Mini-Vegas Missouri

It was a long 4-hour drive from Arkansas to Branson, Missouri. The road was slippery due to the rain. We took the long zigzag way. The view was more plains, forests, farms and no towns at all. It was raining and cold at 59 degrees. I did not sleep at all as I enjoy the experience and would like to make sure I can write something about it. We reached Branson and had good buffet lunch before we went to the wax museum. We had fun taking photos almost the whole afternoon. We wanted to do the Aqua ducks but because of the weather we decided to skip this activity. We completed our trip by going to a Premium outlet (Nike outlet, Old Navy, Rue 21, Tommy Hillfiger, Disney, Coach, Levis’ etc) where we bought more gifts to be brought back to Philippines.

Branson, Missouri is a nice place. It looks like it is sitting on top of the mountain. I can consider it as a mini-Vegas with entertainment from one corner to another. It's a busy city and I can tell by the number of shoppers at the outlet that business is doing well in this place. It also seemed that lots of local tourists visit the place, that is based on the cars parked around. Though it is much simpler than Vegas, or I can say it is comparable to the busy Cavill Ave in Gold Coast. Well this comparison is just based on a day experience at Branson. I believe if we stayed few days I will discover a lot more of things about this state.

Driving back home was via Harrison way, a longer way but safer road as we passed few towns after towns. It was a long, dark drive with thunder and lightning which made it really very scary for me. It was my first time to travel in the midst of lightning and flash-flood watch. Luckily there was no tornado watch. It was such a different experience. I asked Leng and Robin to stop at one of the towns and spend the night in one of the hotels but Leng said it is safe to travel back. She convinced me that I did not have to worry because Robin’s driving is safe and slow. I slept to ease my fear while getting courage by holding on to my rosary. We reached the house in Arkansas at around 2am with Leng taking on the wheel from Robin when it was just an hour drive to Jonesboro. Whew! This is just a practice of the next road trips we are going to take. Tomorrow is back to Memphis, Tennessee and Mississippi.