Oregon Living 2021 – Blog #67 – Branson (Part 1)

 

Monday, November 15^th., 2021…... We got up at 2:30am. The drive up to PDX (Portland) was made with no problems. We parked again in the long-term lot and headed to check-in. (Yes, I closed the windows and locked the truck this time!) Cathye used Alaska Airlines miles to get us business class flights both coming and going. I love the extra legroom! On these flights, we found we get premium class treatment with alcohol included. Yay! It was a 31- minute flight to SEA (Seattle) and then a 4-hour flight to STL (St. Louis), but it was ok. We took the shuttle to the car rentals. This time, I took the car rental duty and we got on the shuttle to the Emerald Aisle at National and we picked out a Nissan Kick (suv). We actually enjoyed it. Our cars do not have the lane detection and proximity warnings nor the auto dim/bright features that this car had! Nice! Our first stop was to the local Steak & Shake for a quick burger meal. Then we made the 2 ½ hour drive - the last part being gravel roads - to Vienna for the first stop. This was at Cathye’s son Michael and his wife Crystal’s home there. Her two nephews (Terry & Gary) and their family had driven over to be there for a visit. It was nice. I keep meeting relations all around the country!  We had a long day, so it was nice to finally call it a night.

Tuesday, November 16^th., 2021…... We slept in a bit this morning. Later, Crystal had made us an overnight-crockpot-breakfast, which was delicious! Then we went out and got a tour of their place. They have 23 acres, most of it wooded, with access to Clifty Creek, which they say has a nice swimming hole in the summer! All of it was very nice. Then they drove us Clifty Creek Park so we could hike to the natural bridge there. We didn’t make it quite to that point because it was a downhill hike – which we knew we had to go back up! – so we headed back and then looked at it online. Haha!  Here's the picture of the bridge we saw...

                                     
And here's the picture from the online website.....

We would have liked to see it. Maybe next time. Cathye was a bit sore the next morning so I’m glad we didn’t go much farther. We also stopped at the cousin’s farm to see their animals…

Later, after we were back home and packed up, we then followed them to lunch at Pappo’s Pizza.  It was right on I44 and we will go back again if/when we are in that area. 

We drove down the road a bit and went to visit Uranus! Yep, I wrote it right! We enjoyed Uranus. They specialize in packing fudge in Uranus! Plus, a lot of funny gag items, including a jail! We all got on the ‘wanted’ posters. We thought it was funny that they had one for McCracken, which is Cathye’s last name! So, we switched wanted posters!  

I didn’t find a hat I liked, so I bought a Uranus Fire Dept. t-shirt:

We said our goodbyes and headed on toward Branson. I did a detour in Springfield to show Cathye the Bass Pro Shop’s ‘Mother Ship’. This store sits on several city blocks and she was duly impressed! 

We continued on to the ticket counter to get our ticket package, which included the hotel reservation confirmation. We managed to extend our hotel stay one extra night like we wanted. The plan was to add one or two more shows on Friday and then do Silver Dollar City on Saturday before heading back to STL. We wanted to add “Jesus’ to our list but they wouldn’t do it at the ticket place unless we agreed to do a VRBO/BnB ‘open house’ sales pitch. No Way! So, we drove to the hotel and went online and booked it directly with the Sight and Sound Theater. I even got my pick of seats! Once we got settled in our room at the Fall Creek Inn, we walked next door to their restaurant and had dinner. This is one of two places in the area that is famous for their ‘tossed or throwed’ rolls!  The meal was good. We had margaritas and I had chicken fried steak and she had coconut shrimp and we left full and happy, despite the earlier sales pitch which put us off for a while. We went back to our room and watched tv for a short while before crashing after our day.

Wednesday, November 17^th., 2021…… We slept in this morning because our show (Daniel O’Donnell) wasn’t until 2:00pm. It was at the Welk Theater, which was right next door.  We had coffee in the room, then showered and dressed and headed out. The weather was wonderful! We drove into town – well actually it’s called ‘the strip’ – and had breakfast. We chose the Chicken House. We got the -buy-one-get-one-half-price buffet, which was pretty good and very filling. Plus, I got my grits too! After that, we drove to the Ozark Country Campgrounds to check it out. We have camped there several times and I wanted to see if they had improved the park for our future use. Not!  They have actually taken away over ¾ of the spaces and replaced them with park models/trailer modules. I’m guessing these will be daily/weekly rental units come summer. They must think that they will be a more constant rental income instead of the RV’rs. I sure hope they can rent them out!  

