Blogs from Missouri, United States, North America - page 9

Note the ‘que’ in parque. You might think it exudes elegance. Up and out of Branson at 8:30 Saturday morning. We had a 270 or so mile trip to St. Louis, one of our longest days, over roads we were not sure were not flooded (sorry, something about double negatives there.) I find the MODot web site very poor, and the app that you must download to use the website on your iPhone is even worse. Very frustrating. Google maps wasn’t much better for showing us closed roads. Son, Tim, suggested WAZE and the problem with that, if there are no cars driving on the road there is no data for that road and the app doesn’t show the roads closed. We drove by the seat of our pants. The condition of the US and Interstate ... read more

Weather watching has become a way of life on our Quest trip. That storm in Little Rock and the resulting floods up and down the Mississippi have made us very aware of rising water. ARDot and MODot iphone apps have become my new best friends. Another weather system was approaching quickly and we had to make it to Branson for our next reservation before it hit. The Branson campground told us we could come in the one day early we needed. Up early, I was very anxious to get on the road knowing what was waiting ahead. Again, on US 65, a really nice road in most parts, but it has some crazy turns and hills. We crossed the Buffalo River and saw the sign to the campground we were scheduled to stay at there and ... read more

Geo: 38.6276, -90.199Dot and I leave Monday morning - 5 am flight (ugh) to Chicago and from there to London. We arrive in London at 10:45 pm Monday night. Just in time to go to bed and recover from jet lag. We are staying at the Astor House in South Kensington, a small bed & breakfast. We have stayed there before and like the neighborhood. Friday we will head for France. Of course we will blog along the way and share our adventures.I invited Tom and Shannon to come visit us at O'Hare during our layover Monday morning, but they didn't seem to interested. I guess they have to work.... read more

U.S. Figure Skating Championships Kansas City, Missouri Pitch black and pouring rain as we leave home at 4 am and head for the airport. Park in the dark, scramble through the rain to the brightly lit and welcoming Fresno Air Terminal. Quickly through security with our Pre-Check tickets and on to Starbucks ;-) We are off to mark something off Jean’s bucket list. To see, in person, the US Figure Skating Championships. Yep, Kansas City here we come! We have never done something like this so are excited to see world class skaters, Ashley Wagner, Olympic Silver in 2016, Gracie Gold, two- time Olympic champion, Chen and Maia, brother and sister- World and US 2016 silver and Nathen Chen, U.S. 2016 bronze medalist and many others. Watching the inauguration in our room today, getting caught up ... read more

Geo: 38.6276, -90.199Not too much happened today.... we spent a lot of time telling Simon goodbye....the cat could care less we were leaving and so we drove to St. Louis, got to our hotel in time to walk next door and grab sandwiches from Denny's to go....watched the Cubs win the World Series! Actually, Kamie watched until it was tied at 6-6 and then he gave up on them and started snoring. I barely made it but the minute they won (almost midnight), I hit the remote and was out immediately.....our alarm was set for 3:30am for an early flight out of St. Louis.... read more

My first show in Branson was The Dublin Tenors and Celtic Ladies. It was a great concert with both groups performing on their own and then together. The Dublin Tenors entertained everyone with some great step dancing. I went to see the Oak Ridge Boys in a really impressive venue called The Mansion. I had seen them probably over 30 years ago and they still put on an incredible show. Joe Bonsall still has the energy and moves from years ago. William Golden still has his signature long beard and hair and can still bring a tear to your eye when he sings a favorite Gospel song. Richard Sterban still impresses with his bass solo in Elvira and Duane Allen still does amazing as the lead vocal of the group. A group of senior citizens that ... read more