Branson, Missouri

 One hundred thirty five miles north of Greenbrier finds us inBull Creek RV Park, site number 27, just north of Branson, Missouri.

Bull Creek forms one boundary of the park and provides a cool evening respite from the heat of the day.

Today’s driving weather was clear, but warm and humid. When we arrived at the park, the only thing we wanted to do was hook up the electricity and turn on the ac! Park we did, disconnected the trailer from the truck and stretched out the electric cord…..found it to be 6” short of making a proper connection, so….

It’s three pm, near the hottest part of the day and we need power! I should add that all the park utility connections are at the extreme back of the rv site and the trailer connections are near the center of the trailer. Raise the entry steps. Hook up to the truck. Back up 12” (to make sure). Disconnect the truck. Pull down the steps…You get the idea.

Twenty minutes later, we had everything settled and the ac on! Relief!

We expect to be in Branson a week. What is there to do in this little Missouri town?

Number one on our list was to see a performance of “Queen Esther” at the Sight and Sound Theater. Of course, we’re far from stage performance experts, but to say this production was wonderful is to minimize the hard work of hundreds of actors, construction technicians, electricians and lighting engineers. It required almost four years to bring the production to the stage with over 11,000 square feet of construction. The opulant Persian city of Susa is brought to life in 270 degrees of motorized sets. Sections move, rotate, lift and lower to show dozens of scenes throughout the show.

This is the biblical story of Esther, a poor jewish girl who becomes queen to King Xerxes, and is instrumental in saving her people from death. A feel-good story, surely, but done with such professionalism that our attention was riveted for over two and a half hours! Theater lighting, a music score performed by the Prague Symphony Orchestra of the Czech Republic, and exquisite costumes combine to draw the audience deep into the story. I particularly found the 40 foot tall set structures and the 300 foot wrap around stage very interesting. It is quite a show, and very much recommended! There have been several productions over the years including stories of Noah, Jesus, and in 2025, David, portions of these are available on streaming platforms and Sight and Sound TV.

The backstory is that in 1960, a Pennsylvania dairy farmer named Glenn Eschelman, with an artistic flair and a strong moral compass put together a slide show of his photographs. His desire to serve God led him to form a media studio that grew into Sight and Sound Studios, bringing the Bible to life for millions of people worldwide.

Unfortunately, photography is not allowed during the performance, so these will have to do…

A day later:

The Clay Cooper Theatre is a venue for several different performers in Branson, from Elvis tribute shows to music from the 50’s, 60’s, 70’s and more. We bought tickets for a production by Clay Cooper and some 80+ dancers, singers, and technicians. 

This show is themed around music, primarily country music, but with a wide variety of other genres added in, and patriotism. The performers, including Clay Cooper, are all extremely proficient in singing, playing musical instruments and dancing, and the show kept us laughing, clapping and wiping an occasional tear for almost three hours! Well done!

The show opened with a rendition of a mexican hat dance played on a guitar using a battery operated kitchen mixer!

Several tribute songs were done, Merle Haggard, Pat Benatar, The Four Seasons, Ronnie Milsap, and…

The entire evening was a wonderful, musical, patriotic and moral celebration. A must see in Branson.

The last time we were in Branson, we met two very nice ladies who worked in a restaurant called Tequila’s. It’s a ways out of town but we wanted to chat with them again, so we got dressed up and ventured out to West Branson for dinner.

 

The restaurant has a public entrance with all the “hostess will seat you” stuff, nice booths, and a good view of the Ozark Mountains. That’s upstairs.

Not for us.

Downstairs is cozy and comfortable, with Trish and Julie as bartenders, servers, table cleaners, and conversationalists.

And the fajitas weren’t bad either! 

So we’ve accomplished our Branson goals. Saw a couple of shows, ate some good food, did some shopping, and enjoyed the beautiful Ozark Mountains. It’s a beautiful area!

Greenbrier, Arkansas

 Back to the west on Interstate 40 to Little Rock, and then north on US 65, brought us to Greenbrier, Arkansas, and site 18 in Millers Outpost RV Park.

Greenbrier is the home of Riddle’s Elephant and Wildlife Sanctuary, which is the only recognized facility in the world which accepts any elephant, regardless of species, gender, or disposition. Save this info for next week’s trivia game…extra points if you know that the town, founded in 1818, was named for the greenbrier vines that grow along the town’s creek.

There is one other thing…

This rv park is located next to a yoga studio. 

But I don’t know how to explain the sign out front.

We had a chance to watch storm clouds move in during the early evening hours.

The moon was just peeking through!

As I write this some five hours later, we have been experiencing huge lightning and thunder storms for most of the evening. Sasha is wide eyed and trembling and Donna and I have decided to skip sleeping tonight…

I guess I’m happy we’re leaving tomorrow!

191 Miles For Dinner

 East of Hot Springs, Arkansas, on Interstate 40 right on the Tennessee border, lies the city of Memphis. We slid into site 105 at Tom Sawyer RV Park, on the west bank of the Mississippi River.

