My family finally got the opportunity to drive up north to spend a week in Branson, Missouri, a southern town I’d never been to before! Branson is a town full of family entertainment including: shows, amusement parks, lake activities, shopping, and a whole lotta fun!
We started out the trip in Texas, moseying on up through Oklahoma into Arkansas and stayed in Fayetteville for the night. We ate at a spectacular pizza place there located near the University of Arkansas called Marley’s Pizzeria and Bar. You had to walk through a little alleyway with trees to get to the restaurant. It was really aesthetically pleasing.
And their pizzas were amazing, and homemade. I had a delicious one called the “Stagger Lee” that had sausage, jalapeños, olives, and pepperoni on it. It was hearty with a kick. Even the crust was great! I highly recommend.
The next morning we headed out to Branson. Our map we were following directions on, was a GPS that is already manufactured into the dashboard screen. Well… ours took us on a bit of an adventure. It ended up taking us off of the main highways toward a scenic route. Granted, it was beautiful land with rolling hills, ranches, tons of trees. But then suddenly things took a turn when the road turned into gravel! All of the sudden our small Malibu was rolling over huge stones for miles. Our speed was 14mph! We were nervous our car wouldn’t be able to handle it, and it could until one moment…
We got to a very, very and did I mention VERY steep hill… of GRAVEL. We took a few tries getting up the rocky hill, and then finally after backing up and re-trying several times, we made it all in one piece. Phew.
We got off that dirt road about half a mile after the rocky hill of terror, and pavement came upon us again. That was the last stretch until we got to Branson.
We continued on that road until we peaked over a hill crest, and saw the town of Branson nestled into the hills and forests below, with the watertowers peaking above the tree lines.
After driving over several hills, we stopped at a Phillips 66 gas station. We went inside to see that half of the gas station was the convenience store, and the other half was the Branson Tourism Center. We stopped to pick up our show tickets, and get some maps from the man at the counter of the tourism center, and headed back to the car.
We started driving down the “Strip” where many of the main theaters lie, and it was bumper to bumper traffic. There isn’t a whole lot of lights in Branson, but they sure do cause a bit of a ruckus when it comes to stopping and going in cars. But the Strip was very pretty. There were many flashing lights on signs, tons of neon, and it gave the area an almost 1950s nostalgic vibe.
It took us a while to get through the traffic, but we finally got to our resort, the Wyndham Branson at the Meadows.
We got all our stuff inside, unpacked and relaxed for a bit until we decided we needed some grub. We looked up some restaurants online and saw that there was an Indian restaurant in town, and we love some Indian food. We actually remembered passing it on the way in! So we decided, hey, let’s go there!
We got back in the car, and drove back down the Strip toward the restaurant called, India Clay Oven. We got parked there, got inside, and it smelled heavenly. It was a small place, a bit crowded, but I wouldn’t expect anything less at a peak dinner hour in a tourist town.
We got our table and menus, and I decided on the chicken curry. It came with rice, and it was delicious. It was very very good Indian food. Our waiter was very kind as well, and even joked about me having to pay the ticket before handing it to my dad.
After dinner, we went back to the condo at the resort and chilled out before it was time to go to bed. It was definitely a full day of adventure so far!
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Wandering In The Westerlies 