Day 13 7/19 - We lose a travel mate, Alex goes home

A day of laundry, relaxing before we had to head off to the airport to let off our travel buddy, Alex.

Something about a week with two old folks and a four year old.... We are surprised he is still sane....

Day 12 7/18 - A day of Harleys and Legos

Alex and Leroy took an early morning trip to the Kansas City Harley Davidson Vehicle and Power Train Operations. 

Unfortunately we were not able to get in until the 11:00 am tour. By that time the workers were off to lunch. Still it was an interesting tour. We were able to see the lines, though not nearly as close up as at the Sierra Bullet Company.  Something  about OSHA and all.

They were building models for delivery all over the world. They must comply with each country’s vehicle safety requirements,  turn signal light configuration here, max decibel level there.  Each bike is painted according to the customers specs. Every bike on the line had already been sold and contained a pedigree which included the buyer, delivery country, configuration, etc.

We did get to sit on a couple of the Harleys but alas, no samples though…

An afternoon trip to Lego Land Kansas City for Rosalie, Susan and Leroy.  Rosalie’s intro to the wonderful world of Legos.

 

Cup cake lessons. Who is teaching whom??? 

Day 11 7/17 - Road Trip to Kansas City, Mo

One of the factory tours we found by searching for "Missouri Factory Tours" on Google was on the way, so we stopped in Sedalia to tour Sierra Bullet Company,  a premier maker of highly accurate bullets.

We couldn’t believe that the bullet company allowed such an up close and personal tour of the plant, even allowing us to have the casings as they came off the line….and the idea of having a 4 year old at a manufacturing plant with high-speed equipment was pretty unusual.  But, as always, Rosalie was a trooper and kept up with us and acted like she really knew what was going on.

 

Sierra is running a 24 hour operation and sounds like they have about 8 month back log of orders to fill. They are expanding but of course do need to be prudent about it to avoid the feast and famine cycle. They ship all over the world with the majority of their customers being re-loaders, those that reload expended cartridges.

Lunch in one of Sedalia's city parks, then back on the road

Arrived at Basswood RV park late, but not yet dark.

Passport America membership has now been paid back in camp ground savings.

Day 10 7/16 - A morning swim in the Lake of the Ozarks State Park public beach number 2

We got out early (for us any way) and headed to one of the two public beaches in Lake of the Ozarks state park.

It was a very nice area. Great picnic places scattered in the woods above the lake finger that was the swimming beach, great swimming as the water did not drop off very quickly at all.

We arrived about 11 and had the place to ourselves. Just as we were wondering if the place was closed due to some plague or something, others started to arrive. It did get pretty busy after awhile.  

 

One of our few trips to McDonalds for drive through and then  lunch back at the pool,

Trip to Walmart to stock up on supplies later in the day.  

Day 9 7/15 - Spelunking and dinner by the lake

We took a late afternoon run to the Lake of the Ozarks Cave.

Not a large cave by any means. Apparently just a few hundred bats in residence but we only saw one roosting. They are very concerned about the white nose disease hitting the bat population, so we had to swear we had not visited another cave recently, then had to remove all non washable items before entering the cave.

 

Capped off the day with dinner at another lake side restaurant, Back Water Jacks. More ducks and boats and a bit of live music this time. Bought one of their CDs. I must say they were better live as an acoustic duo.

Day 8 7/14 - Road trip, off to Lake of the Ozarks

We are now one week into our "webegone" life and it was time to pack up and head to Lake of the Ozarks, about 120 miles north in Missouri.  We must be getting better at packing up since it only took us about 2 hours to get up and going.  And I must be getting somewhat better at navigating since I didn't notice Leroy biting his tongue or grinding his teeth as much as on other road days, nor did we have to turn around even once this time(!),,,,,,uh, wait  a minute, yes, we did, but only once.  Fabulous lunch at the roadside park, as the trucks and cars whizzed by.  I did learn one thing about 18-wheelers and Rosalie.  Not a smart thing for me to wave at the truck as it went by just a few yards away.  Truckers really like for you to wave to them and they always respond with a very long blast of their very loud horn.  Not a fun thing for a 4 year old.

Made it to Osage Beach with no problems and got settled in less than an hour (a miracle!).  Had dinner on the lake at a really cool restaurant "Shorty Pants".  Lots of boats, lots of ducks, great sunset. 

Day 7 7/13 - A little Patsy, an evening play

Of all the thing I didn't expect to do with my grandson on this trip was to go to a Patsy Cline concert, just the two of us at a 9:00 A.M. (!) show.  And the amazing thing is that it was Alex's idea!  He's become quite the old country-western music fan.  We were disappointed that our schedule didn't work to go back that afternoon to see a Marty Robbins concert....maybe next trip to Branson.

Our stay ended by going to a "Branson must"", which was to attend the outdoor production of "Shepherd of the Hills".  This play has been going on for fifty years, from the very beginning of Branson becoming "the Las Vegas for families". Rosalie was really enthralled with all the action, gunplay, horses, sheep, dancing, and especially the ghost that popped up throughout the night.