On the Road Again or On the Way to Branson

When we came back to Elkhart in May, we didn't plan on spending all summer there plus some of the fall.  We didn't realize how sitting in one spot that long would affect us.  On our travels down to Florida and back we had become so smooth in loading and hooking up the trailer to the motor home.  At one point in Florida we had some people actually stand and applaud after we had hooked everything up.  We sort of forgot everything during the past 6 months.  It was like we were starting out new again.  Not only were we rusty but so were the tie down straps.  It seemed like we were doing everything backwards.

Getting on the road was exciting and  there weren't a lot of cars on the road.   I love it when we have the road to ourself.  We saw several wind turbines, which I always find fascinating.  The trip seemed to be going good.

Coming through Springfield, Mo., we missed one of our turns.  Of course our gps rerouted us, so that didn't seem too bad.   .  We ended up going down this narrow road with cars parked on both sides.  Remember we are a 40 ft motor home with a 25 ft trailer.  By the time we were a little  ways down the road we had figured out we had made a wrong turn.  Then we had to  figure out out how to get turned around.  There were some sharp turns but we made it.  I should have taken some pictures but that was the last thing I was thinking about.   When we got back to where we had made the wrong turn, we saw that we had turned one road to soon.  Boy, we have got to get more observant. 

Then when we got to Branson, boy what a mess.  There was construction  on the exit going into Branson  so traffic was backed up.  I thought, I should have seen if there was another way to our campground.  We actually drove through downtown Branson.  That wasn't too smart.  Then as we are coming in I see a sign that says bridge out,  Then I see a sign that says detour.  So I am thinking we don't want to get down there and have the road closed and no way to get turned around.  So I figured we better take the detour.  We turn and are in the middle of bumper to bumper traffic and not even sure where we are going.  We never did see another detour sign.   In the mean time I am on the phone talking to a girl at the registration desk of the campground.  She tells us they have built another bridge next to the one that is out.   We are not seeing any more detour signs so we decide to turn right, not sure why.   We end up coming back around to where we had taken the detour.  We decided to go for it.   There were a couple of tight turns but we made it. 

We get to the entrance to the campground and we are heading back through a golf course.  I am thinking what have we gotten ourselves into since the road is pretty narrow.    We get to the campground but we don't see any place to check in.  We have condos on the right and the campground on the left.  We come to the end of the road and there is a sharp turn and the road goes downhill.  So Ed stops, gets out and walks a little ways down.  It is more condos and the road ends with a circle drive at the bottom.  We were so glad we didn't go down there.

The campground is up on a hill next to where we are at, but we had went a little ways pass it.  We saw a spot we thought we could get into so we decided to go ahead and pull in and then find out where to register.  We had to back up, which isn't  an easy feat.  We pulled into the camp site.  The motor home went in fine but the trailer was angled and there was a tree in the way.  There wasn't any way to get it in short of chopping down the tree.  I know some of you are probably surprised Ed didn't do it.   So Ed decides to unhook the trailer.  We are on a slant, so he put the hitch on a block.  We pull the motor home up and back the Jeep up to the trailer.  The trailer hitch is way to high for the Jeep.  Ed tries to knock the block out, that didn't work.  We tried a couple of other things and nothing work.  So we realized we had to move the Ranger back to take off some of the weight off the hitch.  We move it to the middle, strap it down.  Then try again, it is still to high.  Then Ed realizes the Ranger needs to go all the way to the back of the trailer.  But we had strapped it down. So we had to take the straps off and move it back.  We mess with it and finally got the hitch connected with the Jeep. 

The registration desk said the trailer had to be in an overflow parking lot.  So we take it up there, get it in a spot.  Then we found the registration desk and went back to the camp site.  So we got to Branson at 4:30 and we actually got set up and into the motor home at 8:30.  The whole process had taken 4 hours.  By the time we were done I was so stressed.   I really enjoy what we are doing when we get to where we are going and get set up.  I just don't know if I am cut out for the process in between. 

Ed says we were doing everything backwards and making everything more difficult.  We have got to get better.

We have been in Branson 6 days.  We were going to stay 4 days.  We have met up with 2 other couples and have  just been hanging out and enjoying the fellowship.  The one couple is heading to Arizona, so we are planning on meeting up with them there. The time has went fast and Branson is a nice place to visit.

 These are our new friends.

So all is ending well but last  Friday evening I really had my doubts.    Tomorrow we hid the road again.  We need to pray.


HAPPY TRAILS.    ED AND LYN