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We altered our plans overnight to add a stop in Eureka Springs, AR. Without explaining in too much detail the reason why, I wanted to see if I could find a toy like one I had when I was a small boy. The Nielsens and Floyds (who are up for anything) agreed to the detour. It added about 60 miles to our day, no biggie.
We left the Hampton Inn in North Little Rock at 10am heading for Eureka Springs. We got there at 1:45p and, following faithfully the directions of our GPS, came to the end of a road with a lovely B&B and a lovelier view:
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After the photo op we found a country buffet and had a nice lunch:
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Unfortunately, entering the parking lot I managed to hit a high curb right behind my left front wheel and scraped a chunk off of the trailing edge of the fender opening. It's down low but it really hurts since I just got the car back from AAT cars who had done a complete refresh. Dammit!
The temps were over 100 all day long. Who's idea was a cross-country trip in July, for Pete's sake?!!?
Eureka Springs is a charming place reminiscent of Switzerland (if Switzerland had temps over 100 degrees):
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We left Eureka Springs at about 4pm and crossed into Missouri at 4:15pm. The winding road between Eureka Springs was a fun drive but slowed us down a lot. We arrived in Branson at 5pm and checked into the Fairfield condo that Buzz and Jackie had arranged for our three nights here. It's a beautiful condo with three bedrooms; very spacious and comfortable:
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Branson is a Smörgåsbord of things to do. We spent an hour or more just trying to figure out what show to see tonight, rates, how to have dinner first and so on. We decided to go to the 8pm "Lost in the 50s" show starring the Platters.
We drove into downtown Branson, found the Starlite Theater handily, parked, bought our discounted tickets and had dinner in a nearby Asian buffet. Dinner was good and a good value. The show tickets were a good value, too; normally $30 each, we got them for $20 -- and they were great seats. Buzz and Jackie were on the front row, with Gael and me behind them and Ron and Robin behind us.
The show stars the Platters but includes eight young singers and dancers who put on a terrific stage show interspersed with the Platters doing their hits and hits of other acts. It was a wonderful show:
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Though two of these performers are old enough to have been with the original Platters, none of the members of this group were in the original group. One of them, Willy Nash (who is blind), came down off the stage to pick what he called a "DH" or "Designated Honey" to whom to sing a song. Jackie was picked and I think she was touched and thrilled by the experience:
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After the show (standing ovation from a packed house) the cast members and the Platters signed autographs in the theater atrium. In talking with them, we learned that the other older singer, Rooster Lockhard, owns a 2005 Corvette coupe. We told him about the CEs and we offered to bring them to the front of the theater for a photo op. It took a while to arrange as we couldn't drive the theater-goers away from the cars to set up the photo. But it all happened and it's a great memory book item:
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After the show we drove to a grocery store to stock up on a few items to consume during our stay -- and here came Rooster in his C6. He parked right next to us at the store:
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Finally home to bed at 11:15p without a clue as to what we'd do tomorrow. When we figure it out, you'll know!