Branson -3rd week - June 29-July 3

This was a really great week. We were in a resort in the mountains so our morning walks were up and down hills. We were just thankful that we had a one bedroom because we were located in the “presidential” units which are lock-offs. It was a Silverleaf resort and the customary cabins could have as many as 80 steps. We only had one flight to go up. The unit was neat, easy to use and very comfortable.

We only had five full days and there was quite a bit of rain. The highlights of the weeks were the shows we attended. We spent an afternoon at the Roy Rogers-Dale Evans Museum and then attended the Roy Rogers, Jr. show. Boy did it bring back memories. The museum held so many items. There were even video and audio clips to go with many items. We saw Trigger, Buttermilk, Bullet and of course Nelliebelle. It was so much fun. The show ended with Happy Trails.

Then as if that wasn’t enough we ate at Moon River Grill and went to the Andy Williams theatre. We saw Andy Williams and Ann-Margaret. Again it was enjoyable and fun. We decided that if we every wanted to see Andy we had better do it now.

Then on Thursday we went to see Noah at the Sight and Sound Theatre. This is a new theatre in Branson but they have one in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. I can’t begin to explain how awesome the show was. Of course the show is based on Genesis 5-9. To make a musical they have embellished personalities and things that might have happened that aren’t recorded. It took 120 years to build the ark. They brought out the taunting and ostracism that could have occurred. Then the animals came, two by two. They used both live and animatronic animals of every color, shape and size. Part of the second half we felt as if we were in the ark because there were animals all around and in the front of us three and four stories high. It was even more realistic because it happened to storm during the play. At the end after Noah and his family left the ark, the ark lowered into pieces and became a cross out of which Christ came and gave an invitation. It was AWESOME. What a fantastic reminder of God’s love and forgiveness. It was also great because everyone in the theatre heard a gospel presentation.

We stopped at the Elderhostel to watch their skits and see our leaders from last week. We are planning to come back and do another Elderhostel with adults only. It is a great way to see the shows and learn a lot.

Friday and Saturday were spent driving from Branson to Vail, Colorado and for me they were really hard days. We have a problem with the van because it is leaking and has ruined some of my cross-stitch and embroidery. It left me with nothing to do because the floor is soaking wet and I can’t put anything up front with me. It also is beginning to smell because of the wet.

Two Branson Weeks With James

Well, I really don’t know how to begin to tell about these two weeks. It has been busy, fun, tiring, enjoyable, hectic and awesome. We did something special each day and spent time playing games. James learned a couple of new card games. We taught him Hearts and also Pinochle. He picked up the rules easily and is doing well.

We stayed at the Palace View by Spinnaker timeshare for the first week. James relished in the fact that he had a whole side with kitchen to himself, even though he didn’t cook. We played 3 games of Bingo one day at the activity center but we didn’t win anything. We went to the BBQ dinner at the resort and listened to a variety of songs by different folks promoting their individual shows for us to go to. James chose Jim Owens. We think it was because of the 13 year old grand-daughter. It was a morning show and very family oriented. There was music, some dancing and comedy. I think we all enjoyed it.

We watched two movies on the big IMAX screen: Deep Sea and Ozarks Legacy & Legend. Bob & I liked the Ozarks best because we were quite tired & sleepy watching the fish. James also met his friend from 4 years ago. I don’t think the friend remembered him.

James also purchased a helicopter to fly and spent time at the unit learning how it worked. He practiced making it fly and then come back to him so he could catch it. It is plastic and does not use batteries but uses a rubber band. James requested we go to the Veteran’s Museum, so we spent a couple of hours viewing the exhibits there. It is a private museum and had many uniforms from all the different wars.

We did our morning walks each day but James pooped out on us after two days. Since Branson is in the mountains we found that there was not level ground to walk on so we started doing some inclines. We did often stay up late playing games but we didn’t need an alarm since we were relaxing. The hardest part was the adjustments James had to make. As typical he thought we were going to pay for Silver Dollar City ($150), race cars ($9 for 5 minutes), ride the ducks (we were doing that the second week) and miniature golf. There are so many things to do in Branson. Being thirteen and wanting to do everything is really tough.

