Heartland Rally, Sunday June 15, 2008

Today is the past day of the Heartland rally in Branson. We got up and went down to the rally hall for our free breakfast, furnished by Heartland. It was a nice way to end the rally. We sat around and visited with some friends that we had met and talked to some of those that stayed with us.

We stayed around the park until around 11 o'clock and decided to drive around to some of the other RV parks in Branson. I wanted to go over to the ABC campground for two reasons; one to check it out for future reference for another trip into Branson and two, to try to find Howard and Linda Payne, some full-timing friends that we met a couple of years ago. They are a very interesting couple, having started full timing with no idea of what they were getting into. They started out with no experience as an RV'er and have done very well for themselves. They actually bought their 39' fifth wheel trailer without having a truck to get it home. Luckily they had ordered a new trailer and were able to order a truck too, which came in just before their trailer did, so it all worked out.Their website, www.rv-dreams.com is a very interesting read and I have kept up with them since meeting them at Thanksgiving, 2005 at Rayford. My friends Ted and Donna Rogers had found Howard and Linda's site and had been in touch with them and invited them to Rayford when the Boomers were having a gathering there. Linda and I sang karaoke one night at Rayford and I must say, she's got a much better voice than I do.....

We drove around and saw some of the other RV parks in and around Branson including the Tablerock State Park. The state park was okay, but some of the sites were under water because the lake was very high, probably because of all the rain upstream. They are typical state park sites with water and electricity but I'm not certain about sewer hookups. I could still stay there!

We returned to the sign man's store to get a small sign for Cassie. We had gotten one for all of the boys but had forgotten to get one for her. Her sign is in the shape of a dogbone and is very cute. We also had the guy add hooks onto the boy's tags so we can add them when they are with us and bought a metal frame that we can stick in the ground instead of hanging on the front of the fifth wheel hitch. It looks a little homier that way and when we are parked for a long time, it will become some more of our "yard art".

The first arrivals for the rally had gone to a famous restaurant in branson called Lambert's Throwed Rolls. Actually it's about 35 miles outside of Branson in another little town, so we decided to find one in town so we didn't have to drive. We found the Falls Creek restaurant thats about a mile from the park. We invited our friends Tom and Judy Atkinson and Jim and Sheila Gratz to go along with us. This place also features the "throwed rolls" which consists of a guy that comes around with hot yeast rolls just out of the oven who throws them to you at your table. We all had the chicken fried steak for Father's Day. This was a tradition for Ricky and Dee, so we just followed along.

We returned to the park for Jim and Sheila and Tom and Judy to go to a show featuring Six which is a group of six brothers who make music with no instruments, only their voices for instruments. We were told that it was a good show, but we didn't feel like going. The four of us went back to our trailers and sat outside talking and visiting.