Took off for Branson via Poplar Bluff and Camelot RV Campground. Nice place close to the highway for a one night stop. Hilly but my site was fairly level and very long. The drive there was easy and pretty.
Heading into Branson, be ready for steep hill driving. Even without the trailer attached, the hills of Branson make driving a challenge. Everything inside the car slides here and there. Per everyone I have spoken to who has been there, I avoided taking the trailer through downtown. It is no place for RVs. I stayed on the 65 past the Escapees park, Turkey Creek, in Hollister then got off and came back up to it. Like all Escapees parks, I was met with hugs and how-do-you-dos. They gave me a great spot near the front so I was close to the wifi which is provided by Tengo for a charge. My new aircard I bought off Ebay to replace my dead card was to arrive the next day care of general delivery. The park is right on a creek that runs into the nearby lake and has a boat ramp. In the clubhouse is tons of brochures on everything you could possibly want to see while there and the park gave me some free tickets and discount coupons for some shows. They served a nice pork chop dinner one night with the most excellent pudding and also got one of the Branson Mall entertainers to come in one night to sing the songs of Elvis, Frank Sinatra, Englebert Humperdink, etc. He was pretty good. The park also provides cable TV and a jam session one night a week.
The first thing I did after arriving and setting up camp, was run up the 76 through town to the Titanic museum. They gave me a boarding pass of someone who was on Titanic which included the name and background of that person. At the end of the tour we would find out if we lived or died. They have a big sheet of ice you can touch on the way in to set the mood. Inside they have lots of pictures of the building of the ship, original plans, items from the ship, and info on life aboard for the different classes. The ships bridge was well done and stepping out onto the deck you can feel the cold of that night. Sit in the life boats and feel how large they were though most were launched half-empty and listen to the talk of the panicked crew and passengers. Many passengers refused to get in the boats because they honestly believed the hype that the ship was unsinkable and thought the captain was just being too cautious. It was very cool standing on the grand staircase though they didn’t allow picture taking in the museum so no pictures of it. The outside of the museum is very well done and you can control a camera on the web to view it at http://www.titanicbranson.com/titanic_webcam.php . And good news! I was a first-class passenger who did survive.
Last year they taught me Mexican Trains. This year they taught me Pokeno and they have an active Skipbo group going. The puzzle table is still quite active too. Of course, I did a little geocaching in the area too which has a LOT of caches including one .4 miles from the park that kept winking at me and daring me on my GPS.
Beauville is smaller but also a very good fleamarket. Parking at Beauville is free while Webster charges $2-$3 for parking. Be prepared for traffic jams long before reaching either market. Both are open on Mondays only from around 8am-2pm.
