Our weekend trip to Branson, Missouri

Robin and I just felt like getting away from our keyboards, our daily work and other, monotonous activities, and leaving the confines of our home to experience some place new and different. We have been semi-stuck in the house since mid-March. Other than a weekly trip to Kroger or Wallmart and once visiting our friends and their kids at their home, we have not really done anything outside. Robin has been going for walks in the neighborhood, but that has been it. Nothing normal for four months!

We have read some good things (and also not-so good things) about Branson, Missouri. Feeling like it might be a nice getaway sometime in the fall, we booked Airbnb for two-weeks thinking that it might be relaxing to see bright colors everywhere and walk on the orange leaves again, surrounded by morning autumn breeze—something we do not really experience here in Texas—it is either hot summer or mild winter in the Lone Star state! However, we could not wait until October and decided to check this place out before committing to two weeks in a place we have never been to.

I took a day off on Friday and we packed our small travel bags and drove off around 7AM. Since we have never been to Arkansas or Missouri, I spent some time on Thursday looking up the best route to take and I followed Google Maps recommendation--how adventurous of me! Well, seeing that a drive to Branson from our home would take at least seven hours, we wanted to get there as quickly as possible to maximize our time there.

I think we enjoyed the drive and the scenic I-49 leg from Alma to Fayetteville, AK was especially pleasant and surprising. We both love mountains, hills and forests, and we got just that! We opted before to drive to Colorado for a change of scenery but that is two-day trip from DFW, one-way. (Robin prefers not to drive and I don't want to fall asleep at the wheel.)

Our impressions of Branson

A couple of days might not be enough to form solid impressions of a place, but it is sufficient, I think, to tell if we like the place. Overall, none of the local attractions and shows caught our interest. We are both rather fond of nature and fake entertainment is not worth our time. So we took Saturday to try to find a good vistas of the Table Rock lake.

Perhaps we should have prepared a list of possible spots ahead of time. One day is not enough to find them on your own. As the sun shone brighter and hotter as hours passed, it lowered our chances for clear and well-lit photos.

I also wanted to get the feel of the Ozark Mountains. I did not realize how long a drive through the park would take. After a good few hours driving from the Dogwood Canyon Nature Park through Eureka Springs we came down to Ozark on the other side of I-40. (I do not remember seeing a town that looked as abandoned and yet standing as Ozark.) From there I wanted to take Robin on another scenic route we saw signs of on I-49 the day before and I noticed Artist Point on the map thinking we could get a nice view and another opportunity to get a few good shots. Well, it turned out to be closed. We made our way back through Fayetteville and took some country roads north of the Table Rock Lake to finally get back to Branson around 5PM.

We liked the forests and rocks on the side of the roads. South Missouri and Arkansas are so green compared to Texas! We probably will not go back to Branson any time soon and I will cancell our stay in October, but knowing that pine trees, meadows and lakes, and rivers are not that far away gives us a few ideas about possible future getaways.