Sunday-Saturday, November 1-7, 2020 - Hosting Sisterfest; Making Plans for Thanksgiving/Christmas; Follow-Up with Podiatrist; Moving to Branson, MO

Sunday-Saturday, November 1-7, 2020 - Hosting Sisterfest; Making Plans for Thanksgiving/Christmas; Follow-Up with Podiatrist; Moving to Branson, MO

Sunday, November 1, 2020  It's been many Sunday's ago since I last hosted my sisters at Bentley.  Dean was going to the garage to work this afternoon, so I suggested they come here, and they agreed.  After church, I stopped at the grocery store and picked up a cake for our dessert.  I had some of the banana nut bread that Jaxson helped me make left too, plus a few pieces of the Mexican fruit cake I made earlier in the week, so they will have choices.  

When Crystal arrived she brought a plateful of no bake cookies.  She makes big cookies, at least twice the size or more than I usually do.  I saved some to give to our cousin Todd, and sent some home with anyone who wanted them.  I saved a few for Dean and I, but not many since we had a lot of sweets already.

We had a nice two hour visit together before they headed home.

Dean didn't get back until after 5 and he was worn out.  He had spent a good part of the day cutting more brush.  Once he gets started he just can't stop.  We talked about contacting my cousin a month or two ago to get a quote for having him clear the areas we want, as he has the equipment to do it.  I asked him about calling Carthen again.  He said he would think about it.  Lol!

I made meatloaf, sliced tomatoes Linda B gave me before we left Osceola on Friday, and some broccoli.  We really enjoyed it.  After dinner, Dean was asleep in the chair pretty quick.  

Monday, November 2, 2020  Dean headed back to the garage/lot this morning.  He spent quite a bit of time clearing more small trees, and when he came home later in the evening he agreed to my suggestions that we at least get an estimate from him.  I sent Carthen a note on Messenger with my phone number and he called us about 10 minutes later.  He can meet us tomorrow morning at the lot at 7:30, which works well, as I have a follow-up appointment with the podiatrist tomorrow at 9:00.  

My main focus today was to try and find a place for us to hold our Thanksgiving/Christmas with the kids, to be held on Thanksgiving Day.  I had already checked the Airbnb's in the area and they were already reserved.  I checked at the City Office here in Oswego and it was booked for Thanksgiving Day, the day that seemed to work out best for everyone.  I checked several other places and all were a bust, so I'm still not sure where we will be able to meet.  Fortunately, later in the day Carol M from the City Office called to let me know someone had cancelled their reservation for Thanksgiving Day at the Community Center, so we now have a place to meet.  What a blessing that was!

I spent a good part of the day doing laundry so I wouldn't have worry about it while we are in Branson, MO for a week.  We haven't had a chance to spend much time there this year.  Other than 3 days back in April when Dean had his follow up doctor visits we've been busy running here or there.  We are looking forward to going again, and hope to find some new things to see and do.

Tuesday, November 3, 2020  

Today is a busy day, we are going to vote, meeting my cousin Carthen at the lot at 7:30am, go to Vinita for a follow-up appointment on my toenail removal; then on to Joplin to run a few errands.  We headed to the Community Center shortly before 7, to find a long line outside waiting to vote. We decided we would wait and vote after we return this afternoon.  Carthen was already at the lot when we arrived, so we had plenty of time to walk the lot and discuss the areas we wanted him to clear.  We had the chance to visit a little too, which is always nice.

We decided to leave early for Vinita after meeting with Carthen.  Since we had not ate breakfast yet, we stopped at Braum's for a breakfast sandwich and juice.  We arrived at the clinic prior to the required fifteen minute arrival before my appointment.  That worked out well.  I had barely set down and they called me back.  While my right toe didn't look near as good as the left one to me, he said they are healing just fine.  He did need to scrape both of them a bit.  It didn't really hurt that much, it just felt really weird and I was glad when he finished.  He told me unless I had problems he didn't need to see me again.  They took x-rays during my initial appointment.  Today he told me I had a bit of a bunion on my right foot, but it wasn't bad, instructing me that if it begins to bother me I should let them know.  

