Branson, our next WorkCamping Gig

Branson, our next WorkCamping Gig

As I said in our last post, we thought four months in Sarasota would drag on but it went so fast! The last few days there were filled with goodbyes and packing. One of the biggest challenges for borderline hoarders is parting with stuff and even though we did a masterful job of getting rid of stuff, it takes diligence to keep from collecting more but inevitably we still end up with more. Regrettably there are two BIG issues with collecting more stuff...space and weight. So as we begin preparing for the travel north I try to find space for the treasurers we've accumulated over the four months in Sarasota. None the less, we got everything in the rig, well we did have to part with a few things and store a few in Mary's attic. So we're ready to go, and pull out on schedule for our trip north to new adventures.

Brief Stop in Georgia...

We scheduled a stopover in Georgia for RV warranty and service work and some time with friends

and family. RV dealers are not the fastest, getting into them for service work is horrible, it typically takes several weeks to schedule service work and I had scheduled this visit back in December, confirmed in January, again in February and yet again in March as I wanted to make sure we had no problems. We pulled out of Sarasota on Sunday, March 30th so we could have the rig into the dealer early Monday morning for it's annual inspection/service, we wanted to give them a full week to get the needed work done. The trip north was uneventful, we drove 400 miles [a long driving day in an RV] and stopped for the night south of Macon so we would have a short drive on Monday morning to the dealer. After dropping off the coach we headed to Steve & Nancy's in Athens for a wonderful week, they are such gracious hosts and wonderful friends!! During the week we spent time with Erin, Kevin and lots of time with Eli. We visited Dahlonega, saw friends and visited with our small group at Athens Church.

Journey to Branson...

On Monday, April 7th we said our goodbyes to Steve & Nancy and headed to Southern RV to pick up our Redwood for our journey of about 700 miles to Branson for our next workcamping job. As has become the norm, getting everything done while at RV dealers for service is impossible. One of the problems, though more an inconvenience than a problem, there is a place in the floor that pops when you step on it. To fix the problem they have to pull up at least one of the floor tiles and as they told me it would destroy the tile so they would need a replacement tile, well the tiles weren't there, even though I had told them of the issue and even sent info and pictures on the tile, they said they didn't receive them form the manufacturer. None the less everything else was taken care of and we simply didn't have time to wait any longer so we arranged for them to send the tiles to us when they arrived. We hooked up and headed west for our journey to Branson.

All seemed well for about 100 miles until our Tire Monitoring System started screaming and I noticed that one of the tires on the RV had lost pressure, wasn't flat, just had lower pressure so I stopped to check things out. I didn't see any physical signs of trouble so decided to continue on and kept an eye on the monitor to make sure it wasn't getting worse. Well it continued to lose pressure but it was a very slow leak. When I stopped for fuel I refilled the tire and continued on to our stop for the night. When we arrived at the campground we had targeted, the pressure was low again so I refilled the tire. I thought about trying to get it looked at in the morning but decided to just wait till we got to Branson.

We stopped in Tupelo MS, about a 300 mile drive, right off the Natchez Trace Pkwy. After setting up for the night we drove into Tupelo for dinner and then drove around a bit, knowing this was where Elvis was born we decided to look for his house, wasn't hard to find as it's now a Historic Museum and there are street markers giving directions. It was sunset, the place was closed but we stopped and walked around, the house is right across the street from a church. The house is tiny, can't be more than 20 feet wide and 30 feet deep. After exploring the place we headed back to the RV for a quiet evening.

Branson...

The next day I checked the tire, pressure was still good so we continued our trip, about 400 miles and got to Branson in the late afternoon. The tire continued to lose air, very slowly and we topped it off when we stopped for fuel.

After our introductions with the staff on duty we were escorted to our site and set up.  We had indicated that we wanted a site with no trees so we could get our satellite TV to work without obstruction so we were assigned a site with no trees. The way this park is laid out they place the hookups [water, electric, sewer] between two sited and the RV's park with the fronts opposing, the RV next to us was less than 10 feet away so we could walk out our door and down our steps, take one step and walk up the streps to the RV next to us. We ere here for four months so this was not going to work...so the negotiations began. We started looking for other sites in the park that would still allow us a clear sky for satellite but would give us some space, allow us to put our our awnings, etc. We found a couple of sites and then started researching the availability of these sites. The one we focused on had a few campers booked into it but the renters had not requested the site so we figured where we could move them to to open the spot for us. Then we went to the manager and presented our proposal, she wasn't happy but didn't have an argument because we had done all the work for her...given the ok we moved to the site. Far from ideal, it was still better than where we were and the TV worked! We were set...at least for the moment. More later...

Branson is an interesting place. A small town on the shore of Lake Taneycomo, really the White River but dammed on both ends and a series of lakes, it is a show town. There are over thirty theaters here, over 100 different shows to choose from. There are at least 10-15 amusement parks, mini-golf, go carts, rides and then there is Silver Dollar City, much like Dollywood or Six Flags, they have an abundance of roller coasters, rides and shows.

