of the venue. There were some talented singers, tho.

Rocky is so happy to see his brother!

pizza is always first on the agenda with Gus

10-13-13:  Gus surprised us this morning by arriving in Branson!  I knew last night that he was thinking of coming up.  He texted me this morning to ask about highways and such, then 5 minutes later he's here!  So excited!

Nice to have our son here

his new ride

Gus and me at the par 3

not sure what this is, but they were all over the course

putting for the match

my golfer dudes

David smelling my sweet hybrid?

10-14-13:  The 3 of us hit the par 3 course today -- which I believe is really a par 5.  We had so much fun.  Only played 9 because of time restraints.

Waiting outside Main Street Cruises to catch the River Princess for dinner

the Lake Queen coming back into dock

the Landing fountains and flames showing their stuff to the tune of Kung Fu Fighting

a bald eagle we passed as we were going upstream on Lake Taneycomo

a blue heron reflecting - get it?

color is starting to pop in the Ozarks

reflections

another eagle

close up

Rockaway Beach

a unique, historical spot - and turning around point for the Princess

an old dock

beautiful guy

side of the boat

a huge juvie bald eagle

Gus and me

This evening we did the dinner cruise on Lake Taneycomo aboard the River Princess.  It was drizzly, but the colors were starting to pop and we saw plenty of bald eagles.  Including a beautiful juvenile.  What a wonderful last night with Gus!

Grascals

Jamie

these guys have a great sound

fiddle and mandolin were awesome!

and this "little gal" could flat out pick!

we only had to tolerate a few minutes of Larry's Country Diner to get to have a couple of hrs with the Grascals

Ron, Dawn, David, and me with the band

I said "let's make a face" and Jamie showed the spirit

10-15-13:  Said our goodbye's to Gus. Sure loved having him in Branson with us! This afternoon we went to see the awesome bluegrass band, The Grascals!  They are only in town for 3 days, so we are excited to get to catch them. It wasn't a free show for us, like most things we do here. But it was like $10 each.  Then Dawn and Ron didn't have to pay because of their charm and good looks. So they split it with us and turns out it was only $5 each.  Woohoo. Whatever we woulda had to pay was just fine.  This was probably mine and David's fave entertainment of the year.

Tammy found her Cooper a Christmas headband

Sanford and Tammy

10-17-13:  The Dewey Short got to open up again today.  What a roller coaster for these poor folks.  First, the Corp broke the contract with the Foundation, so those folks are sweating a job.  Then the Corps folks have to go home during the shutdown with no pay (however, the gov't says they'll reimburse federal employees), but let the Foundation keep running the center.  Then after a week or so, the Corps told the Foundation they have to go home, too.  Today --- all are back at work.  Maybe only temporarily for the Foundation employees.

My Branson peep and partner in crime, Tammy, did some resale shopping today and lunch.  She named her owl Sanford due to all the junk that he's made out of.  Thought that was great. Gonna miss this chick.

Lisa's face when I gave her Greg Brady's autograph from last year.  Wish I'd take a pic of her when I told her it was really Tammy's writing

Lisa, an Indian guy, and me at Charlie's

yep, Rebecca Dawn gave me the mic again! "Satin Sheets"

Andy and Lisa at Charlie's

10-18-13:  My bestie, Lisa and her hubs Uncle Andy, came to see us for the weekend.  Well, they came to see the Happy Together Tour and we happen to be here.  We are gonna have a great weekend!

Lisa and Andy

Lisa and me striking a pose in front of the Shelby superstang

2 of the cars that were totaled during the leap day '12 tornado

cool

from Chase

classy

Blues Brothers car

10-19-13:  Beautiful day, but coooold. We managed to find some great stuff to do with Lisa and Andy, tho. After lunch at Vaskens, we went to the car museum in the Dick Clark Theater.  We all thought it was a fantastic museum.  Lots of famous cars from stars and movies, motorcycles, spider bike, and even Bing Crosby's golf cart. Worth going to.

Marilyn and Andy

these aren't the real Blues Bros, ya'll

Lisa actually asked Johnny Cash if he was the old Elvis

this is my fave Elvis

Lisa got everyone's autographs -- didn't matter that they were tribute artists

the "concert" (old) Elvis and I took a selfie

David photobombing Lisa and Elvis

This afternoon we went to Legends.  Always a fun show! Lisa felt like she was in star heaven and got lots of autographs.

Mark Lindsey from Paul Revere and the Raiders

groovy shoes

Lisa found out he's a fulltime rv'er

Gary Puckett from Union Gap Band -- still a good sound

Mickey from the Monkees -- still the same sound, but lots of fun

yep, he's spotted us -- we're famous

the band was awesome -- they should do their own concert!

Turtles back in the day

and now

Flo and Eddie still sound great!  I never knew they were hilarious back in the day

closing out the concert

Lisa had her Sixteen Magazine with all these guys in it - so she got them to autograph it

 I think even Mark was impressed by that

Not sure what we were disussing, but I was telling Mickey all about it

Lisa, me, oh and Gary Puckett

Tonite was the moment we'd been waiting for - The Happy Together Tour 2013. Turtles, Mickey Dolenz, Gary Puckett, and Mark Lindsey.  We had 2nd row seats, our right of the stage.  And they were great seats when the singers came to that side of the stage.  David got some wonderful pix.  Lisa almost got to go on stage with Mickey, but Lisa confessed she didn't know all the words to Daydream Believer, so he moved on. SMH. It was a really fun concert and the company was a blast!

Lisa is all about nostalgia, so we hit Dick's 5 and 10

had to share a table for lunch with this sweet couple at Clocker's

10-20-13:  David got called in to work at the Dewey today, so I took Andy and Lisa downtown and then on a Duck ride. Gorgeous day and not too cold this time!

Lisa and me waiting to board the ducks

I texted David so he could catch us going over the dam -- he actually heard Lisa hollering "Hey, David"!

view from atop Baird Mtn

Cap'n Jed giving us the safety instructions before driving into Table Rock Lake

Unspecting Andy in the soggy bottom seat at the back of the boat

I sorta offered to swap seats with him and with the little lady's  cuz I knew what was about to happen

about to enter the water -- wait for it..........

splashdown!

say what?

fake smile

the faces as I was driving

the Branson Belle

Lisa took the helm

piece of cake, right?

yep, piece of cake

hey, where'd Cap'n Jed go?

 After lunch we went to Ride the Ducks, compliments of our friend and dam tour guide, Charlie.  Thanks, Charlie!!

Dam

Andy and Lisa on the authentic San Fran trolly that takes folks to the dam

After Andy changed into some dry pants, we went to the Dewey to show them around, see David, and to say our goodbyes.  Great having my friends in Branson.  Lisa and I became friends in 1976 at SAU and have come full circle from being carefree college girls to carefree retired girls -- with some interesting stuff in between!

Winding up our Branson stay.  Very bittersweet for us.  So ready to see family and friends in other parts of the country, but sure love our Ozarks friends and experiences!

Peace and Love,

Louie, Louie and Sleepy Jean, along with our little Stepping Stone