We packed up everything on Saturday, June 21st and spent the better part of the day at the Branson Convention Center. There was a RC Craze. It was put on by hobby shops in the area and they had planes, cars, helicopters and trains. It was not well attended which gave James the opportunity to spend time running the race cars and practice flying on a simulator without having to wait in line. It was interesting and fun to watch. There were two flight simulators. One was for practicing to fly your own model plane and the other was actual full size planes.



On Sunday we checked into the Ramada for the Elderhostel after attending church at one of the theaters. We ate lunch at a steakhouse and then drove past the Wyndham timeshare where we stayed 4 years ago. We stopped at the top of the dam to see the lake which has very high water. One of the parks was closed and where we stopped the end part of the walkway was under water. Some of the islands were much smaller than normal and the trees looked like they were growing in water. The lake is so high that the tall boats can’t go under the bridges.

Sunday evening we registered. The name of the Elderhostel is Branson Show Biz Kids. The orientation, evening meal and get acquainted activities were all held in a meeting room at the Ramada. We met our host, Barbara and the Elderhostel program director, Sarah. There were 15 grandchildren and 20 grandparents. We each had a partner that we had to get to know and then introduce to the entire group. Monday we had three sessions and a dinner show. We learned about the background of Branson from Sarah. Then we learned some performance principles by Mark Young who is a professor at the College of the Ozarks. In the afternoon we were entertained by a troubadour, Danny Eakin, who performs at Silver Dollar City.

The dinner show was Dixie Stampede where we enjoyed music, horses and a delicious meal which was eaten with our fingers.


The second day we had two sessions. One was about the fundamentals of acting including body movement, pantomime and character development. It was taught by Lisa Young. The second was a dance studio workshop. I think we thought it the least interesting and informative. As a group we rode the Ducks. That was a lot of fun. Each of us was given a “quacker” and we toured the area around the dam and then took a ride on the lake. Each of the kids got to drive the Duck while we were in the water. We rode the Ducks in 2004 with Susan and James but really enjoyed riding with an entire group. Dinner was at Golden Corral and then we attended the Hamner Barber Variety Show. It was awesome and the kids as well as grandparents loved it. David Hamner is a magician who uses beautiful birds in his acts. Jim Barber is a ventriloquist and comedian who has been on the David Letterman show.

Wednesday we had another session with Mark Young. Then we were blessed and fortunate to have David & Denise Hamner for a 1½ hour workshop and in the afternoon Jim Barber. It was unbelievable to me that they took time from their schedule to have a workshop with us. The kids loved it. We learned about the birds, their eating, their care and how fragile they really are. The Hamner’s brought 2 birds with them for us to see. Everyone received a magic trick and a signed photograph. Jim Barber talked about his puppets and the practice time needed. He brought some in his suitcase and the kids were allowed to try their hand as a ventriloquist. He gave everyone a pair of eyes and also a signed photograph.

Wednesday night we ate at the Grand Country Buffet and then went to see The Acrobats of China. It was amazing and the way they could twist their bodies was unbelievable. Thursday was an easier day. We had a short time with Sarah and then left for the Ricky Boen and Texas Mud Show. Ricky is from Odessa, Texas and is a world champion fiddler. I’m sure that the grandparents enjoyed this show more than the kids. Thursday afternoon we spent preparing for our own “variety show”. Yes, each grandparent and child had to participate in an act of their own choosing that was to last around 4 minutes each. I’m sure there was a lot of worry but it really was fun and I think everyone enjoyed it. We found a reading on the internet about “An American” and presented that. James was also in another skit. The evening was topped off with ice cream sundaes.


