April 14 - April 18, 2019 - Branson, MO

Sunday, April 14 - Saturday, April 18, 2019 - Branson, MO

Sunday, April 14, 2019 - We arrived at Treasure Lake RV Resort this afternoon.  Our friends Joyce and Frank are parked in the next row over from us.  We visited with them for awhile before we went back to get everything set up.  Later, we walked back over to visit with them for awhile.  Frank and Dean decided they would try to get a tee time tomorrow at Thousand Hills; while Joyce and I decided we would go shopping.


Monday, April 15, 2019 - Dean and I walked just over 2 miles this morning before coming back to get ready for our day.  Frank & Dean had a tee time at Thousand Hills for 10:15 or so, and they left the park around 9:30.  Joyce picked me up shortly after that and we headed to Belks at the Branson Landing.  We spent quite a bit of time looking around there.  After all our time there, we each purchased one blouse.  

Our next stop was at Mulberry Mill in Grand Village Shops.  They have wonderful mixes and they always have samples for tasting.  Joyce and I enjoyed several of them and I even chose one to bring home - Pineapple Pecan Chicken Salad.  It was really good so I'm looking forward to making this.  It's rare for me to spend much time just looking at stuff.  I prefer to go to a store, get what I want, and get out.  Today though, I was enjoying looking at some of the items on display.  I noticed a silicone lid on a 9x11 baking dish.  I tried to pick it up and the entire dish came up with it.  I had to read a little more about this.  I was impressed at how the lid worked and bought one.  The one I bought will fit any one of the four different frying and sauce pans I have, which means I can now leave all of those lids at home.  I love saving space!

We peeked in the Sugar Leaf Bakery, a few doors down. Their menu looks wonderful and you should see the cakes.  It might be a place we'll stop in to eat later this week, if the guys play golf again.

Before we left, Joyce checked with Frank to see if they wanted to meet us for lunch.  They still had a few holes to play before they finished.  We agreed to meet at Garfield's on the Landing.  Joyce and I visited several stores including BassPro, a Home Decor store, and a few others before we finally saw the guys walking towards us.  

Dean told me Dr. Anderson's office called him and they had to cancel his appointment for tomorrow, due to a death.  They rescheduled it for April 30.  He and Frank also told us how frustrating it was today, as they had to keep the golf carts on the cart paths, because the course was too wet.  Dean said he had walked almost 5 miles going up and down hills all day since they couldn't drive to their ball.  18 holes would be pretty wearing if you had to walk the "hills" in this part of the country.  Dean was exhausted.

Dean and I have not ate a Garfield's since the one in Joplin closed several years ago.  I had salmon, rice and a mixed vegetable dish.  Dean chose fried catfish but he said it was just okay.  He didn't care for the coating on it.  

After lunch, we drove back to the park to rest for awhile.  Later in the evening, the four of us drove a short distance to a Steak & Shake.  Everyone had burgers except me and I chose a taco salad.  Are you beginning to notice a pattern here - we eat, we eat and then we eat some more.


Tuesday, April 16, 2019 - Dean and I both walked again this morning and once again we made it just over 2 miles before returning to Bentley.  As I mentioned in yesterday's post, our day was now free since Dean's appointment with Dr. Anderson was cancelled.

Frank and Joyce have sold a bedroom set they have in storage and wanted to know if Dean could help him move it to the front of their storage unit and of course he said he would.  We headed to the storage unit where we all worked to get the contents moved around a bit in order to get the bedroom set moved to the front, making it easily accessible when the lady who wants it, arrives to take it home.

Our next stop was at Menard's.  I am still on a quest to find a new toilet seat.  Unfortunately they did not have what we wanted, so we'll check out a few other places while we are here.

From there we moved a short distance to Harter House, where Joyce and I both both a few groceries.  

We stopped at a nearby convenience store to get a bag of ice so we could put the groceries in there while we had lunch at Godfather's Pizza.  We all love this place.  Lots of food for a good price.  It's hard not to eat some of those good comfort foods, like excellent broasted chicken, macaroni & cheese, etc.  Instead, I focused on making a salad from their wonderful salad bar, chose 2 small pieces of pizza, some veggies (mixed vegetables and green beans) and a small bite of each of the two dessert pieces I picked out for Dean.  

Our Escapees group has a casual campout at Mill Creek Campground on Table Rock Lake, so the four of us decided to drive out to visit with them for a couple of hours.  We met 4 new people, two sisters who travel together and a couple from Ponca City.  We had a wonderful time visiting with them.  We look forward to attending the campout in Oklahoma with this group next month.

On the way home I mentioned that after Dean has his test tomorrow, (he has to fast 9 hours before the test), that we are going somewhere to eat breakfast.  We asked Frank and Joyce if they would like to meet us.  We agreed to meet at Grand Country Buffet between 9-9:30 in the morning.


Wednesday, April 16, 2019 - We were up early this morning so we could be at the hospital by 8:30 for what we thought was a CT scan for Dean.  Come to find out he had a sonogram instead.  Tomorrow he will meet with Dr Vorhies, his vascular surgeon.  

