Living Our Dream

Branson, MO Part II: "How High's the Water, Momma?"

After we left Ripley's Believe It or Not museum, J. Michael wanted to stop at Peter Engler Designs. Peter Engler is a woodcarver, and he has a shop in the Grand Village Shops along the main drag in Branson. The shop features wood carvings, pottery and miscellaneous items by over 200 crafters.

J. Michael is interested in getting started in whittling. He even got a starting carving kit for Christmas from his sister, so he thought Peter Engler's shop might be a good place so see some examples of various types of carving.

We certainly weren't disappointed. Peter Engler was there working, and we enjoyed watching him as he carved Santa ornaments. Like most people who are passionate about their interests, Peter was more than willing to share information and to answer J. Michael's questions.

As we said, the work of over 200 crafters is represented in the shop. There were small items like decorative wood bookmarks and key chains, and there were larger items like turned bowls, wooden lamps (including translucent wood shades), abstract carvings and life-size wood sculptures. Paul enjoyed some of the larger pieces.

In addition to finished products, the shop also sells basswood carving and turning blanks, carving chisels and "how-to" CDs. We spent well over an hour in the shop looking at everything and talking to Peter.

After visiting Peter Engler Designs, Lora and J. Michael headed back to their room to rest and get ready for some evening activities that were planned for the wedding party (Lora was Heather's matron of honor), and we went back to the motor home.

It was raining quite heavily that day, and it had done so since about 10:00 PM the night before. The Escapees Turkey Creek Campground gets it's name from the fact it is located right on Turkey Creek. The creek was a little high when we arrived due to previous wet weather, and the base of some of the trees along the banks were standing in the water.

We watched the creek slowly rise before we left to meet Lora and J. Michael. When we returned around 3:00 PM, the creek was up over the banks and the lower road of the campground was underwater. By this time, it had stopped raining, but the water was still slowly rising.

We kept our eye on the water level, and by 5:00 there were ducks swimming on the site next to us.

Although it looked like the increase in water level was slowing, it was going to be dark soon, and we didn't want to worry about the water level all night. We were pretty sure it wouldn't get high enough to flood the motor home, but we didn't want to take a chance on having to step out the door in the morning into a foot of water. Therefore, we decided it was time to move.

 We were only moving two sites away so we didn't have to pack up everything. We didn't even put the satellite dish down. We unhooked our sewer and water hoses, hand carried them to the new site, then we pulled in the slides and raised the jacks. By the time we were ready to move, this was how close the water was.

And this was the view out the door.

After we moved, the water level increased only a slight additional amount. The water never got up onto the gravel pad on our previous site, and by morning it had completely receded back to the level it was when we first arrived. We're still glad we moved because as you can see in the photo above, the area at the bottom of our steps was a low spot and we would have ended up with about 6 inches of water there. We figured that area would have taken several days to dry out, assuming it didn't rain again.

We still have the wedding to look forward to, as well as the likelihood of some drier adventures, so stay tuned.

 

Branson, MO Part I: Ripley's Believe It or Not

As we said in our last post, we were in Branson for the wedding of our daughter Lora's best friend and former apartment-mate Heather. Lora and J. Michael arrived in Branson shortly after we did, and after they got settled in their room, they stopped by the motorhome for a while to say hello. It was good to see them again and to get in some nice long hugs.

The next morning we had a free day before the wedding activities started, so Lora and J. Michael invited us to go with them to Ripley's Believe It or Not Museum. Ripley's has museums in cities all across the United States and in about a dozen foreign countries. Many of the museums have a unique appearance like the one in Branson that is designed to look like a building that has been damaged by an earthquake.

Robert Ripley was born in California in 1890. In his early career he was a fairly successful cartoonist specializing in sports cartoons. Money he earned selling his cartoons enabled him to begin traveling, and Ripley became a world adventurer and explorer visiting places most Americans didn't even know existed.

Ripley, who was rather eccentric, took an interest in the unusual and bizarre, and he used his drawing talent to illustrate many of the bizarre things he discovered. In 1929, William Randolph Hearst published the first of the "Believe It or Not" illustrated panels in 17 newspapers worldwide. The series was immensely popular, and in the 1930s Ripley was one of the most famous people in the world.

