Great time in Branson!

Oh! We had a great time in Branson. We met my friend, Martin, and his family at the World's Largest McDonald's in Vinita, OK, then drove to Lambert's Restaurant, just outside of Springfield. (Jacob, we thought of you when we passed through your hometown!) This was my first time to go to Lambert's and I wasn't too sure that I felt like waiting an hour for a table. After all, this is Missouri, not Hong Kong!

Anyway, it really was worth the wait. The food was good and there was lots of it. The wait staff were great and friendly and we all had a great time. Martin got us reservations at the Windmill Inn in Branson, right on Hwy 76, across from Wal-Mart and right next door to the Tanger Outlet Center and Krispy Kreme! The hotel was adequate, but their continental breakfast left a lot to be desired.

Just as we were about to leave for Silver Dollar City, the TV announced that there were several tornado warnings in the area, one of which was one the ground not too far from Lambert's! We kept an eye on the sky and decided to go to SDC anyway. We faced a barrage of traffic leaving the park as we were trying to make our way there. Just as we arrived in the parking lot, the skies opened up. There was a great deluge and a terrific lightening show. This simply made more people leave.

Unfortunately, the lightening shut down all the rides and cancelled all the shows. We decided to walk around a little bit, as the rain had stopped after a short while. After a little bit, they opened the rides up again. The kids ended up having a great time and we even got to see the last show of the day in the SDC amphitheater. The show was OK, but the girls REALLY enjoyed it. We got home really late after the show, but Martin had promised to take the girls swimming. They finished at 10:30 pm and, since we hadn't had dinner yet, decided to order Dominos. It took them an hour to deliver it and we went to bed around midnight. We were really worn out.

Sunday morning, we decided to go to a "service" at the Jim Stafford theater. It was Tim Hill and the Church of Acts. It wasn't a Baptist service, that's for sure, Tim ended up having a very good message. At the end of the service, he said that Jim Stafford said that everyone who attended church that morning could "trade in" their bulletin for tickets to a taping of a new TV show that Jim is launching, called "Knuckleheads". The tickets to the show were selling for $39 each, but we got ours for free. We went to the show at 3 pm, and it was simply marvelous! We saw Mickey Gilley and Brett Owens along with a host of other comedians. The girls absolutely loved it. Martin and I ended up laughing so hard our sides hurt. After the show, which let out at about 6 pm, we went to one of the big outlet malls (not Tanger) to look around for a while. Martin then guided us to a pretty good Mexican restaurant where we had supper. Pretty good stuff, but we were still full from lunch. However, Martin's oldest daughter, Lacey, wanted to go to Maggie Moo's for ice cream. Again, we didn't get home until late.

This morning, we had breakfast at Peppercorn's, which was next door to our hotel. Then we headed over to KK to get a free one, since the 'hot' light was on. We said our goodbyes, then hit the road. I got a call a little later from Martin. He said that they decided to go back to SDC and that they were going to spend another night. Egads, Martin!

I really had a good time with my best friend. This is the first time we ahve seen them since we have been back from HK. We've been friends since Kindergarten. Thank the Lord for good friends.