Frank and Joyce were waiting for us at Grand Country.  The food is really good here.  I had an omelet, specially made for me.  It was good, except I didn't care for their sausage, as I prefer a milder flavor; but overall the omelet itself was very good.  I had several pieces of fruit and 1/2 a biscuit with apple butter.  I love apple butter.  My Grandma Stapleton always made it.  I think of her every time I have some.  Always a wonderful memory!

After we came back to the campground, Frank checked on tee times; then off he and Dean went again, leaving Joyce and I to shop some more.  We went back to Belk's because I decided I should have purchased a different size top yesterday, and Joyce returned hers.  From there we headed to Kohl's, where I found a nice sweater cardigan for a great price.  Joyce found several things there she liked.

By then we were getting hungry so we headed back to Sugar Leaf Bakery at The Grand Village Shops.  We both chose one of their salads.  Mine was Fig & Apple Harvest.  It was wonderful!  Joyce had an Asian salad, and she really enjoyed hers as well.  I would highly recommend this place to anyone visiting Branson.  They had sandwiches and soups as well.  I would have loved to try one of their desserts.  Oh my!

After we returned, I picked up after the two of us - sometimes you'd think we were kids, did a few dishes from our coffee this morning and Dean's popcorn popper and bowls from last night, did a load of laundry, then went back to working on the blog.

Dean was hungry by the time they returned from golfing.  We visited a bit about our day,  then headed out to find him something to eat.  He ended up eating peach cobbler and ice cream at Cakes & Creams, one of our favorite places.  What a meal - huh?  We drove down the strip, then back to the campground.  


Thursday, April 17, 2019 - It started raining last night and it was still raining this morning.  I did some laundry and made sure everything was done before we ate lunch. We left early so we could stop at Harbor Freight.  We had plenty of time and walked up and down every single aisle looking for "treasures".  We left with a few of them too.  We arrived a little early at the doctor's office, and had to wait a bit before we saw him.  The test results were great so we were both elated.  Dean had surgery to repair an aneurysm and have stents put in the veins going to his legs last June.  Both looked great.  The blood pressure on one leg was at 99% and the other at 101% - the doctor said it couldn't be better than that.  Dean will see him again in a year.

The rain was more of a light sprinkle when we left but it was windy and cold.  We just headed back to Bentley and enjoyed being in the warmth.  I continued working on the blog.

We had planned to have a filet for dinner but Dean didn't want to get the grill out and cook it in this cold, damp weather.  We still had a gift card for Red Lobster that Brett & family got us for Christmas in 2018.  Red Lobster is just across from the entrance to Treasure Lake, so we didn't have to go far.  I was impressed when we walked in - there was no fishy smell at all like I've noticed at other Red Lobster's.  We had a really nice young man wait on us named Garret.  Dean ordered grilled shrimp (on skewers), rice and a baked potato with a side salad.  I really splurged tonight.  They had a 4 course meal for $16.99 - I chose a side salad, bacon & potato soup, my meal was blackened salmon and broccoli, and a dessert of a warm brownie with a scoop of ice cream with caramel and chocolate sauce over it.  I told Dean he had to eat part of it - I almost had to twist his arm off to make him eat some of it - NOT!  I also ate one of their biscuits.  Back on the regular eating tomorrow!!!!!


Friday, April 18, 2019 - Dean and I walked our two miles this morning.  It was cool when we started out, but it warmed up quicker than we expected and it got pretty warm by the time we returned to Bentley.  

After showers, doing a load of laundry and getting everything else done, Joyce called to see if we wanted to go eat lunch with them.  They were trying to decide between Shorty Small's or Cracker Barrell.  We ended up choosing Cracker Barrell.  They have some great lunch meals that are really affordable and very good.  I had a hamburger steak, green beans and broccoli.  I couldn't pass up the chance to eat another biscuit with apple butter.  Yes, Grandma was on my mind again today!  Dean had a pork chop, salad, and hashbrown casserole.  Joyce had breaded chicken fingers and Frank chose the chicken fried steak.  Everyone enjoyed their meal.  I wish I had only eaten half of mine as at 7:30 this evening I'm still full.  

We drove separately to eat, as Dean and I wanted to go Lowe's afterwards.  We are still in search of a toilet seat.  I have never been happy with the one that came with the toilet we had to replace.  I decided it was time for it to go.  We found one at Lowe's we thought would work.  Then Dean wanted to go down the road to Menard's and look around.  I suggested we split up and look at the things we were each interested in as I was sure they wouldn't be the same thing.  When we met up I had a fly swatter and that was the total of our purchases.  The last time I used ours, it broke.  I just happened to see one and I'm glad that I now have something to save me from any lost wasp or some other crazy bug that might sneak in to Bentley.

After we returned, I called Joyce to see if she wanted to stop by to look over our summer travel plans to see if there were any other areas we could coordinate a meet up.  We are already planning on spending a week with them at Yellowstone in August.  We were able to fit in a few days at the Grand Teton's as well.  Hopefully we'll see them back here in Branson some time over the fall.  If not, we'll see them back in the Rio Grande Valley the first of next year.

Tomorrow we will pack up and return to Oswego.  We still have much to do before we leave on our next trip, the first of June.