From Vinita, we drove to Joplin.  I had a couple of things I wanted at Sam's and Walmart.  It didn't take us long at either place.  I had a coupon for a free meal at Steak & Shake for my birthday, so we enjoyed a half price lunch for the two of us.  We like their burgers, very similar to Freddie's, but we like Freddie's fries much better and I really love Freddie's Fry Sauce.  Anyway it was nice to have two meals for the price of one.  We love good deals!

Back in Oswego, we unloaded everything and put it away, then headed to the community center to vote.  We were the only ones there so it didn't take us long to get in and out.

I had to call and cancel some dental work we had planned to do in a couple of weeks, because the follow up work would not be done until the first part of January.  We will be leaving the 1st of January, if not sooner for south Texas, so we'll reschedule it this spring.

My friend Cheryel just moved back to Oswego in the last few days.  Since we are leaving tomorrow, I drove out to see her new home and visit for a bit.  It was good to see her.  We've been friends for many, many years (since grade school).

After dinner, we both just rested, watching a couple of Hallmark Christmas movies, which we enjoy; well I probably enjoy them a bit more than Dean does.  Lol!

About 9:00pm my phone rung and it was Grandson Logan!  I was so surprised and thrilled to hear from him.  We had a good visit and look forward to seeing him after the first of the year when he will be back in the area for a visit.

It was a wonderful day!

Wednesday, November 4, 2020   It's moving day!  We have a membership with Treasure Lake Resort in Branson, MO.  We love visiting the Branson area.  We plan to spend a week there.  We would stay longer but we have dentist appointments on Thursday of next week.  

We left Oswego at 10:20am and arrived at our site in Treasure Lake by 1:40pm.  After getting things setup inside, I made us a sandwich followed by our daily apple.  We wanted to do different things this week, trying to be outside as much as possible and keeping our expenses to a minimum, since Christmas is right around the corner - and for us even sooner as we will be celebrating it on Thanksgiving Day with our children and grandchildren.  

One thing I've wanted to do for years is visit College of the Ozarks in Hollister, MO.  Typically you can stop at the various work locations at the college and see first hand how things are being done.  However, right now all you can do is drive through it per their website, due to Covid.  We headed to Hollister, but we soon found out the website needs to be updated - they are not allowing anyone except students and staff on site.  Well, that was a bust.

Recently our Pastor and his wife, Jim & Yonnie, vacationed a week in Branson.  They mentioned they had found a list of hiking trails.  I'm so glad they mentioned this, as I did the same to find  several trails we hope to enjoy during our stay.  One park that wasn't far from Hollister was Lakeside Forest Wilderness Area, just off of 76 Highway and Fall Creek Road.  We enjoyed a short walk this afternoon as it was too late in the day to take off on a long hike.

Remember, you can click on any picture to enlarge it.

Enjoying the fall colors - even though most leaves are on the grown here.

We really need to improve our selfie skills!!

Old Soldier's Cave on Taneycomo Trail - We plan to walk this trail later.

Beautiful late afternoon scenes.  

More information on Old Soldier's Cave

An interesting story about Dr. Lyle Owen who did much of the stonework on this property that allow people to enjoy this area so much.

We are enjoying beautiful fall colors in the Ozarks.

Map of the many trails in the Lakeside Forest Wilderness Area! 

We returned to Bentley, but since we had a late lunch we decided we'd have ice cream from Culver's instead of dinner.  Dean wanted me to drive and while I don't mind driving he truck during the day I do not enjoy driving it at night.  Not that it was far, it's just the traffic here in Branson is busy, and I just don't see as well at night as I used to.  However, we made it just fine, and our "supper" was really fine!!  Lol!

Thursday, November 5 - We have missed walking in the mornings, so today we got outside and walked about a mile and a half, before coming back and enjoying a breakfast of cornbread pancakes, sausage for Dean and bacon for me.  Yumm!!

Sunrise this morning in the park.

I had ordered an item from Amazon a few weeks ago.  After getting it, I wasn't happy with the product so I wanted to return it.  Now that Kohl's accepts Amazon returns in their stores, it means I no longer need to pay postage to return an item.  This morning we headed to Kohl's to return the item.  While we were sitting in the parking lot, I opened the app to do the preliminary work.  I was surprised when it said not to return the item and they gave me the full refund.  I guess it would cost more to return it than the item I purchased.  It was only a few hours before my refund showed up on my Amazon account.  Unbelievable!  It was only $12 +/- a few cents, but still things like that add up quickly so I was surprised.  