Ripley opened his first museum, called the Odditoruim, in 1931  in Chicago. Within a decade he had Odditoriums in 5 other cities. Ripley died in 1949 at age 55, but his legacy and museums live on. The museums are now operated by Ripley Entertainment, and they display thousands of artifacts and oddities from around the world.

Upon entering the museum, we were greeted by a collection of sculptures made from matchsticks and toothpicks. The 4-foot tall cowboy to the right is made from over 27,000 matchsticks, and the barn and corn crib to the left are made from over 10,000 matchsticks.

The next photo shows some examples of "stamp paintings" that were created by using strips and pieces of variously-colored postage stamps.

 

There was a room that specialized in optical illusions. One of the more interesting ones was a three-dimensional gem that looked it was right there inside the mouth of the figure on the wall. But no matter how far in you reached, you couldn't touch it.

The limo in the next photo is 30 feet long, has 6 wheels and features a heart-shaped Jacuzzi. On the wall behind the limo are thousands of nail aprons collected lumber yards and hardware stores from all around the United States. The four of us tried to find one from 84 Lumber to no avail. There were just too many.

Included in the hundreds of oddities in the museum was this rare, fur-bearing trout. The sign said the fish was from Lake Superior, and it said the great depth of the lake and the penetrating cold must have caused some of the fish to grow a dense coat of fur.

Of course, you also had to read the other sign that said the fish was a hoax. The fish was displayed in the National Museum of Scotland as an authentic species of Canadian trout until the 1930s when Robert Ripley proved it to be a hoax when he discovered a backwoods taxidermist making a living attaching rabbit fur to brook trout.

The pearl in the next photo, however, is real. It is said to be the world's largest weighing over 14 pounds.

 

After checking out so many oddities, J. Micheal tried to discern the significance of this fire extinguisher. It's only claim to fame seems to be that it can put out fires.

The museum had a very beautiful display of mounted butterflies that extended around a small room and even into the rest rooms. Lora and Margery checked some of them out.

The next photo shows just how beautiful the luminescent wings of the butterflies are.

There were lots of other things to see in the museum, but we don't have room to show them all. There were things like a whimsical vacuum cleaner from the movie "Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang," a full-size compact car carved entirely from wood, an 8 or 10 foot long Chinese boat carved from jade and a picture of Mary Poppins made from jelly beans. And of course, we'll spare you from pictures of the shrunken head or the decorative items made from human bones.

There is one more item that was near the end of the museum tour we did want to show. Ripley's museum in Branson has what is claimed to be the world's largest string ball. It is over 13 feet in diameter and weighs over 12,000 pounds. It's so big, it sags under it's own weight and has become flattened on the bottom.

There are other balls of twine that claim to be the largest, but this one seems to have them beat. Some of the others are heavier, or maybe other claims for the largest are based on the fact they used more linear feet of twine. The one at Ripley's, however, is certified largest by the Guinness Book of World Records.
 

Well, that about does it for Ripley's. We have more to report, so look for our next post.

 

 

 

On the Road Again

First of all, we would like to thank all our friends and readers who expressed their condolences about the loss of our sweet dog, Molly. She was such a good traveler, and we'll miss her.

After delaying our departure from Bushnell, we finally hit the road on Thursday. We made an overnight stop at Pine Lake RV, a Passport America campground near Fountain, FL, in the panhandle. In other years after leaving Bushnell, we stayed at Chattahoochee RV located on the Apalachicola River. Chattahoochee is closer to half-way to our destination in Summerdale, AL; but last year, the river was flooded and some of the sites at the campground had recently been underwater. With more rain this year, we thought we would just drive a little farther and try a new campground that wasn't located near a river. The next photo shows our site at Pine Lake RV.

Pine Lake RV is located about 16 miles from the interstate, but there is still some highway noise from four-lane U. S. Highway 231 that passes by the campground on the way to Panama City. There is a railroad track a few hundred feet on the other side of the highway. Fortunately, there were very few trains because the rumble of the few that did pass was very loud. Fortunately, there is no crossing near the campground so there were only a few, distant toots of the train horns.