Friday morning was the critique of our performances. The judge was Bill Lennon of the famous Lennon’s. He is the seventh child of 11 and is very involved in the new Landing along the lake in Branson including the street actors. He had very kind and encouraging words for each of the kids. Then we said our goodbyes, packed up and headed out. It was truly an interesting and enjoyable experience. Bob & I know we will be back to Branson more frequently because of the family atmosphere they have created.

In order to deliver James to his parents we needed to drive to Oklahoma City where we met Susan, spent the night and then we all went opposite directions on Saturday. Susan & James were headed to her parents in west Texas and Bob & I drove back to Branson to stay another week in a timeshare in Kimberling City. I know this is a long post but it was two weeks worth and we really did a lot. There is a lot more to tell but only so much space. Thankfully my leg and back are still holding up.

Tennessee, Ohio & Indiana

We have been quite busy for two weeks and I didn’t have time to write. We built shelves in two of Deb’s closets and sorted through a multitude of boxes while organizing her closets. It was good to be able to help her. We did spend one day in Franklin, Tennessee shopping in the stores and looking around. One evening we had the Sammon’s over and spent time in the pool and then had a spaghetti dinner. The kids had a great time in the water and we really enjoyed having them.

We visited my sister Mavis (near Dayton, Ohio) for the weekend. We got to see most of her family as well. It was a great visit. On Monday we moved on to Indiana and stayed with Coleen’s dad for the week. We visited our storage unit and added some additional items to it in order to make room for passengers in the van. We are still walking each morning and have increased our distance to over a mile. Coleen’s ankle is still sore and she still has pain each morning in her back and down her leg but there seems to be a little more improvement. We met Coleen’s brother, Lloyd (and Nick & Alec) for lunch in Anderson. We went to a birthday luncheon for June birthday’s, played euchre, got our special breaded tenderloins at Nick’s Kitchen and went to Ivanhoe’s in Upland.

Friday was a travel day. We drove from Warren, Indiana to St Louis. Bob checked into a hotel and Coleen went to the airport for a Southwest flight to Dallas. We drove through storms a number of times during the day and the flights were delayed. Coleen reached Dallas about 9:30 p.m. and was met by Phil, Susan, and James. There was a lot of travel and not much sleep. Friday night was very short because Coleen and James had a 7:00 a.m. flight back to St. Louis. James enjoyed seeing the “arch” as we were landing. They were at Bob’s hotel door at 9:00 a.m. Then we drove from St Louis to Branson. We checked into another timeshare and have two bedrooms but it is really two lock-off units since both have kitchens. James has one whole side to himself. I will write later after our two weeks here in Branson.

Berkshires #2 & Lots of riding!!!

Oh my, we checked into a resort at the top of the mountain. It had a switchback road up to the top. It is directly across from Jiminy Peak in Hancock, Massachusetts. It is about 4 miles from the New York border. Bob had to carry our things from the van, across a path, up two flights of stairs and then down to the very end of the hallway. He was rather exhausted. I sure hope he doesn’t have to do that too often. I continued to go to physical therapy for 3 days. We also worked on listening to another book tape. We had trouble with the temperature in the unit. They had a programmable thermostat and we sure couldn’t get it to work properly. We did enjoy a gas fire place and it was cool enough to use it. We needed light jackets most of the time. It also was rainy for most of the week.

I did some learning about my pain. It hurts more in the morning because there is no oxygen going to the muscle while I am sleeping. It tightens up and must have a nerve attached. My routine has become to put a heating pad on before I get out of bed, do my exercises and then take a hot shower. At night I do the exercises and then put on the heating pad. I have been doing this now for 3 weeks and am beginning to see some improvement. They said not to compare one day to the next but one week to the next. I also am still trying to walk very carefully and correctly so as not to favor my ankle with the torn ligament, which is still sore.

