It was still too early for dinner so we went to Montana Mikes
for some drinks. The margarita was so good we stayed for another
and then for dinner. I had a catfish poor boy that was very good.
It was so large, I brought at least a third of it home.
We went back to the condo, where the girls and I checked out the
Indoor pool then the outdoor. There were some huge horseflies
claiming the outdoor pool so we went back to the room for some
cookies, tv and then to bed.
August 21, Monday.
I went to 9:00 Mass since this was the 40th day
since Remy's passing. It was sad, still is. In addition it was
a feast day for St. Pius X, the name of the parish I am currently
registered. On the way back I picked up eggs, sausage and some
other items for breakfast. Aida cooked.
Then we prepared for our main reason for coming here, to
view the eclipse. The % of full in this area is 94%.
The Weather was clear and we set up at the pic nic tables near the
ouside pool. We ate watermelon while viewing it.
We didn't stay until the sun was all uncovered, instead we went
to the Dinosaur Museum. I think they were a little disappointed
in this one. It has a lot big models of dinosaurs and a movie
that wasn't that child friendly. I guess they aren't into
dinosaurs as much as they thought going into it. The lighting made
it difficult to get clear pictures.
After that David cruised the old town area looking the 5 & 10
store. We found it. The girls wanted everyting they saw. I got a shot
glass for Geneviv's collection and a raingauge. After that we ate
dinner at Bob Evans. I had the chicken fried steak with gravy.
It was good, but I'm probably overdoing my sodium intake. Oh well
it will flush out next week.
August 22, Tuesday.
We woke up to lots of wind and rain, just as the news predicted the evening
before. We changed our plans to visit the Talking Caverns today
since it wasn't likely to rain down in the cavern. Got a few more
eggs and other supplies for Aida to cook breakfast, then made our
way to the caverns.
It wasn't raining much as we got to the caverns. First we did
the guided one hour walking tour. It wasn't as large as Carlsbad
Cavern, and they sealed it so that there are no bats in residence.
The guide talked about the cave's discovery and history.
He pointed out the various colors caused by the the mineral
deposits and other geological information during the tour.
He tells a story about how the original explorers of the cavern
heard voices that ended accounts for the name: "Talking Rocks Cavern".
You might have to take the tour to get a better explanation of the
story.
Near the end he took a group picture of us that I included at the
beginning of this section.
While everyone else was looking over the merchandise in the main
building, I checked out the nature trails. There were four nature
trails with various degrees of difficulty, none of which appeared
to be that difficult. So I went back in to see who all was interested.
David chose to stay behind and the four of us headed out. Aida's
shoes weren't the best for outside walking so we ended up cutting
off on to the shortest option. (I'm not saying she slipped and fell).
It was pretty slippery on the path because of the rain.
So the girls seemed to enjoy the large rock formations and
several different colored mushrooms that were growing along the
trail. It was a nice walk and felt great to be surrounded by trees.
We don't have so many of them in Corpus Christi.
When I left the gift shop, I saw a waterwheel that was then
delivering water to a trough. A butterfly brought me to a cute
lady and her little girl who had been next to us on the mine tour.
They were washing away “mining rough” and finding gems. She told
me you buy bags
of sand in the store and wash it away to reveal gems. They were
having some good success, so I went back in and bought a bag.
When I returned I saw Madison navigating a rat tunnel.
It was called the Speleo Box. It involved a crawl through a
maze of winding and twisting passages. Maddy was about 3/4 of
the way through. Eventually she emerged from the end. Sofia started
to enter, but quickly changed her mind and backed out.
So I showed them the sand and brought them to the sluice station.
I started to explain the process to them, but saw the cute women
hadn't left and asked her to explain the process to them. They
quickly caught on and started uncovering some colorful "gemstones".
We eventually left there and headed into town. We've been passing
by Andys Frozen Custard stand every day and today we had to turn
around and try him out. There was no one there when we stopped, but
once our car was there everyone else decided to chance it. I went
for the bannana split. It was good, but too much. Others did
various Sundaes. No
one complained. A lot of the other customers decided to stop in when
they saw us there. We should get a commission.
