Travel log 4

We picked up a car in Austin and drove North.
(A Hyundai Sonata. The XM radio is really nice on super long trips.)
The urban driving and an hour of freeway was about all I wanted of crowded, fast and sterile. We turned right at Waco and headed into the great tangle of small rural highways.
Ahhh! Much nicer!
Much better feel for the countryside and the people.

Around dark, we started calling local bed and breakfast listings. The first one explained that her husband did the gourmet cooking and was out of town, so the breakfast wouldn't be its normal splendor. Then she explained that the best room was the loft and she would have to go vacuum out the infestation of lady bugs that congregate there daily. That sounded interesting, so we stayed there.

Saturday was quite a day. We had breakfast in Athens and Lunch in Paris. (Paris is where Lynn's biological father was born, so we toured the local museum to get a feel for the times and place where he was raised.)
In the afternoon we drove through mountains and national parks in Oklahoma, ending up in Forth Smith Arkansas.
The same winter storm that just went through Minnesota extended all the way to South Texas. It was cold and icy all around us. We had to put on our coats, but I keep wearing my sandals without socks. (Hey, It helps prove we are from Minnesota.)

Sunday we took more back road hill country. Nightfall found us in Branson Missouri.
Branson is like the clean midwest version of Las Vegas. It has countless theaters and shows and other tourist attractions. The first thing I noticed is that little country roads suddenly turn into big freeways as they get close to Branson.
Branson's population (in the 2000 census) is about 6,000 people, but it has about 40,000 hotel rooms.
The first thing we found out is that most of them are empty. We are a bit early in the season, so we kind of have the whole place to ourselves. Pools and hot tubs and exercise rooms are all ours. The butterfly palace was all ours. (That was very nice.) Hotels are cheap and restaurants are happy to serve us.
It took us a while, but we finally found a really pleasant hotel, Hotel grand Victorian. It is sooo much nicer than the others. I really wish we had found it a couple days sooner.

They serve afternoon tea here.
Then on to more exercise, sleep and shows, for tomorrow we travel north.