We finally had a day off after working three days straight. Not really all that hard, yanno...three hours in the afternoon...well, er, that's for me. Paulie had to work 5 hours each shift. Poor fella. Driving around in that little chug-chug golf cart is really tough. Oh yeah, some days he must water flowers or run the blower to keep the streets clean. He does check bathrooms for me, which is nice. Work camping is certainly not difficult. We are not full, but this weekend for the holiday we are pretty well booked. The RV's are getting bigger and bigger it seems, and we can only handle about 6 big rigs. This little campground was built maybe 20 years ago when a 28'er was big. Plus we are built on the side of a hill, each spot carved out of the landscape stairstep fashion. Many of our guests are just weekend campers and get white knuckly when they see how they must either pull in or back into their spots. Lots of trees, and a tight turn at the bottom of the hill right by the office. I can peek out the side window and see the faces of the drivers and it can be quite amusing. We also get a lot of calls fishing for info on pricing. It isn't cheap to camp in Branson, unless you want to drive a long way. Even the outter lying parks are pricy. The Corp. of Engineers Park at the Lake is beautiful as is the Missouri State Park. Unfortunately, their lakeside sites are underwater and limiting the number of campers they can take. I am seeing numerous cancellations in our books too, no doubt due to the price of fuel. Diesel is like $4.67 here. Ya think it'll go down by the time we leave in August? Nah, we prolly will have to stay here forever.



Since it was our day off, we went off to ride the Branson Belle, the paddle boat dinner show venue. Quite a treat. I will certainly suggest that place to folks. It is a bit pricey...$50 per person for dinner...that hurts. But since Paul and I are work campers and now possess a MO State ID, it only cost us the price of the meal...$25 for each of us. Still pricey to me at 50% off, but then I am a cheapskate at heart. Dinner was a delish beef tenderloin, a nasty chicken cordon blah, mashed taters and mixed veggies, steamed of course. Good bread, great salad with Silver Dollar City Vidalia Sweet Onion dressing. (the Branson Belle is owned by the same company as Silver $, Celebration City, The Ducks, the waterpark and Dixie Stampede, they must own most of Branson....). The entertainment was good...the usual four singers, two guys, two gals who sing and dance well, a good band, and an unusual Russian act. The husband-wife team do a kinda aerial act with what looked like sheets looped on chains. I guess you hafta see it to understand. Very enjoyable. Then the ventriloquist. I hate ventriloquists...along with jugglers, clowns and oh yeah, flying monkeys. Call me nuts, but somewhere in my childhood, I must have had some sort of frightening experience with a clown. I hate clowns. Ventriloquists creep me out...I think I saw a horror movie about them once. I find jugglers stupid. Especially the idiots who toss around knives. Just my luck, I'd see some fool cut off his hand. Flying monkeys are self-explanatory. That damm Wizard.



Back to the show...I will admit however, this guy, the ventriloquist, used real dogs in his act. He had some sort of muzzle on the dogs to do the flapping lips thing. He asked basic dog type questions...like why do you do this or that. The dog answers are hilarious. I laughed the whole time he was up there which says alot.



After we docked, we went off to the Mansion for a VIP performance from Red Skelton. Yeah, he's really dead but the show is a tribute to his comedy. The actor who performs is wonderful. He has all the mannerisms and wandering joke lines Red was famous for. Great show, and really a treat since he never uttered a four letter word or did obscene jokes. I will recommend this to everyone also, however his shows are at 10:00 in the morning!

Well, I have to get dressed and head down the hill to my "job". This morning I work 8 to 12. I will have Paulie bring the camera and take some photos of the place now that the trees have filled in nicely and we are having beautiful weather.

hugs

dee