Happy Birthday Jamie, our little Supergirl!!
What a complete contrast today was to yesterday.
Glorious sunshine, clear blue skies and a welcome breeze keeping us to a perfect mid 70’s temperature.
We started off with a mad dash at 8 of the clock to the town of Branson, to get to the Branson Scenic Railroad by 9. We made it, of course, with Captain Throwing Caution To The Wind in the driving department, and boarded the train. What a nostalgic experience, especially for Marlipops.
There were two diesel engines and both were built for Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, one in 1951, and one in 1964.
This is very significant, as I will explain to my non American readers.
Marlipops’ Dad worked for many, many years for B&O Railroad, in charge of all the passenger travel. So, memories galore for the Marl, since the coaches we were in today were all old, original, restored from the 40’s and 50’s, and The Marl used to travel all over the place with her dad and the rest of her family. Apparently they used to sleep in the berths, and Melinda used to throw up a lot. The rest rooms as well as all the coaches we saw today were identical to those that Marlipops remembers, and she had a moment or two, with flashbacks.
Quite emotional.
The ride we took was a 40 mile there and back, through a couple of tunnels trip, and there was even a scenic coach, with the bubble roof so we could see ahead and behind, over the top of the other coaches. I was tempted to climb out of the window and walk along the tops, but I was not allowed.
Then, into Branson.
A pleasant little town with a Las Vegas problem.
There is a Strip, with mile after mile of clubs, and theatres and show places and food places and churches. It is a mini Vegas, without the casinos. Great for families and elderly people who like crowds and organized fun and that kind of stuff.
There was a wonderful little old fashioned candy store, with all the sweets in glass jars, and stuff like sweet cigarettes, even with the red tips, and candy lipsticks, liquorice pinwheels, and all sorts of old time candies. They even had some tiny beer bottles above the counter, which were the size of liquor miniatures. Never seen those before.
Enough said, we had lunch. Well, Marlipops had soup and a salad, I had some indescribable meat plastered with salty barbecue sauce, and fries. To make matters worse, the smiley, smarmy waitress kept asking if everything was alright, and the answer of
“ Extremely average” went straight over her head.
Anyway, we left the café and found “Dick’s Old Time 5 & 10” right next door.
We could have stayed in here all day. This was an old fashioned 5 and dime store, which was humungous. It went back and back and back, and had everything imaginable. Marbles, Pick up Stix, Plasticine, Etch a Sketch, Mr. Beard ( You remember, the face and iron filings and a hand held magnetic wand you drew a beard with the filings!!)
They had literally millions of things, that you could not find anywhere else. They even had those little cardboard dolls that you cut out the clothes for, and hung on the dolls with two little tabs. Absolutely fascinating. We bought some Pick Up Stix and some Tiddly Winks. This place was 100% nostalgia, and packed with people.
We left Branson, and went back to the coach, quickly got changed and went 100 yards to the lake, and rented a pontoon boat.
We piddled about on Table Rock Lake for a couple of hours, really cool, coz not many other boats about, a freshish breeze blowing, and sunbathing weather.
We were about to report a zippo wildlife watch but the following occurred.
Next door neighbor camper type person came out to feed the gooses, and seven ducks waddled up from the lake, and were fed as well. Then, a flock of twenty six Canada Gooses turned up to be fed, one of them chased off the ducks, and in turn, one of the gooses chased off all the Canada gooses!
Was very interesting to watch.
A really great, great day today.