Dean wanted to stop at Lowe's.  Since it was just across the street from Kohl's we headed there next.  I waited in the truck while he went in.  The wind was blowing hard today, with lots of dust in the air.

After a quick sandwich and apple for lunch we headed back to Lakeside Forest Wilderness Area to do the "blue" trail, which runs along the edge of the bluff above Lake Taneycomo.  We arrived shortly after 1pm, and started the trail soon afterwards.  It took us approximately 1.5 hours to complete the trail.  It was much more than we bargained for.  We walked down for awhile then it was a steady walk, up, up, up and when we were close to leveling out I wondered what in the world were the two of us doing on a ledge this high above Lake Taneycomo, when it was at least twice the height, maybe three times as high as the bluff in Oswego.  We were at a point we didn't want to turn around, and we wondered what we would run into ahead of us.  However, we persevered.  The trail kept going up and up on several sets of steps to the top.  We both had to stop and rest a few times.  We made it even though we were both winded by the time we reached the top.  

Before we left to walk the trail, we noticed the trail sign said it had a waterfall and a cave, which intrigued us both.  The waterfall would have been amazing had there been any water, but not today.  The cave was interesting and if you read the information from the picture I posted yesterday, it has a neat history regarding the Civil War.

Once we finally made it to the top, there was a picnic bench that we set on for at least five minutes to rest before we took the same path we walked yesterday back to the car.  

Looking back on the trail we just came up

A long way down to the bottom from here.

The cave

Width of large parts of the trail after climbing one section of stairs behind us.

I'm not sure how many sections of stairs we climbed before reaching the top but our knees were feeling it!

As if that wasn't enough, we decided to move on over to trails along Table Rock Lake.  It was a beautiful day out here along the water.  The wind was blowing but it didn't seem as bad here as it did when we were at Lowe's and Kohl's earlier today.  

View of Table Rock Lake from the Visitor's Center Platform

Dean talking to son Matt on the phone.  We walked to the Visitor's Center hoping to get a map of the trails, but it was closed.

A few pictures I took along the lakeside.

We enjoyed the walks quite a bit.  As we were getting ready to leave Table Rock Lake Visitor Center I noticed these beautiful red maples.  I asked Dean to move the truck closer so I could take some closeup pictures.  They were so pretty with the sun shining on them.

On our way back, we took a back road that provided a beautiful sunset over Table Rock Lake.

We turned off and in just a hundred feet or so, we saw this little guy watching us as we drove by.

We made a quick stop at Price Chopper on 76 Highway to get some hamburger buns.  When we returned Dean cooked hamburgers on the griddle.  They sure hit the spot.  Later this evening, I looked up and saw a couple walking by with this huge parrot.  Isn't it beautiful?

Friday, November 6   Several years ago while we were in Branson Dean found a leather pouch to carry his cellphone in.  He'd tried several different ones but they did not hold up.  The one he has is still good and works, but it is pretty beat up since he wears it when he's working outside.  He wanted to go back to the store where he bought, Leatherworks Unlimited, located right next door to our favorite sweet shop Cakes & Cream.  We highly recommend both establishments.  Fortunately for him, they had one leather pouch like he wanted.  It was well worth the money for how well it has held up with the abuse it's taken.  He will continue to use the old one when he's working outside or at the garage, and save the new one for special occasions.

One of the things I enjoying doing when we are in Branson is visiting the kitchen stores at Tanger Mall and The Shoppes at Branson Meadows.  You can imagine my surprise and disappointment to find out both kitchen stores were not only closed but were both entirely empty!!!!  I'm not a big shopper but I really enjoy looking at new kitchen items so it was a huge disappointment to me.  We didn't even stop at Tanger Mall after we noticed it was no longer there.  We did drive through to make sure it had not been moved to another area, but no such luck.  When we arrived at the Shoppes at Branson Meadows and realized it was closed too, I walked over to Vanity Fair to see if they might have some sweatshirts.  Dean went to a tool store.  There was nothing that interested me in Vanity Fair. I sent Dean a text I was walking to Tuesday Morning, knowing they carried some kitchen items.  They didn't have much so I let Dean know I was headed his way, when he pulled up not far away to park.  He wanted to go to the Tool Store here - what's the deal with leaving the tool stores and getting rid of kitchen items?  There's just something wrong with that!  I chose to set in the truck, checking email and Facebook.

