In Branson, MO

So, where you been?   Oh, it's me that hasn't been.  Got good WIFI tonight here in Branson, MO.  Just got back from Dolly Parton's Stampede.  Went mostly so we could see/hear the Goldwing Express, known here as the White River Wranglers, do the pre-stampede show.

Having trouble with computer, so won't upload any photos tonight.

Is raining hard right now at the Pea Patch RV just off 76 Highway in Branson at 8:50 pm.  If you have ever been in an RV with it raining you know it is loud -- looks like forecast is for it to rain all night and some tomorrow.  Hope to pull out early in the morning and head for Cape Girardeau, MO where will visit with my brother Don and his wife Vicki tomorrow evening and then Friday head to Marengo, IA in eastern Iowa for the weekend.

We spent two nights near Pawhuska, OK, leaving there this morning.  Visited the sales place (The Merecantile) of the Pioneer Woman, and then yesterday drove some 17 miles north on rock road into The Tallgrass Prairie Preserve  The Joseph H. Williams Tallgrass Prairie Preserve is the largest (39,650 acres) protected remnant of tallgrass prairie left on earth. Due to urban sprawl and conversion to cropland, this ecoregion, originally spanning across 14 states from Texas to Minnesota, have left less than 4% remaining of this magnificent landscape. Since 1989, The Nature Conservancy in Oklahoma has proven successful at restoring this fully-functioning portion of the tallgrass prairie ecosystem with the use of 2,500 free-ranging bison and a "patch-burn" model approach to prescribed burning.   There was a visitor's center out there in the middle of nowhere and several volunteers giving info on the area.  Quite interesting.  Took a half-day to drive out and back and  the back of the pickup (inside the cap) really got dusty.  

Also walked across a swinging bridge that was built in 1926 and re-worked in the 1970's.  Will show pictures later.

Today we had lunch with a cousin of Phyllis' - Don & Bessie Runyan - in Gravette, Arkansas.

More when have good WIFI, Lynn