Pat's Birthday and Memorial Day in Branson, MO

On May 24th, we drove to Mountain Home and Mountain View, AR on my birthday and returned to Branson in time for us to have birthday dinner at Red Lobster, my favorite restaurant.  Maybe I should have made my picture the small size!   

We  had a nice Memorial Day.   This is not one of my favorite holidays because I can’t help but think of Ned (Ron’s brother that died in Vietnam) and so many others that gave their lives in defense of our country.  It is heart-breaking to see so many things changing in our nation.  It is now a fight to pray or teach biblical principles in schools; we have a president who refuses to salute the flag or the marines and doesn’t sing the Star Spangled Banner because it mentions “bombs bursting in the air.”   Nova Scotia will no longer have Mother’s Day or Father’s Day because the family is too diversified now so they will have an international family day instead.  No one can be honored anymore that has the values upon which this country was founded.  We lose more freedoms all the time and as our own government continues to control more and more, we will have even less freedom.   I don’t know what it will take to turn things around but the way it is going now, is very scary to us who have known what it was like in the 50’s and 60’s.  A man on the radio said the other day that our country is going down the tubes in a hand basket and we didn’t even make the hand basket.

We went to another RV park about 10 a.m. to meet Venton and Dorothy Haskins who have supported an orphan for more than 10 years.  They were camping at another park just 10 miles away.  We sat outside their 5^th wheel camper and talked about an hour and then they decided they would take up down the hill to their floating restaurant and treat us to lunch.  We’ve never been at a park that had a restaurant.  The service was slow even at 11 a.m. and the food was just O.K. but it was nice to spend time with this older couple that is so diligent in the church where they attend in Springfield, MO.   

We stopped in a frozen yoghurt place and shared an expensive treat.    We then went to Best Buy to try to find an adapter to add a bit more cord to an internet booster we bought.   The booster really does help to get an internet signal.   We spent several hours on Saturday, running the cord from the back of the RV where the antenna is located on top through the air-conditioning duct to the front of the RV where the box will be located to give the signal to the hot spot device.   We were short about 1’ of cord.  We didn’t find it at Best Buy, so he’ll have to order it on-line where he ordered the device and have it shipped to a church where we’ll be in a couple of weeks.   Our phones have not worked well at this park either. 

Ron measured the spot for the TV up front and found a digital on sale at Best Buy that was a very good deal to replace the old analog TV that will not work even with an adapter.  He bought two different adapters and there was no way to get TV on this old set.  This TV is my birthday present.   I hope we’ll be able to get the old TV out and the new one installed but it won’t be easy to fit it in and get it connected inside the cabinet space.   Ron works on his computer at night until he gets ready to go to bed, but I just can’t do that until 10 p.m.   After a day’s work, I really need to relax.  I enjoy some TV programs to get my mind off everything else and relax to sleep well.  I have not have TV for two months and I’ve missed it.  Because of not having it, I spend more time on the computer, reading the daily news  or checking facebook but then I get bored with that in a short time.

We drove north of Springfield to Conway, MO Sunday morning.  It was a very nice group of about 70 people.  Two young couples (with two little boys each) took us to lunch at a Mexican restaurant.  

Sunday night we didn’t have an appointment so we went into Branson to a little log cabin house that has been turned into a church building.  It’s mostly for tourists so there were not many there that night.   The minister is doing a wonderful job remodeling the building and it’s perfect for those coming to Branson for vacation.    I called it the little church in the Wildwood. 

 

Branson is very mountainous so it's spread out over a big area.  It is a beautiful city.  We drove right down the main street through the heart of Branson and saw lots and lots of hotels, theaters where the stars perform their shows, water parks, wax museum, bumper car rides, miniature golf and many restaurants, and lots of shoppes and tourist places like in Gatlinburg.   We learned that there’s an amusement park something almost like Six Flags here also.  The rolling mountains have wonderful views every direction you look.  
 

We left Aunts Creek Park on May 28th to drive to Bentonville, Arkansas.   For one hour, we were on winding, mountain roads.  On the 29th Ron went to the Walmart corporate office to put in an application for donations to Agape.  They give millions to charities every year.  He is hoping they will give medications for the hospital in Henan, China.  I don’t know if we will be successful but we have nothing to lose.  We will go to Fort Smith, Arkansas for the weekend.   I think Ron will speak at a church there on Sunday.  We will go through Searcy but not stay long.  I think there’s one congregation there.  He's waiting to hear from churches in Paragould and other cities along the way.

Our weather has been nice for several days.  It’s a little cool at night and warm during the day but not hot.  We always have a breeze but no more thunderstorms since Monday, a week ago when we had the tornado threat.