The roads through the campground are paved, but the pavement is quite narrow. The sites are a combination of grass and sand, and most are extra-long pull-throughs. The site width isn't too bad for a private campground. Pine Lake has full hook-ups with free Wi-Fi. Some sites have 30 amp electric and some have 50 amp. As you can see from the above photo, there are a few trees, but the office was very accommodating in allowing us to move to another site to get satellite reception. In the first site they gave us we could get internet, but not TV. They are on two different satellites, and a tree branch was blocking the TV signal.

In the morning we hit the road at 8:30, which is a little earlier than usual. We pulled into Rainbow Plantation in Summerdale, AL, shortly after noon. It was a good thing we got an early start because we got the last available site. A lot of Escepees spend the winter in Summerdale; and although some had moved on, others (like us) were stopping on our way north from Florida.

Rainbow Plantation is one of our favorite Escapees RV parks. The roads are paved, and the sites are a combination of grass and sand. There are full hook-ups and free Wi-Fi. Fifty-amp electric is available for an extra charge. Sites are nice and wide, and the campground is quiet.

One of the things we like about the Summerdale area is there are lots of things to do and see. Even though our visit to Summerdale was shortened because we extended our stay in Bushnell, we still wanted to see the azaleas blooming at Bellingrath Gardens over in Mobile. Bellingrath is famous for the over 250,000 azaleas that normally bloom around the middle two weeks of March. Unfortunately, when we checked the Bellingrath web site, we found out the unusually cold weather this winter had delayed the blooming by about two weeks. This delay was confirmed by observing the azaleas in people's yards in the area. Only about a third of the blossoms on most of the plants open, and it looked like the azaleas still had at least a week to 10 days to go before they even neared their peak. Therefore, we decided to save seeing azaleas for another time.

One of the other things we like about the Summerdale area is the close proximity to the Gulf of Mexico which means there is a lot of delicious seafood available. Last fall when we were in the area we discovered Shrimp Basket restaurants. Shrimp Basket is a chain of about a dozen restaurants with one in nearby Foley. Paul was hungry for fried shrimp, and the Shrimp Basket has all-you-can-eat shrimp baskets on Wednesdays and Sundays, so we headed down to Foley on Sunday.

 

After spending the weekend at Rainbow Plantation, we hit the road again on Monday. We were heading to Branson, MO, for the wedding of Heather, who is our daughter Lora's best friend and former roommate. We were friends with Heather's parents from our former church back in Pittsburgh, and we were pleased to have been invited to participate in the festivities.

With extending our stay back in Bushnell, our recent travels were a bit less leisurely than normal. We usually plan to travel no more than four hours a day, but this time, we would be traveling 5+ hours a day for a couple of days in a row. Our next overnight stop was at Movietown RV Park in Canton, MS, a little north of Jackson.

Movietown RV is a nice RV park. It has gravel roads and pads with full hookups and 50/30 amp electric. Sites are mostly pull-throughs and are fairly wide with grass between. Even though the campground is conveniently located near the interstate, there is surprisingly little traffic noise - and there are NO trains!

Apparently, the name of the RV park comes from the fact that quite a few movies have been filmed in the Canton area. Canton even has a movie office and a couple of movie museums. Maybe we'll go back some day for a longer visit, especially now that we know a good place to stay.

From Canton, we drove north to Little Rock, AR, in another 5+ hour travel day. We stayed at Maumelle Park north of the city last fall when we met up with our friends Marilyn and Alan. Since that time, Alan took a voluntary layoff when he found out the company he worked for was planning a cut-back, they sold their house, and they are now full-timers.

Maumelle Park is a Corps of Engineers campground located along the Arkansas River. The campground has paved roads and pads and gravel patios. There are water and electric hookups (30 amp) only. As with most COE campgrounds, sites are very generously spaced. The photo below shows our site at Maumelle Park.