We needed propane.  Shortly before 3, Dean went to the office and paid for filling the bottle, then he took the empty bottle to the propane area where someone arrives to fill them every day at three.  He must have been one of a few or the only one as he returned pretty quickly.  While the days have been nice here, the evening temperatures drop into the upper 30's and low 40's so we want to make sure we have heat!

Dean's youngest son, Jarred and family are coming to Branson for the weekend.  They are staying at an airbnb with Andrea's parents, her sister and family, as well as their aunt and cousins.  We met them at The Track around 6:15 so Jarred and Emerson could ride go-carts, before meeting up with Andrea's aunt and cousins for dinner at Landry's Seafood.  It was fun to spend time with with Hayden and Andrea, 

Hayden

Proud Papa

Go Cart Driver Emerson Peine

while we watched Jarred and Emerson on the go-carts.  Emerson loves the go-carts, and after going on one with her dad, she rode in one by herself at another course for children her age.  She had the course to herself.

Afterwards we met Andrea's Aunt and cousins at Landry's Seafood Restaurant.  We thought there might be a wait - but two hours, not with two little ones who are hungry.  We called Psaghetti's just down the road, and were quite glad to hear they had seating available so away we went.  They had a big round table that was big enough to seat all 10 of us.  

Emerson at the entrance to the big meatball and fork outside of Psaghetti's.

Tomorrow all of their group is going to Silver Dollar City.  We called for tickets but they were full and are not selling any more for Saturday.  Later we decided it was probably just as well.  The two toes where the toenails were removed are still a little sensitive.  I don't notice anything just walking but when going down a slope my foot pushes forward in my shoes and causes some discomfort. In addition, Dean's knee has been bothering him.  We typically follow the walking trail in Treasure Lake that takes us down a steep hill and back up and he doesn't want to do it because it is painful.  I think it's just as well we missed it this year.

Saturday, November 7 - We did get outside this morning and walked 2 miles in areas where the elevation didn't change too much.  After breakfast, I did several loads of laundry before we headed out on another adventure.  

The trees are still pretty even though many leaves have already fallen.

After lunch, we stopped at The Vintage Market, located not too far from Treasure Lake on 76 Highway where we walked through all of the attached buildings.  Years ago it used to have much more "new items", and today it is more of a flea market.  We enjoy flea markets too, so we walked it from one end to the other.  We left without finding anything to bring home with us.

From there we drove 76, through downtown Branson that was bustling with people coming and going to the shops, driving on to the road alongside Branson Landing, thinking we might walk down through the walkway between stores.  There wasn't a place to park anywhere, so we passed on that idea.  It was super busy so not a place we wanted to be.  We did enjoy watching all of the people getting ready to ride the Branson Train - many were wearing pajamas (even taking family pictures).  Maybe it was a Christmas train!

We drove through nearby Hollister, MO, then on out to Point Lookout that provides a beautiful view over Lake Taneycomo and the Branson area.  Here is a panoramic view I took of the area.

A closeup of the area.

We continued on our drive that took us further southwest and brought us up the highway to Table Rock Lake and over the dam.  The trees are so pretty this time of year, and with the sun out it really makes them pop.

It was a little after 5 when we returned to the campground.  It was a nice day, just getting outside and seeing the beauty of this part of the world.  After dinner, Dean watched TV and I was working on updating the blog.  My goal is to get caught up and back to daily posts again.  I'm not sure it will happen until after Thanksgiving (we are having Thanksgiving/Christmas with our kids) so it is pretty crazy trying to buy Christmas presents, plan a meal, find a place for us to meet, etc.  Somehow we always manage to make it work, and we will again this year.  We look forward to it.

Stay tuned for the next update.