Monday, November 26, 2012

Goodbye, Branson --- Hello, Christmas!


Monday, 26 November.  Well, we said “Goodbye” to Branson, MO, early this morning.  We had one terrific time on our first trip to this jewel of a small show town in the Missouri Ozarks.  If you haven’t kept count via the blog entries, we ended up seeing seven shows during our week here.  Not bad for our first time around the block!  And we definitely plan on coming back – maybe in a couple years.

We left our wonderful ABC campground a little before 9am under cloudy skies.  Our drive up MO SR 65 was uneventful and we picked up MO SR 60 just outside of Springfield.   While SR 60 is not an interstate it is four-lane divided highway with some cross-traffic and the occasional stoplight in a few towns.  We skirted the Mark Twain National Forest off-and-on for a good portion of the day. 

The Mark Twain National Forest area in the "Show Me State"

Traffic was light with very few big semi-trailers – and that’s good.  The day remained overcast and the 10% chance of rain held off until we were just about an hour outside our destination for the night, Charleston, MO.  And then it started raining.  And it rained and rained – actually poured down in buckets in spots along SR 60 – and it is, in fact, still raining while I sit here editing this draft blog entry.  It’s gonna be a pretty cold and rainy night tonight, and if it gets much colder, this rain just might turn into snow or sleet.  We’re keeping our fingers crossed that we just have rain overnight.  We did finally manage to pick up an actual interstate, I-57, just west of Charleston, so the last few miles, while still traveling in driving rain, was a wee bit little easier.
Tomorrow we’ll cross the mighty Mississippi (again) via I-57 (headed east this time), eventually picking up I-24 and head southeast toward Nashville.  At Nashville we’ll pick up I-40 and stay on that as we make our way back to the East Coast to spend the Christmas and New Year’s holidays with our two sons and their families in WV and MD.  We’re keeping our fingers crossed the weather will stay “RV-friendly” for us as we travel I-40 thru Tennessee and head for the I-81 corridor that will take us up thru the spine of Virginia.  We have two more stops after tonight – one about halfway between Nashville and Knoxville, and one in Salem, VA – before we will finally reach family in WV.  We’ll be staying initially at the Lost River Campground in Lost River, WV, just minutes away from our oldest son, Kip, his wife, Tina, and our two granddaughters, Skye and Rayne.  Oh, and of course, the doggie menagerie of Chewy, Yogi, Rocky, and Sarah, as well as a few assorted cats, and last but not least, Skye’s new guinea pig, Sugar.  And we’re eagerly looking forward to seeing each and every one of them!  Ciao for now!

Our grandkids: Skye, Ben, Rayne, and little Luke




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