Branson, Missouri is a town of shows- music, comedy, Chinese acrobats, karate, animal, and variety. It was overwhelming trying to decide what to see and do. The campground made our first selection easier by giving us vouchers for $15.00 off each ticket at the Rankin Brothers show at the Mickey Gilley Theater. So Wednesday evening we went to see the 2 Rankin Brothers, Matt and Mark. Both brothers are wonderful musicians, Matt plays the guitar really well and Mark has a voice with a wide range.
The music they played was from the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s. They were backed up with 5 instrumental musicians and 3 female singers, one of the females is Peggy Lennon’s (Lennon Sisters) daughter. It was a really nice show. Today, Thursday, we went to the Jim Stafford show at the Jim Stafford Theater, another fine show.
Jim Stafford plays a mean guitar including classical, good story teller and comedian. He includes in his show his daughter, G.G., who plays the piano, harp and keyboard, and his son, Shea, who also plays the piano and then later the violin. Stafford sang his song “Cow Patti” and tossed cow patti’s out into the audience and we were the receiver of one- it was Styrofoam. We have been lucky getting tickets to the shows and having great seats, both times we have been in the middle of a row, Rankin we were in row 7 and Stafford we were in row 4. Obviously, this not the busiest season. It is possible to go to a show in the morning, the afternoon and then in the evening but we feel a show a day is enough for us.
Besides the shows, there are other things to do in this area. Yesterday we went to a couple of the shopping areas, a pedestrian mall downtown Branson and outlets malls.
We ate lunch at a Mexican restaurant and rode around the area. This morning we went to a state fish hatchery that raises Rainbow and Brown Trout for streams throughout Missouri, quite a large operation.
We had lunch at a Culver’s, a good hamburger and custard restaurant. The weather has been pretty nice- yesterday we were in shorts but last night the temperature dropped that today we were in long pants even though there was lots of sunshine.