I baked some delicious whole wheat bread, banana bread, orange poppy seed cake and chocolate chip cookies. We took the bread with us to Bob’s brother’s house on Saturday May 24 in Northwood, New Hampshire. We stayed with Clif and Ann and Liz for 3 nights. Jared, Ally and Landon came on Sunday and we were treated to lobster and corn on the cob. The weather cooperated and we spent most of the time out on the deck for two days. It was a great visit and a good time to catch up.

We made an earlier trip back to Nashville because we got word from Deb that her house was broken into on Friday the 23rd. Not a fun time. Again the computer, camera, MP3 and this time all of her jewelry. We drove from New Hampshire to Pennsylvania (Barry’s) which was 450 miles on May 27th. The trip on Wednesday from Pennsylvania to Abingdon, Virginia was about 490 miles. On Thursday we drove from Abingdon to Deb’s in Antioch, Tennessee which was only 310 miles. I surely didn’t want back into the van again.

It was great to be back at Deb’s and give her some help. We stayed with her for two nights and then checked into the Wyndham Nashville on Saturday. The first anniversary card that we received was from my Dad. Thanks, Daddy. Debby had given us strict orders about Saturday night. We were to be cleaned up, dressed and ready to leave at 6 p.m. THEN, she added a little quirk and said that we might have company by 4:30. So we hurried. We were surprised by Coleen’s sister Mavis and her husband DeVon along with daughter-in-law Tina and granddaughter Alana. Deb took all of us to a lovely restaurant for our 40th wedding anniversary. We were joined there by three of Deb’s good friends and the Sammons – Mickey & Joan and Marc, Susannah & Ethan. We enjoyed a delicious dinner at Ellendales. We were truly surprised and feel very blessed to have everyone there. It is unbelievable that we have been married for 40 years. It has gone so quickly.

We did miss the rest of our family but Phil, Susan & James are in the middle of moving. They called on Sunday, June 1 which is our actual anniversary date. We also received a call from Coleen’s brother Eric. Thank you everyone. We attended church with Deb and actually took afternoon naps. We spent the evening at Marc & Susannah’s. Thank you, Lord, for good friends who actually seem like family.

First Berkshire Week

Our Sunday spent with Brent and Christine was actually Mother’s Day. They surprised me with a small gift of note cards with pictures that Brent had taken. They are very nice. But the biggest surprise was the roses that I received on Friday when we checked into the timeshare in Lenox. Debby had sent me a bouquet of beautiful long stem roses. There were 24 and I counted 2 white, 5 pink, 8 peach and 9 red. They came with a vase and I was able to enjoy them the entire week.

Monday I was able to get an appointment with a physical therapist and will be able to go for six sessions these two weeks, each Monday, Wednesday & Friday. The pain running down my leg is better at times and then at other times not so great. I am trying to walk exactly correctly but that is also quite hard because my ankle still hurts. This is severely cramping our hiking, walking and touring. Bob is very patient and only wanting me to do what I can without exhausting myself. I think there is a little self preservation in there because I am at times very grouchy and no fun.

We did go grocery shopping and stopped at Joann Fabrics for the rings & cording that I needed for my backpack purse. I was able to complete the Christmas ornaments for 2008, made a surprise for our new grandniece Maggie (a classic Pooh pillow and book), mended a couple of more items and then constructed my purse. The pattern was a little lacking at a couple of points in the directions but I really enjoyed it and will enjoy using it. I can hardly wait to make another one.

The kitchen area in this resort was a little challenging but we managed. There was virtually no counter space. They also had the glasses stored above a dry bar area but it was up two steps from the living dining kitchen area. We moved some of them into the cabinets above the sink. We had some rain a couple of days but we were able to take a walk around the resort on a nice sunny day.

We had to check out of the Ponds on Friday so we used some of our Wyndham points to book 3 nights at Bentley Brook, which is right at Jiminy Peak ski area. This helped us so that we did not have to spend 6 hours waiting around and also stay at a hotel. Bob brought everything in from the van and on Friday I spent the day repacking. We need to leave some things in storage and I really needed to sort and repack those items. We also must make sure we have room to put a seat up in the van for our passenger, the first of which will be James in June. I think I have is figured out now Bob just needs to figure out how to arrange everything. What a challenge. Until next week, God bless.