I also took Cathye to my favorite fishing place – Cooper Creek on Lake Taneycomo. This is actually the White River, coming out of Table Rock Lake, but they call it a lake because they don’t leave the dam locks open all of the time, so the river becomes still, like a lake. It was nice enough to fish when, but I knew we weren’t there for that. 

We continued on to check out the fish hatchery. You can see the 200' high dam in the background

and then went up and took a look at the lake. Beautiful!  We will be on it tomorrow afternoon when we go on the Showboat Branson Belle for the dinner cruise and show. We went downtown and saw Dick’s 5 & 10 store and got a few things there. Then we stopped at Chik-Fila for a quick lunch. It was delicious. We got back to the room and changed to go to Daniel O’Donnell’s show. He is an Irish singer and has a large following in the US. I never heard of him, but he’s one of Cathye’s favorites.  He is a terrific singer and his show was really entertaining. We weren't in the best of seats but still worth being there.

We got out of the show and made our way down the street to our room. Later, we walked the other way and went to Danna’s BBQ for dinner. We had been there before with Rick and Janie so I knew the food was good. We split a pulled pork patty melt, which was surprising good!  We had some time to go back to the hotel and rest before the next show up that evening. We made the drive back up the strip to The Dick Clark Theater, where we were seeing ‘SIX’. We have both seen them before so we knew what to expect. No instruments. All the music and sounds come exclusively from them, via only a microphone. They are amazing.  They make some serious music with any instruments! Excellent show, made even better because we had 4^th row center seats!  

When we got back home, we looked up the Branson Train, which we had seen while we were downtown. We thought we’d book that if we could.  We got the tickets ordered and had to go to another of the many, many ticket buildings in town and – yep – we would have to go through the same song and dance sales pitch for hotel/motel stays the next day when we picked up those tickets!  We found that most of the attractions are turning over bookings to these vultures. We will always try to go directly to the show’s website, when they allow, (like the Jesus show).

Branson part 2 coming soon…  

Oregon Living 2021 – Blog #66 – Saying Our Goodbyes, Saluting Our Vets & Getting Ready For Another Trip

 

Wednesday, November 10^th., 2021…... Today was an eventful day!  First up, Maryanne is doing better. Per Randy’s update, she is resting comfortably with plenty of pain meds in her! I had a bout this morning as well. I got out of bed and felt light-headed. Cathye took the dogs out while I hung around the house and rested a bit. It took a few hours, but I felt better. It’s hell getting old!  Next up was the service call on the furnace. I had water coming out of the unit. I thought it was just condensation and turns out I was right!  Hunter found a worn out hose going into the p-trap. I got lucky!  But I did get on their list for yearly service, which should help, going forward. Lastly, we heard from Penny that Quincy is not doing well. She is 14 ½ and, although healthy, she is just getting old. Penny says there are no signs of her being in any pain, so that is good. But she thinks it will likely be sooner than later…Sad news but she has had a wonderful life. Hugs to her.

We had leftovers for dinner and watched The Masked Singer and Survivor before calling it a night.  Still no clues to identify those two that were unmasked (The Jester and The Pepper). Not our genre of music!  I think we have only got 2 out of the 10 unmasked so far, and not too many clues on the 6 that are left.  But at least Survivor is getting interesting!

Thursday, November 11^th., 2021…... Veterans Day…. Please take time to thank those who served. I’m so sorry – I didn’t get a chance to do that today. We needed to check in with Sis to see how Quincy was doing. She said she’s ready to call the vet. She would have liked to have a mobile vet come to the house to ease Q’s anxiety of riding in a car and going in to the veterinarian’s office, but they didn’t return her call. So, we went over and spent some time with Quincy and later took her in.  They came out to the car and administered the shot so that helped everyone.  It was painless and quick, and she was comfortable enough to be relaxed when they gave her the drug. She went off peacefully and will now be up there with Chimay and Harley and Bailey and Maggie and Fancy and…. watching and living that good afterlife. RIP, sister. You were the best!