Branson Lakeside RV Park is a city owned campground on the shore of Lake Taneycomo. The park is nice, has about 150 sites with full hookups but has no amenities other than cable TV and WiFi. Most of the campers are here to fish or go to shows or both. Many come here annually, a quirky bunch, several want the same spot every year even though you can't reserve specific spots. The staff does try to put folks where they want to be but no guarantees. Still there are some who get upset if they don't get the spot they request. Many of the sites are very close together and orientated so that the doors of the rigs are door-to door. The campground is managed by a very friendly couple, Jim & Sherrell who have been there for 8 years, there are two assistant manager couples, Denise & Carl and Larry & Ruthie and a number of workcampers. The women work in the office, the men work outside assisting with parking rigs and light maintenance. The number of workcampers on staff varies depending on the season with summer being the busiest. We got to Branson in the transition period, the winter workers were finishing up while we summer workers were training.

As mentioned before, the site we moved to was better than the first but was by no means ideal. When the winter workers left we scored a much better site, in my opinion one of the best in the park, satellite reception, lots of space, partially shaded!!! Herw we were able to put out the awnings, our outdoor mat, the outdoor chairs and the BBQ grill.

We met some wonderful people in Branson, mostly workcampers, some campers. We worked with several couples from all over the country: Joe & Gloria who are full timers from Colorado, Roger & Gail, full timers from Pennsylvania; Lloyd & Patty who are still in their home in Florida; Ron & D'Les who are still in a house in Texas [they are selling their home and plan to fulltime]; Fred & Kathleen, full timers from Illinois, John & Jo who split their time between RV and a boat in the Florida Keys, George & Ruby, full timers from North Carolina; Doug & Sue, full timers from California; Jerry & Debbie, full timers from Michigan and Dudley & Sherrie who are full timers from Texas . All wonderful people who we throughly enjoyed spending time with. Gloria & Joe, Roger & Gail, Lloyd & Patti, Carl & Denise, John & Jo as well as Ruth & I all spend the winter in Florida so we will try to arrange a get together next winter.

Because the park is owned by the city the workers are considered "residents" and are afforded both local resident and hospitality worker privileges. This means we got to go to most shown in town at no cost, the rest at greatly reduce cost. Restaurants that discount meals substantially!! Ruth and I had a ball and went to over 60 shows during our time there.

While in Branson we ventured out in the area and visited many interesting places, College of the Ozarks [Hard Work U] where students work for their tuition. A small Christian college of approximately 1,600 students, each student works 16 hours per week in a variety of jobs to pay their tuition. They can also work the summer, 40 hours per week, to pay for their room & board during the school year. A student here can get a college education for no cost...amazing!!  
Top of the Rock, a golf and dining facility with a Heritage Museum is on a ridge overlooking Table Rock Lake. We're not golfers but were told to visit this place...the architecture and views are stunning!!! 

We ventured down to Eureka Springs AR to see the Great Passion Play, the place to relive The Greatest Story Ever Told! This outdoor theatre has a set of Jerusalem of Christ's time and they relive the final week in Christ's life.

From there we journeyed down to Bentonville to visit the WalMart and Crystal Bridges museums. 

Branson is the most patriotic and Faith Based towns that we have ever visited. Every show we attended took the opportunity to recognize Veterans, most made a very elaborate ceremony, some recognizing the vets from each branch of the military individually. Christian faith is celebrated very openly, many of the shows devoting a segment to faith based music.

We found a wonderful church in Branson, Woodland Hills Family Church who have a wonderful praise band and the pastor, Ted Cunningham, delivered very powerful messages each week. His message is very much like Andy Stanley's who he proclaims as one of his mentors. It was with great sadness that we left Woodland Hills who truly lived up to being a Family church.

We were blessed during the last couple of weeks in Branson by a visit from Eli. Erin and Kevin sent him off from Athens with her dad, David and Tim who met us half way in Memphis where we took over the trip back to Branson. We had a ball, his mission was to play every mini-golf course in Branson, though we didn't get to them all we did get to over 10 of them. In addition we took him to a couple of shows theme parks, Silver Dollar City and countless hours of video games. 

Larry & Ruthie had their grandson, Clint, visiting while Eli was with us, the boys hit it off and were inseparable.   It worked out well, when we were working Eli would stay with Clint and when Larry & Ruthie worked we would watch Clint. 

The end of July came quickly, Eli was having a ball, Ruth and I were exhausted but loving the time with him but we had to start weening him from the constant activity. Though he was not happy about not being able to go, go, go he did settle down and was a big help in getting packed and ready to go. He was also getting anxious to see mom and dad so leaving was a little easier knowing mom would be at the end of the long drive to Chicago to pick him up and take him back to Georgia. As our time in Branson came to an end we said our goodbyes to all our new friends and hit the road heading north.


Next up... The 2014 Big Summer Adventure