Day 51 Tuesday June 18/13 Grove, Oklahoma 15010 kms

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Missouri tucked in her shirt, tied her shoelaces and wore her prettiest hat for us today, under blue, non-humid skies. We changed plans and decided to try route 76 west today, with no destination in mind. We continued to ride through Mark Twain's forest, and then mostly countryside on this quiet two lane road. The road was fantastic - and several times, we were able to reenact the Ikea commercial, minus the mattresses, on rolly polly hills that plants your butt into the seat in the troughs, and puts your stomach in your mouth at the crests, especially if we throttled up. Which we did of course each time! I wouldn't want to be in the back seat of a car doing the same thing. What a change in scenery and topography from yesterday.
We stopped for coffee in a small town called Dickens, where the local fertilizer salesman talked with us for some time. He told us that Canada imports all the aromatic cedar used in closets from a small factory 8 miles up the road. He also told us that beef is big business in these parts, as well as tourism dollars which we would soon see first hand. OK, now you have my attention, and I wondered for the next half hour's riding what he was talking about. The temperature got up to 32 today, but with little humidity it was bearable as long as you were moving on the bike, or in the shade if stationary.We made it into Oklahoma, and are at the Best Western with an outdoor pool and heavy duty air conditioning.So, about those tourism dollars. Over to Ian to tell you about Branson, Missouri.Our first impressions was it was on the water which is a plus. Our hopes soared thinking that we may get on the water again and we contemplated staying overnight here as there were a couple of small dinner cruise paddlewheelers that looked interesting. Also, a train tour right from downtown old historic Branson. And a cute free trolley that drives around town, past lots of touristy shops. This was our first impression. Sadly it started to decline. We read some information about the cruises. We knew they would be disappointing for us as they only id a small loop around the lake with little to see. The train trip was only 40 minutes out and back with little scenery. We decided to have a coffee after spending an hour and a half in the town and carry on. Luckily or unluckily, we chose the route 76 that continued through Branson West. What we rode straight into was a mix of Disneyland, Las Vegas, Blackpool UK and several cruise ship ports all put into one area. It was 25 minutes of over the top gaudy plastic statues of Elvis, fake facade of the Titanic, go cart tracks every block, hotels designed to look like everything from New Orleans, Mardi Gras, Nashville, Memphis, New York New York, electronic billboards everywhere, mini golf, with a gigantic King Kong statue, water park, huts selling time shares, other huts selling half price show tickets. The key difference is there is no gambling here, and in the right circumstances a family could have a great time here. But it would have to be what you are looking for. Quite a contrast from 35 minutes earlier being in the unspoiled countryside, with pastures and cows and salesmen. I think we did right deciding to leave.

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