After we left the house, we went to grab a bite to eat and went home to let our girls out. We gave them extra hugs and then set off to Albany. The Veterans Day parade this year (and last) was a ‘reverse parade’, where they set up floats and displays in the fairgrounds, and in parking lots in 2 places in town and folks drive thru and see them. It was very nice and a great tribute to all veterans, here and gone. We went to all three venues and enjoyed each one.

On the way home, we stopped at a couple of thrift stores (open today) and looked for some items for the trailer and for decorations for Christmas gift baskets that Cathye is working on for the kids and grandkids and great grandkids. We got back home, and I was able to go out and, with Cathye’s help, measured the area where we want the patio deck. It was pretty easy to get the perimeters staked and now Tim and Dana will be able to get an idea of the scope of work. We need to get their estimate and get on their schedule sooner than later. Even now, it will be spring before they can get to us.  We had leftovers from lunch and settled in to watch tv until bedtime.           

Friday, November 12^th., 2021…… Today we got up early and got the dogs out and walked and fed. Cathye was heading off to meet up with Penny. Their plan today was to go to an estate sale here in town, then go pick up Judy and Lona, and then head over to Turner (about 30 miles north of us) to go to the Country Mouse Holiday Market. This is hosted by Cathye’s Christian church’s foundation and is supposed to have over 90 booths there. I’m sure between the four of them, they will have a full car of goodies to bring home!  Meanwhile, I have a few things I wanted to do here. My shop has been neglected. I first needed to get all of the Halloween boxes back up on the shelves in the front part of the garage, then I started in on the potting shed. I needed to clean out the potting shed and rearrange it with a nice work-height table for Cathye to mix and pot and do all of that work to get things planted later in the season.  I will need to find (or build) something that is the right height for her so that’s a project for me now!  I spent a few hours out there and then came in because it was starting to rain (duuhh - because that never happens up here!) and I was trying to entertain Rylee and not doing a good enough job. So we came in and I gave her and Princess Jama their treats and sat down and relaxed til the girls got back.      

Ok, they are back – I was right, they found a bunch of stuff and filled the car!  I only saw what Cathye brought back, which wasn’t too bad. We relaxed and then worked a bit on packing. I got out our suitcases and set them up in the guest room. I had gathered some of my stuff in there already, so that was added to a little. Still have some laundry to do to finish off what we need.     

Saturday, November 13^th., 2021…… Randy says that Maryanne is home and doing well. She will need some time to recover, since she has had surgical cuts, and has to take it extremely easy for a while . But she will be ok.

Penny came by today. She will be staying here to take care of the dogs while we are gone next week. She certainly knows everything about butthead, but she needed some info on how we feed the princess. We went over that process. She also picked up Quincy’s food and bowls that we had stored here. That stuff will get donated to a local shelter. She’s doing ok. She’s known for several months about Q, so she was more or less ready for this. Even so, it’s never easy when it happens.  Cathye and I headed out later to run some errands. We needed a few things from the store and got those and got back. Robin came by later to go over a presentation she and Cathye are making at their church next week. They spent some time working on that, then we had a nice visit. I gave her the remote for the garage door because she will be here on Thursday to cover for Penny, who has an appointment in Salem that day.  

Sunday, November 14^th., 2021…… I think we are now packed for the trip. We will try to go to sleep early tonight because we need to be up and going at 3:30am tomorrow morning. We will take her truck to PDX and shuttle to the airport like we did last time we flew out from there. (I made myself a mental note to make sure I close the window on her truck this time!) Anyway, our flight leaves at 7:00am, going through Seattle to St. Louis. We get there around 4:00pm (their local time) and will get our rental and then drive to Michael and Crystal’s house, which is on the way, for a one-night-stay with them, before heading on to Branson. We will be there for three nights, (Tues.-Thurs) but since our flight home is not until Saturday evening, we are still trying to figure out if we want to try to stay another night in Branson and make the drive in to St. Louis or go back to the kid’s house and stay with them on Friday. We’ll figure that out after we get there. We have tickets to three shows while in Branson: Daniel O’Donnell, SIX, and Branson Belle Captain’s Club Christmas Dinner Show. We are looking forward to a nice week!  