SITE PHOTO UNAVAILABLE. BLOGGER IS HAVING A MOMENT 

We’re technically still in Arkansas, in West Memphis, but we enjoy this park because it’s right on the Mississippi River and still only few minutes from downtown Memphis, TN. It’s so fascinating to watch the river traffic and speculate on the products being shipped.

The river is littered, if that’s the proper term, with trash brought downriver from storms farther north last week. The water level has visibly risen in just the afternoon we’ve been here, and it will be interesting to see when it calms down.

We spent the evening kicking back and enjoying. 

There were, however, some hazards…..

We’ve visited Memphis several times and enjoy the music and vibrancy of Beale Street and learning about how that area influenced blues, rock and roll, and soul. Elvis, B B King, and Johnny Cash played and recorded here. But this time our focus is….BBQ!

On our way to the first of our food stops, we were forced by highway construction to detour by the Bass Pro Shop at the Pyramid. This is one of the most unusual of the Bass Pro Shop/Cabelas stores. When the Memphis Grizzlies basketball team vacated the pyramid shaped building, BPS/C spent millions turning the building into a sporting destination.

The interior is a bit dark, but contributes to the southern bayou theme.

There is an elevator to the observation platform that is the tallest unsupported elevator in the US.

Hotel rooms are tucked around the structure on the second floor.

Our dinner destination was Central BBQ, just south of downtown Memphis.

Central has consistently ranked among the best Smokin Joints in the city, and a slab for two and some sweet tea showed us why.

Fall off the bone delicious!

Outside, and a short block walk from Central, the infamous Lorraine motel has been converted to a Civil Rights museum.

The museum was closed as it was after five pm, but it was sobering to visit the site of the assassination of Dr Martin Luther King.

Back “home”, we relaxed while watching clouds and the Big Muddy! Mesmerizing!

Next stop:

Tunica, Mississippi’s gambling mecca, is about 50 miles south of Memphis, and is on the banks of the Mississippi, so we thought we’d take a drive to see what a large portion of the Mississippi delta looks like.

Much the same….so we took off for:

Memphis Barbecue Company in Southhaven, Mississippi, to sample the ribs. MBC also has a reputation for excellent barbecue, so we had to try it out.

Again we ordered a slab for two, and it came with large portions of our choice of sides. We chose red beans and rice, along with sour cream based potato salad. And they threw in corn bread and a bag of pork rinds. Delicious!

Unfortunately, we were so hungry, and the muddy ribs tasted so good, that I failed to get a “before” picture, but did get a shot of the damage…

The dry rub used was a vinegar, salt and brown sugar mixture and smoked in a charcoal smoker for at least 5 hours, giving the bark a definite barbecue flavor. We asked for a slab that had BBQ sauce added prior to smoking…..”muddy”, and that was a nice touch to the meat. In comparison to Central? MBC had more flavor but Central was more tender. There are thousands of Smoke Joints here. We may need to stay a bit longer…

And the third restaurant in our informal tour of BBQ places in Memphis? Charlie Vergos Rendezvous. This is perhaps the most well known of the places we’ve visited, probably because it’s just a few steps away from the famous Peabody Hotel in downtown Memphis. The Peabody is home to the most pampered ducks in the world, with these feathered celebrities literally getting red carpet treatment twice a day as they are escorted from their climate controlled home on the roof of the hotel to the large fountain in the main lobby. In any case, the Rendezvous is a famous rib joint and we needed to check it out.

Rendezvous is located in a basement in Charlie Vergos’ Alley, where the interior is decorated with a lifetime of eclectic collections.

Charlie opened the restaurant in 1948 in the street level building above, but when he learned about a coal chute in the basement, he moved the smoker downstairs and used the chute as an exhaust pipe! Still family owned, the Ren still serves a full menu of smoked deliciousness.

As we did in our other two restaurants, we ordered a slab for two. It came with baked beans and a unique potato salad made with mustard and vinegar. Both were delicious!

The Rendezvous serves only dry BBQ, but they offer sauces as desired. The dry rub is well done and provides a great bark on the ribs, but the meat didn’t fall off the bone as we expected. The taste is perfect, so who cares if you get your fingers, nose, and occasionally an eyebrow messy eating off the bone? The combination of side dishes and unexpectedly delicious dry rub made this meal a winner!

We had earlier scored a parking spot on one of Memphis’ most famous streets. I say scored because the public parking garages in downtown have a reputation for theft and unscrupulous business practices, putting a tire boot on a car just half onto the parking stall white line and demanding $50 cash for removal! We also found out the only time option was $32 for 12 hours! A bit steep for a dinner date!

So who’s the winner, winner, chicken dinner?

Of course, it’s all of them!

Central was the most tender, Memphis had an unusual flavor, and the Rendezvous had flavor and atmosphere. Take your pick….

Next time you’re in Memphis, go to Grace Land and then have a slab o’bones! You’ll be happy!