We didn't make reservations because we were uncertain about our arrival date and because we thought the campground would be empty in the middle of the week in March. Boy, were we surprised when we arrived and found the campground was almost full! It looked like a lot of families were spending the week at the campground, so we're guessing we hit spring break for the Arkansas schools. There were also some college kids on spring break, and we're pleased to report the group tenting on the site next to us were very well behaved. The next photo is a view down the road from our site and gives you an idea of how crowded it was.

We normally look for a campground with pull-through sites when we make a one-night stop, but we liked Maumelle so much, it was worth unhooking the toad. Not only that, but Marilyn and Alan took us to Larry's Pizza when we were there last fall. Larry's is a chain of about a dozen restaurants around the Little Rock area, and, fortunately, there is one right down the road from Maumelle Park. They have a lunch buffet every day, but they only have the dinner buffet on Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Luckily for us, we were there on Tuesday, so we had another good reason to unhook the car. The next photo shows Margery loading up at Larry's. Yum!

Here Paul is toasting Alan and Marilyn for introducing us to Larry's.

The next morning, we headed out for an unprecedented third straight travel day. The distance was a little shorter, and we were only on the road for about 3 1/2 hours instead of the 5+ hours we had been doing. We pulled into Escapees Turkey Creek Campground near Branson, MO, a little after noon.

In contrast to Maumelle Park, the campground in Branson was nearly empty. Late spring, summer and fall are the most popular times for Turkey Creek Campground, and we were a little early. But that was OK because some of the sites are also a little small, so we had plenty of elbow room with the campground almost empty.

Turkey Creek has gravel roads and pads, full hook-ups (there is an extra charge for 50 amp electric), free Wi-Fi and cable. Although the temperature was in the 60s when we arrived, we opted to pay extra for a 50 amp site because the weather forecast was calling for rain and falling temperatures so we thought 50 amp would make it easier to do laundry and use the electric heater at the same time. The photo below shows our site at Turkey creek.

We'll be spending a week in Branson, so we'll have time to relax a little between the wedding festivities. We're also looking forward to seeing Lora and J. Michael. We might even come up with some other activities or possibly a good restaurant, so stay tuned.

 

How We  Became Publishers
As many RVers do, we started blogging about our travels as a way to help our friends and family back home follow along in our new adventure. Neither one of us are into writing stream of conscience so it was predictable that over the past four years, the blog has morphed into a travelogue. It is always nice to hear from other travelers about good campgrounds, food, festivals, and sights to see. Therefore, we like to include that kind information along with some 'home improvement projects' and personal news.

We started publishing our blog using Typepad because we thought we would be able to copy the blog to a CD. Not sure where Margery read that, but about a year into blog writing, we found out that was not true.

However, we did find out that it was possible to 'slurp' our blog into a book format and have as many or as few books published as we wanted. That was when we decided to publish a book for each year's of travel. 

Blurb provides a high-quality bookmaking and publishing services for the beginner or the pro. The professional software is a free download, and there is no charge until you're ready to publish your book. Books are published in 7-10 days and start as low as $4.95 in professional, bookstore-quality, printing, binding, and covers.

Full color books are available in five sizes. You can use one of their 12 templates with step-by-step guidance, or you can skip the BookSmart guidance and design your own. Some of the templates include books featuring photos, recipes, poetry, yearbooks, and of course blogs to book.

There many ways to customize the look of your book. For instance, we chose a slightly larger print for the copy so that it'll be easy to read as we get older. You also have a variety of fonts, backgrounds, and themes to use, if you wish. The photo below gives you an idea of how your book would look while you are creating/ editing your book. You can also view a single page or as a two-page spread.

This past week our published book of our first year arrived, and we found it stunning!

With all the blog entries and pictures, it was 204 pages. We chose a hardcover with a book jacket which we designed.

Although we do not expect anyone to purchase it, we did make it public so that it can be previewed at the Blurb Bookstore. On the right sidebar of the bookstore page, there are a variety of categories of books that you can peruse. It's a hotbed of ideas for designing your own book.