Oregon Living 2021 – Blog #65 – The Ring is In; Visiting With Friends, & dealing with an Emergency

 

 

Wednesday, November 3^rd., 2021…... The weather is still cooler than normal for this time of year. Indicators say that we are likely to get some snow at our elevation (340’) later in the season.  That’s happened 3 whole times in the 4½ years I have been here! We’ll see…

But, today was dry when we walked the pups. Once we got back in and got them fed, Cathye took off for her volunteer work. I headed off to get coffee (Starbucks) and breakfast (Jack in the Box) before settling in and working on my last blog.  I’m trying to stay up on the daily logs, but sometimes I don’t get to that for a few days, so I have to play catch-up. Anyway, I got that done and posted and waited for Cathye to get back. We made some lunch then headed out to run some errands – Walgreens and Walmart.   Tonight was Survivor and The Masked Singer.  We sometimes don’t get both watched in the same night, but we stayed ahead of it and watched them both tonight. They unmasked The Beach Ball. Good thing too, they were terrible! Honey Boo Boo and her mom. What a joke!  I have guesses for some of the others but, like last year, they are younger hip hop and/or rap artists so I haven’t got a clue as to who they might be.

Thursday, November 4^th., 2021…...  This morning was full of appointments and meals!  We headed off to our acupuncture appointment early so we could stop and have breakfast. I loaded up the plastic bags for glass and plastic bottle recycle because we were heading to Albany first. Turns out we just had time to eat and make the acupuncture time in Corvallis, so the bags will just have to stay in the truck for now.  After both of us were done, it was time to head up to Mary’s Peak to have lunch with her friends, David and Oma Lea. David, the retired contractor, had built their house several years ago. It is just outside of Philomath, off of hwy 20, headed to the coast, up a windy forest road with tons of trees all around. Very majestic to say the least!  But you certainly have to want to go there, since it’s up in the Coastal Mtns. The house is really nice and laid out well, with large spacious rooms.  He also built a mother-in-law suite over the large, detached garage. Plus, he has a shop that makes mine look like a shack!  Cathye has been before, so I got the whole house tour, while the girls visited.  After that, we had a nice meal and relaxed and visited a bit more. It was such a long day that I had to ask my sister if she could go over and let the dogs out to do their business. We did get back in time to feed them though, so all was good. We relaxed and rested after the busy day.

Friday, November 5^th., 2021…… Today was laundry day. We were up and out with the girls and then started in. The weather is not allowing too much to be done outside anyway so today was a good day to work inside. Of course, I was able to watch some of my taped shows during loads, so it went by quickly. Still too wet to mow so that’s out for a while. Today is the start of the Nascar final races of the season. Tonight was the truck race. I was able to watch it before hearing or seeing it somewhere else, so that was good.  But while we were waiting for all of that to happen, I made a call to the jewelers. “We were just about to call you” they said. “Your ring is in!”  So, we stopped what we were doing and headed up to Woodburn (about 60 miles). They didn’t have mine in yet. They said that they didn’t have my size in inventory anywhere, so they had to reorder. That means another month!.. But, that’s ok. I won’t be wearing it anyway until next spring.  We got hers and it was perfect!  She looked at it and took pictures of it all the way home.  She said the trip home was “really fast”!  We had stuff out for dinner, but I told her we should go out and celebrate. We chose Seeds, the new Italian bistro here in town. Their food is really good, and we ordered appetizers, drinks and even had dessert after!  Nice celebration!  Pics of us and the ring…

We came back home and relaxed and settled in for the evening.     