We also had tickets for the "Hamners' Unbelievable Variety Show".
It wasn't scheduled to start until 8 pm so we had some time to
kill. We drove around town some before we headed to the show.
We got there around 7 pm and they were just opening up the doors.
We went in and sat down. They started
showing some films of old time magicians, mostly Black and White
movies.
Dave and Denise Hamner - Master Magicians. Dave Hamner was the
MC and the main magician. He was good.
He kept pulling out birds from everywhere. The show also included
singer immitators. One dude could do multiple changes of voices
and switched then on and off without delay. We also noticed that
the other performers sold us the tickets, took our group picture,
or brought us to our seats, etc. Everyone there appeared to have
multiple functions.
After the show, I bought our group picture taken as we entered
the theatre. Then I got the performers to all sign it. Aida and the
girls went back stage to get their picture taken with the gorilla.
August 23, Wednesday
We are on vacation so we had a late breakfast. Aida made her sweet
cream of wheat concotaction. I don't remember the name but it
involves using sweetened condensed milk. It was good, but I went
after the garlic kielbasa. That is more to my breakfast taste.
On our agenda for today is the "Butterfly Palace and Rainforest
Adventure". It doesn't open until 9 am. We entered
there not too sure where to start. We entered the
Emerald Forest Mirror Maze. You had to navigate your way in
a mirror maze until you found your way out the other end.
We were never realy sure if the next
turn would be the way out or a dead end! Eventually we found our way
out. Later the girls did this trip mutiple times.
Next we did the living rain forest adventure which was kind of strange.
The walk somewhat mimiced a trek through a jungle in that you had
to keep moving bands of stretch rope to make your way. This is
different, but odd.
Then we went upstairs to the butterfly tent. The entry and exit
was monitored closely. We were handed an artificial flower
for the butterflies to land on. At first Sofia wasn't buying into
the program, but later her fear subsided and she was able to get
some butterflies to feed at her hand. There was a live butterfly
release at 1:30. One of hands brought in containers of recently
hatched butterflies and let the kids dump them out for their first
flights.
After the release we went into the theatre. I think you were
supposed to watch the the 3-D Movie before you
enter the butterfly tent. It was an interesting movie of the
migration and life cycles of the monarch butterfly. The girls then
started making rounds through the mirror maze.
At 2:30 they had what was called a critter encounter. This
happened at the Insect Zoo. The Zoo had geckos, tree frogs,
and insects from around the world roam inside their terrariums.
One of the hands brought out a lizard, that she explained some
characteristics and allowed people to touch.
You can also explore the
We went to the big chicken for lunch. Apparently their name is
The Great American Steak & Chicken House.
Their chicken and dumplings
was pretty good but it had plenty more dumplings than chicken.
Back at the condo we rested up for a little while, before
heading to the inside pool to do some swimming for an hour or so.
Later we saw on the news that Hurricane Harvey was headed just north
of Corpus Christi. We thought about heading back in the morning
and checking its progress. Perhaps we'd stay in Dallas or San
Antonio, just to be closer to home.
August 24, Thursday
We ate breakfast and put on the news again. Decided to pack up
and head back. We had tickets for the Dixie Stampede that evening
which the girls really wanted to see. After packing everything up
I checked out. We went back through Branson and got a refund on
those tickets then continued back home.
Regina called while we were on route and offered for us to
stay with her in San Antonio. We told her we'd check the hurricanes
path and if it continued to go north of Corpus we wer going home
but if it headed to south of Corpus, we might take her up on it.
We got home around 4 am. I filled up my wine jugs with water and
started filling every other container that I could freeze water in
to put in the freezor. Then I backed the car out of the garage and
moved everything off my boards and started to board up.
It was getting pretty windy when I finished with the west side
windows. George came by and helped with the last ones I had clips for.
Links:
Kimberling Inn
Our Lady of the Cove Parish.
Ripleys Believe It or Not
Branson Dinosaur Museum
Talking Rocks Cavern
Andy's Frozen Custard
Hamner's Unbelievable Variety Show
Butterfly Palace and Rain Forest Adventure
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