Because our book is public, we had the opportunity to write something about the book. Here's our description: 

How did a couple of stick-in-the-muds make the decision to disengage from their lives as they knew it and begin to explore our great country as full-time RVers?

There were a lot of things to consider and a dizzying number of decisions that had to be made... and that didn't even include where we wanted to go first!

This book includes blog entries describing our experiences accompanied by a lot of photos of our travels. It concludes with an honest assessment of our first year of life on the road and the decisions we made.

We both feel that publishing our book has been worth the time, effort, and cost. Some day we'll be rockin' away browsing through our books re-living this wonderful time in our lives. Margery has begun editing book two, but it will take a while.

Before we left Bushnell, we stopped back at Coyote Rojo Mexican restaurant. This time Margery had a fajita steak taco salad, and Paul had a fajita steak burrito. Both were delish!

We were scheduled to leave Bushnell Wednesday morning. However, when we got up we realized that our English Springer Spaniel, Molly, was not doing well. We had noticed a distinct deterioration in her quality of life the past couple of weeks, but the past two days she had worsened. After an emergency visit to a local vet, we decided it was time to let her go peacefully. We loved on her while the sedative took effect, and she was no longer aware we were there.

We had almost 16 years with her. She was a great traveler and  loved going with her pack wherever we went. She particularly loved all the smells she encountered on our travels the past four years. She was a great companion with her unique quirks, and she will be sorely missed. Margery has posted some of our favorite pictures in a Facebook photo album.

We delayed our departure, and will now pull out on Thursday for points west. We look forward to sharing with you what we discover.

Homosassa Springs, FL

Since our friends, Barbara and Dick, were only staying a few days, we headed out the very next morning on our second sightseeing excursion. Our destination was Homosassa Springs Wildlife State Park in Homosassa Springs, FL. Homosassa Springs is located near the Gulf of Mexico about 45 minutes west of Bushnell. 

The Floridian Aquifer, which covers approximately 100,000 square miles, extends from the southern tip of Florida as far north as southern South Carolina and along the Gulf of Mexico as far west as southern Mississippi. The aquifer is contained in layers of porous carbonate rock and is the water supply for millions of Floridians.

The aquifer is also responsible for Florida's many springs. Florida has 17 springs that produce at least 65 million gallons of water a day. Homosassa Springs produces an average of 109 million gallons a day while Silver Springs to the north of Bushnell is the largest in Florida producing an average daily flow of about 5 times that much.

Homosassa Springs Wildlife Park has two entrances. The east entrance is the main entrance, and since it is located on busy U. S. Route 19, it is easier to find. The west entrance is a short distance away on State Route 490A. You can park your car and enter the park at the west entrance, but you'll miss the pontoon boat ride down Pepper Creek from the east entrance.

 

The boat ride provides wildlife viewing opportunities. Because it was cold the morning we were there, there wasn't much wildlife activity. However, we did see a pair of wood ducks, one small turtle sunning itself on a log, a pair of osprey nesting in a tree, and a bald eagle flying high overhead. The only thing on the boat ride we were able to get a good photo of was a great egret. Fortunately, these elegant birds are now quite common in the south even though they were once hunted to near extinction because their feathers were used for ladies' hats.

 

 

The wildlife park at Homosassa Springs originally opened in the 1960s as a roadside animal attraction featuring exotic animals from around the world. The state of Florida bought the portion of the land around the spring in 1989 and converted the roadside attraction to a wildlife rehabilitation and educational facility. All but one of the exotic animals from the original animal attraction were moved to new homes (more about that later). With the exception of that one animal, the park now has only species native to Florida.

The park nurses injured animals back to health with the goal of returning them to the wild. If it's not possible to return the animals to wild either because they are too badly injured or because they have been raised in captivity and can no longer fend for themselves, they are allowed to live out their days at the park.

 

The west entrance is located at the head spring of the Homosassa River. We were greeted by a fountain depicting manatees.

 

 

Like most of the springs in Florida, Homosassa Springs flows at a constant temperature of about 72 degrees which attracts manatees in winter. As we learned when we went to Blue Springs earlier this year, manatees can't survive in water temperatures below 60 degrees. Click here to read about our visit to Blue Springs. By the way, Blue Springs has a flow of about 100 million gallons of water a day.