Tiny Baby, Back Pain & Spring, Spring, Spring

We traveled on Saturday from Williamsburg to Downingtown, Pennsylvania (suburban Philadelphia) to visit with Bob’s brother Barry and his wife Karen. We found out about an hour before we got there that their daughter Sara had delivered Margaret June Daley on May 1, a 26 week baby who weighed 1 pound 9 ounces. Things are going well even as I write this. It was just a hectic and very scary time. They are calling her Maggie and she is a tiny miracle. We are so excited for Sara and Dan and continue to pray for health and growth for Maggie.

We had a good visit each evening with Karen and Barry and actually just hung around during the day while they were working. We took a couple of drives but Coleen was up early each day with pain down her leg so we went one day to the doctor. That in itself was an event. We are still learning about our insurance which changed while we were overseas. We have spent 2 months just trying to get our insurance cards. Of course they have to be mailed to our Texas address. They finally came last week and Phil will send them on to us. What we did find out is that since Coleen has been favoring her left leg because of her torn ankle ligament it has caused more stress on her sciatic. She wakes early each morning and in order to relieve the pain has to walk. That seemed to be acceptable until she spent two hours in the middle of the night walking and then she decided that something had to change. She is on some medicine and the pain has been relieved a little. Of course treatment is more complex because we move each week. She will start some physical therapy soon since we will be in western Massachusetts for 2 weeks.

We left Pennsylvania on Friday and drove to Lenox, Massachusetts. We enjoy this area of the Berkshires. The real fun is still watching spring because we are moving north and spring just seems to continue on and on. We are seeing tulips, daffodils, blossoming apple trees, forsythia, lilacs, etc. All of the trees are just leafing out. The weather is still cool most of the time but quite comfortable. Saturday we did our grocery shopping and then Sunday (Mother’s Day) drove to Stow, Massachusetts to see Bob’s nephew Brent and his wife Christine. We were also excited to see Karen’s parents, Kurt and Pat. We spent a nice evening visiting with the four of them.

Williamsburg, Virginia

We spent six nights in Williamsburg staying at Wyndham Governors Green. We stayed in a two bedroom unit so we had lots of space. Coleen spent a little more time in the kitchen and made chocolate chip cookies from scratch. Boy, were they good. She also tried a new bread recipe made only with spelt flour. It has some oatmeal and molasses and we also liked it. We checked out the scrapbook store and then the bike store that was next door. Since our bikes had been smashed in the accident before we went overseas (Nov 04) we wanted to look at some new ones. AND we bought two bicycles. Coleen thinks they fit extremely peculiar on the bike rack but they didn’t fall off. We even got helmets. We didn’t get a chance to ride them since we spent two days seeing things in Colonial Williamsburg. And, yes we overdid because it really threw Coleen’s ankle and leg into extreme soreness and pain. We did see a lot and enjoyed quite a few of the dialogues that they do throughout the area. We even ate at the King’s Arms Tavern which is one of our favorites. Friday was a complete down day as Coleen stayed off of her feet. We are still enjoying the spring flowers and the blossoming trees as we travel to each area. We have not had a spring like this for years. We left early on Saturday to drive to suburban Philadelphia to visit Bob’s brother, Barry and his wife Karen.

We are using our GPS in the van and it is quite fun. We laugh as “she” tells us to prepare to turn, make a right turn, make a sharp turn, go straight, etc. What is really fun is to let the system plot the way and then we deviate and go our own way. Usually then it recalculates and gets back on track. The other thing Coleen learned to do was copy our CD’s with music onto the van’s computer. Once we have them all copied then we won’t need to carry our CD’s with us. We also enjoy listening to books as we travel down the road and are listening to Ambler Warning by Robert Ludlum right now. We have already finished three other books since we started. We thank Debby for loaning these to us.