Saturday, November 6^th., 2021…… Cathye decided to go Christmas bazaar shopping today! I didn’t. Nuff said! Seriously, I didn’t want to go so she took off and hit several while I stayed back and caught up on my auctions and later, the Nascar Xfinity race. When she returned, I had to help her unload the truck. Mostly Christmas gifts and ideas for making some more…

Sunday, November 7^th., 2021……   Last Nascar Cup race today!  I planned on doing nothing today anyway since the weather was dreary and damp, so I settled in and enjoyed the day. Cathye picked up Lona and they headed off to Sweet Home to go to church. Since Lona and Misty live in her trailer park, she decided to stay at her place afterward, and bring in the last of the boxes from the storage shed. She turned on a Hallmark show and went through those and decided what to do with that stuff and then came back home. I helped her unload and then went back to my programs. We had a nice quiet dinner and a quiet evening watching tv.   

Monday, November 8^th., 2021…… I had a 7:30 dental appointment this morning. It was no problem since the time change had me up early anyway. I picked up breakfast on the way home. Meanwhile, she walked and fed the dogs. We decided to head over to Albany and finally get those recycle bottles and cans turned in. We stopped for more coffee on the way. After we were done with the recycler, we found we ended up with $65.50, which went into the Branson fund. We put off most of the plans for today because I had gotten a call from Randy this morning before I went to the dentist telling me that Maryanne still wasn’t feeling well from last week and since she wasn’t getting any better, I told him to get her to the ER asap. She doesn’t like hospitals, but must have really felt bad, because she consented to go!  They headed down to Newport to the Hoag Memorial ER. Good thing she did!  They tested her and found she had a burst appendix!  It took all day, but they got into surgery later in the evening and all was good. Since the appendix burst, they had to do an incision (instead of arthroscopic), but the surgeon said they got everything, and that, everything indicated that  she should be fine.  Last communication was that she was out of recovery and back in her room, resting.    

Tuesday, November 9^th., 2021……  We had a breakfast scheduled this morning with some of her students from back when she did grief counseling years ago.  I had met Sheri at the open house last week, but today I met Sue and Pam. We had a nice meal and they caught up on things since they last saw each other. Before we left the restaurant, I texted Randy and he was up and going. Maryanne is doing well, but unfortunately, since he hasn’t had any vaccine shots, Randy will not be allowed in to stay with Maryanne at this time. He says he will be checking with them this morning to see if he can take a covid quick test so he can go in, but I won’t know until later how that went. We (Penny and I) both volunteered to go down to help out, but he says he is ok and has it under control at this time. We got back from breakfast, and I had some things to work on. I got the truckster gassed up and started. We went out to the back island to take stock before Kirk’s guys get here later. The plan today is to start cleanout of the evasive plants and ‘volunteer’ trees sprouting up out there. There is also a dead spruce tree which, unfortunately, has to go. I asked about another large plant (sorry, I don’t know what they are) and if it would be a candidate for removal. She says, yes, they will be since they have taken up quite a lot of the area.  When the guys got here, they also made mention of the bamboo trees growing out there. We didn’t realize what they were.  Even though they are just sprouts at this time, we didn’t put them there and we don’t want them taking over, so they will go too. Cathye went over the plan and they got a lot of it cleared out today, with more to do next trip. They used my truckster to haul the brush out into the woods behind the property. Rototilling will need to happen soon, so she can get the bulbs planted before it’s too late in the season.  

This is a pic after they got most of the junk cleaned out.

Lots more to do though…

We were done for the day and settled in to relax and watch tv. I did get a ups delivery today. I had decided I needed to have a backup set of tow pins that insert into the front of the Honda, in case something happens mine.  I make it a point to remove them but if I don’t, they are easy to steal and if that happens, I wouldn’t be able to tow the car!  I test fitted the new ones and found they are exactly like the ones I have and will work well.

Cathye wanted to get out of the house for a ride, so we drove over to Albany and went to The Depot for dinner. It was as good as usual!  After we got back, we settled in and watched some of our taped programs together. We are starting to get used to the time change, and we are tired and ready for bed now at the new adjusted 10:00pm or so, so that’s good!    

Oregon Living 2021 – Blog #64 – Another Pumpkin Day & Trick or Treat!