 Although there are many wild manatees in the Homosassa River this time of year, the area in the immediate vicinity of the spring itself is fenced off and currently contains six manatees that live at the spring year-round. The photo below shows two of them.

There is an underwater viewing area located right over the spring boil. You can go below the water level and watch the manatees through the windows. You can also see large numbers of fish like these sheepsheads.

The sheepshead, like most of the other fish at the spring, are saltwater fish. It is not known why they venture into the freshwater spring.

As we exited the underwater viewing area, we decided it was Margery's turn for the silly tourist photo.

The next stop along the walkway around the park was at the alligator pool. We learned alligators' metabolism slows in cool weather to the point where they do not eat at all in winter.

Adjacent to the alligator pool is the pool where Lu the African hippopotamus lives. Lu is the only non-native animal remaining from the original roadside animal attraction. Lu was an aspiring actor in his younger years, and was featured in the 1962 John Wayne movie Hatari. Lu, who is now 50 years old, has been at the park since 1964. Because he was so popular and because it was difficult to find a home for a 6,000 pound hippo, Lu was allowed to stay and will live out his days at the park. He was declared an honorary citizen of Florida in 1992.

We got to Lu's area just in time for his lunchtime snack. Lu is fed mostly melons for his snack.

Lu eventually grew tired of being gawked at, and he lay back down to continue his nap (hippos are nocturnal). So we continued on our way along the path through the park.

The park has a large lagoon where the waterfowl reside. We saw a pair of blue herrons nesting in one of the trees overhanging the lagoon.

These blue herrons are among the many wild, non-injured birds that call the park home. The park volunteer told us any bird that can fly isn't an "official" resident of the park. The wild birds are attracted to the park by the easy availability of food.

In and around the lagoon are sandhill cranes...

...turtles...

...white ibis...

 

...and other waterfowl including brown pelicans, white pelicans, swans and flamingos.

The color of a flamingo is dependent on its diet. A diet higher in beta carotene and certain beneficial bacteria will result in a brighter color. A well-fed, healthy flamingo will be more brightly colored and will be more attractive to a mate. In captivity, flamingos tend to have a paler color unless shrimp or other supplements are added to their diet.

While the ibis can poke its curved beak down into the rocks and mud on the bottom to look for food, the flamingo stirs the mud with its webbed feet then uses its hooked beak to graze along the bottom with its head almost upside down.

Some of the larger mammals at the park are a black bear, a bobcat, several red fox, several red wolves, and two Florida panthers. Unfortunately, we could only catch glimpses of most of them because their habitats provide cover for them similar to what they would have in the wild. It was difficult to get good photos, but we did catch a good shot of the female panther just before she got up and went behind a rock.

Unfortunately, the river otter exhibit at the far end of the park was closed for renovation, but we went into the reptile house - mostly because it was warm which felt good on a cool, breezy day. There were numerous examples of Florida snakes, both poisonous and non-poisonous, including the pygmy rattle snake shown in the photo below.

The park also has several birds of prey including the barred owl to the left in the composite photo below and the great horned owl to the right.

 

While it's always a thrill to see animals and birds in the wild, it's also fun to be able to see them close up like we were able to do at the wildlife park. We have seen a few bald eagles in the wild, including one flying high above on our way into the park, but the one in the next photo was only about 25 feet away.

We were all pretty cold by the time we left the park. The sun was out, but the park has a lot of shade, and it was windy with the temperature in the low 50s. We decided to take the tram back to the east entrance rather than the boat because the tram would get us back to the car faster.

The next morning, Barbara and Dick left for their next stop a little farther south in Florida. We extended our stay in Bushnell by a week to allow the temperatures to the north to warm up a little more. We'll be starting to prepare for hitting the road again - you know, cleaning out the storage bays, getting the oil changed in the car, checking the air pressure in the motor home tires, etc. But maybe we'll have time to squeeze in some more sightseeing before we leave, so look for our next post.