Stan and Connie Spielbusch's Web Site

StanAndConnie.com

November 2000

Christmas in Branson

November 6th - 12th, 2000

Well, not exactly Christmas, but it definitely felt like it. We attended a week-long Newmar rally in Branson Missouri, which included 10 shows (almost 2 per day!), plus a ride on the Ducks and some great meals. I have to say that we were getting a little tired of going to shows (especially since most of them were at least half Christmas music), but it was still a lot of fun. I especially enjoyed Paul Harris, the comic half of the Pierce Arrow show, and the Ronnie Prophet show, particularly because it's a very small show and you can talk to Ronnie and the other cast members personally. Of course, no complaints about the Rockettes either!

Unfortunately it was difficult to take good photos in the shows due to their lighting, so I won't post any here. You'll just have to go see for yourself ;-)

We also visited the Ripley's Believe It Or Not museum, which was more impressive than I expected. It took a couple hours to view all of the oddball artifacts and amazing oddities there. Here are a few items: a life-size wooden car that actually rolls, a real shrunken head, a robot made of disposable razors, and Connie in a deep-sea diver's helmet.

(Click photos to enlarge)

Later we visited the brand new Veteran's Memorial Museum. It has a good display of artifacts from World War I through the Gulf War. Some unique things include Adolf Hitler's dog tag, a life-size sculpture of 50 soldiers storming a beach (with the faces carved in the image of 50 actual soldiers who died in the war, one from each state), and a wall with the names of every soldier who died in World War II (shown behind the sculpture below -- it goes almost all the way around the room).

All in all, the best part of the rally was making new friends. Even though we were the youngest couple there (out of about 50 couples), we were warmly welcomed and thoroughly enjoyed making new friends. Of course this is typical of all of the places we've been, especially among fellow RV'ers, but that doesn't make it any less notable.

Thank you for visiting our travel site. Please visit our other sites too:

Campground Master -- A tracking program for your campground or inn. Easy to use and learn, but modern and powerful. One of the most inexpensive systems, great for small campgrounds. Designed by campground owners and full-time RVers.

MysteryPhotos -- Every week a new photo is shown, which may be a close-up of something, or a section of a common object or sight. Guess what it is and you might win a prize. Lots of fun for the whole family! Free screensaver and wallpaper too.

Awesome Screen Savers -- Cool photographic screen savers of the highest quality, for Windows PC's. Download FREE Lite versions of them all. Some are created with photos from our travels, some are awesome photos from NASA. (Contact me to have a screen saver made with your own photos!)

Cottonwood Software -- My shareware business site, currently featuring File-Ex 98: a Windows 95/98 dialog enhancement tool. Great for people who work with a lot of files.

Free -n- Cool -- Tons of Freebies, Giveaways, and Cool Sites -- all in one! You'll find a large selection of free samples you can get mailed to you, free games, screen savers, internet services, etc., plus hundreds of contests of all types, and a unique "intensely cool sites" list.