 

Thursday, October 28^th., 2021…... Cathye went off to take Jama to the groomers and I walked Rylee. She brought us back breakfast and then headed off work on her trailer. She has invited everyone to come to an open house on Saturday, so she wants to make everything nice. Today’s weather is supposed to be clear and warm, so she will be working outside, cleaning up the flowerbeds and such. Meanwhile, I was tasked with checking on the wedding rings that were due in yesterday. I called and discovered that 1) mine is a straight order that has to come from another store – they have unopened orders and will need to search through them and will get back to me, and 2) her ring is back in the design center. Turns out it was received by the store, but the sapphires they put in were too dark, and they sent it back and they are now waiting for the lighter requested stones to come in. So, it will be delayed another week or so. Bummer!  

Today was another pumpkin carving/dinner day!  Corey (Cathye’s grandson) and wife Brittany and the kids (Brandon and Lilly) came by, and we headed off to the Grandpa’s Garden to get pumpkins for the carving. We all walked the muddy field and got our pumpkins and then headed home.

This time, I set up everything in the shop garage. Halfway into the project, we brought out the chili and had hot dogs and cornbread for dinner.

They didn’t complete the carvings – they will do that later or tomorrow, but we all did have a great time. We will see them on Halloween as well.  

Friday, October 29^th., 2021…… We got everything cleaned up from the late night last night. The plan today was to go get the inside of the trailer cleaned up for the ‘open house’ we are having tomorrow. Cathye has sent out Facebook notice inviting folks to drop over and see the place and have a snack. I had pictures to hang and one last dimmer switch to install. I won’t tackle the furnace door until after the open house. But everything looks good, and we are ready!

Saturday, October 30^th., 2021…… We were out early this morning with the dogs. The weather is not cooperating and was raining lightly when we left the house, but we were dressed for it. Jama even has a raincoat! 

           

After that, we headed out to Kevin’s for breakfast and then came back to gather up everything for the trailer. Cathye made ham and cheese sliders and also hot cider and a fruit and veggie tray.  We got everything set up and ready. It was a really nice afternoon! We had folks drop in most of the day.  We were there for several hours so I had to ask Penny to go over to the house and feed butthead and let her out. It was a long day and we were tired at the end of it, but it was fun!  

Sunday, October 31^th., 2021……  Happy Halloween!  We don’t get any trick-or-treaters at the house, but we had a bag of candy just in case. Of course, we knew Corey would be bringing the kids over and we had a package ready for them. Cathye had bought some stuff in Vermont, and they liked that in addition to their treats. Other than that one visit, it was a quiet day. We watched tv until bedtime.

Monday, November 1^st., 2021……  Today we needed to go see Cathye’s stepson, Jamie, to take him out for breakfast and to give him his ‘allowance’. Jamie is currently in his own HUD housing apartment in Albany.  He has state workers looking in on him and they have staff coming over weekly to clean his apartment. Cathye’s good friend, Robin, has volunteered to go over there the first three Mondays of the month to drop off money and to help straighten up and make sure he is eating correctly. Cathye will go over to visit and take him out for dinner or breakfast. We are thinking he will need to go into assisted living sooner than later. If he wanted more sun and warmer days, maybe he will consider relocating to Phoenix, where his aunt and brother both live.  Time will tell….  We finished up the evening watching Dancing With the Stars.  The remaining dancers are all improving so much this season, that it’s anyone’s game!    

Tuesday, November 2^nd., 2021……  Another quiet day, with nothing on the agenda. It was chilly this morning, so we layered up for the dog walk! I went out with sweatpants on and just left them on for the day!  Now, that’s a first for me! We hung around the house and got bills paid. I’m learning about her finances, and she is understanding mine. Neither of us has much to pay, other than utilities, so it will be a smooth transition. I have already moved her onto my family phone plan so that is done. Later, we headed off to our local feed/hardware store (Wilco) because they are having a two-day-sale. Dog food/pet supplies and hardware are 20% off so we both stocked up on a couple of bags.   We got home and were done for the day. We ate dinner and planned the rest of the week. We also spent some time talking about the trip to Branson. Since I have a National Emerald Club card with aisle service, I got to rent the car for the trip. That was easy but I did have to go back and re-register with them since I haven’t used it much these last several years. But I like just going directly to the cars and choosing which one I want. We’ll see what they have when we get there. The Branson trip is Nov. 15^th-20^th. More on that as we get closer….