Marlon Visits St. Joseph, Missouri and Surrounding Areas

Marlon spent about a week in St. Joseph visiting with family.

He watched as his great-nephew Dillon participated in a training exercise for his Firefighting School.

They performed an automobile extrication.

Dillon's cousin, Tempe, was trying to decide whether to be a firefighter or a forensic anthropologist.

The Savannah Middle School has been torn down and new school was built across town.

Tempe pondered that this would be a good chance to try out archaeology too.

Besides the gymnasium, the school safe was about the only thing left standing of the old school. This is a picture of the gymnasium.

Figuring she should wait on the really hard careers, Tempe turned to the career of doe-eyed model with assistance from Marlon's brother, Alan.

She is currently working on perfecting her profession.

After a hard day firefighting, Dillon might want to spend some relaxing times at this bar formerly owned by his grandparents.

He will have to wait until he turns 21, of course.

Marlon revisited Amazonia Elementary School where his early childhood education began.

Trina, Marlon's oldest sister, often sat upstairs in this building helping announce games at the baseball field. Marlon would keep score on the scoreboard, which is no longer standing.

The firehouse of Amazonia, Missouri can always use a few good persons.

For more pictures of Marlon's visit to St. Joseph, click here .

To be continued...

St. Louis, Missouri

Heading west from Bloomington, Indiana, we quickly entered Illinois.
Then we quickly left Illinois and were once again in our home state of Missouri.

We spent three nights in the historic St. Louis suburb of St. Charles, Missouri at the Sundermeier RV Park.

We drove by the famous St. Louis Arch.

We visited friends Matt and Jeff at their business, Four Muddy Paws.

A complete mutt store must include gourmet doggie treats...

resident dog food connoisseurs...

and self-service doggie wash bays.

We had a barbecue at our friends' mansion. It was a little bigger than our motorhome...

and the cat even had its own apartment!

The next day we took a bicycle tour of a new development nearby called New Town.

New Town features traditional homes, as well as housing inspired by cities in America and around the world, brought together in a small town community.

Row houses feature front stoops of yesteryear.

For more pictures, go to http://public.fotki.com/Marlonfleenor/1/2008/july/sundermeier-rv-park/ , http://public.fotki.com/Marlonfleenor/1/2008/july/visiting-matt-and-j/ and http://public.fotki.com/Marlonfleenor/1/2008/july/visiting-friends-at/ .

To be continued...

Branson Part 2 Titanic and Variety Show

Today we went to see the Titanic Museum which is the largest museum in the world devoted to the subject.

We were quite frustrated to pay over $20 per person and then not be allowed to take photographs anywhere inside the museum. No flash photography..okay..but what about pictures without a flash and videos...But wait...you can of course buy a video of the museum for another $20...NOT.

The museum was pretty interesting with its artifacts and information.

We were rebels and managed to snap this picture in the restroom.
After arriving back from Titanic, we attended a Variety Show in the activity center of Fall Creek Resort. It had a Mexican Fiesta theme.

The party included an "all you can put on your plate at one time" mexican buffet and performances by many of the stars of Branson area shows.

We managed to capture some video of the performances and put it together in a video below.

One star, Lisa Layne, sings the hit "All I Want For Christmas Is You." She let us take this picture with Marlon.

Marlon enjoyed playing in the sand at Fall Creek Resort with this Tonka truck.

For more pictures of Branson Part 2 go to http://public.fotki.com/Marlonfleenor/1/2007/september/titanic-variety-sho/ .

To be continued...

Fall Creek Resort and Branson Part 1

Today we left Carthage, Missouri and family behind to head on down the road to Branson, Missouri. Final destination Davenport, Florida.

We would be staying at Fall Creek Resort for 5 nights. Here was our campsite.

The sites seemed a little closer than most we had been in so far. But besides staying at the Palmer house for free, this resort was the lowest price we had paid for an RV site yet-$8.00 per night plus tax. It was part of the Coast to Coast Camping network which we joined in March with over 300 resorts around the country members can stay at for $8.00 per night. So far we had paid an average of about $20 per night everywhere we had been.

Fall Creek Resort is a huge complex consisting of 3 different campgrounds, multiple buildings which look like hotel rooms and multiple buildings of condos.

Here's Marlon relaxing in front of one of the ponds on the property.

Doug decides to stop on the bridge and contemplate life.

Marlon challenged Doug to a game of checkers...and won. Doug thinks and knows that checkers is a boring and stupid game.

Marlon's mom, Angie, just happened to be in Branson for the weekend with Georgie, Jack and Tanis. They all stopped by to visit us after their Saturday morning shopping spree across the border in Arkansas.

Sunday, we sought out show information. As it had just entered off season, our choices seemed to be somewhat limited. But we WERE able to find a show that we thought we would enjoy.

We opted for the Hamner Barber Variety Show. This show combines a little song, dance and comedy with a lot of magic and ventriloquism. We DID enjoy this show.

Co-Star of the Show Dave Hamner posed with Co-Star of the Blog Marlon.

Other Co-Star of the Show Jim Barber posed with Other Co-Star of the Blog Doug.

After the show we drove around Branson and happened upon the Table Rock Dam. This photo is of the Table Rock Dam Powerhouse.

We took the scenic drive above Branson to take this picture. We could actually make out the RV in the distance.

Here's the Co-Stars of the Blog. Again.

Sunday night we decided to go swimming and walked over to the activity center. Here's a view of Fall Creek Resort at night.

It took about 5 tries to get this non-blurry picture of Marlon swimming (he swims too fast).

For more pictures of Branson Part 1 go to http://public.fotki.com/Marlonfleenor/1/2007/september/fall-creek-resort-b/ and http://public.fotki.com/Marlonfleenor/1/2007/september/mom-georgie-jack--t/ and
http://public.fotki.com/Marlonfleenor/1/2007/september/hamner--barber-show/ .

To be continued...

Praying Hands and Hamburger Night at Linda's

Doug's Aunt Terri and Uncle Rodney came by for a look at the motorhome in the morning.

That afternoon we drove a little around the area and found one of Webb City's claims to fame: the Praying Hands Memorial.

Hands in Prayer...World in Peace...if only...

For information about the praying hands go to http://www.prayinghands.org/ .

After viewing the Hands, we first went to another Webb City claim to fame: Big Lots; then we headed to Linda's house for the Mayfield Family Hamburger Night. This is a regularly occurring event on Thursdays.

Linda's husband, Gary, grilled up the hamburgers and hot dogs. Doug's cousin, Kim, said you could find Gary out grilling even in the dead of winter.

Speaking of Kim, Doug finally managed to snap her picture. She wasn't too thrilled as she told us she had just finished mowing.

Aunt Patty came by too and we all had a nice visit...

that is, we had a nice visit until Jeff Foxworthy informed us all that we were NOT smarter than a fifth grader.

Linda (in her new glasses) and Marlon (who needs glasses) enjoy the fact that they aren't smarter than a fifth grader.

This was our last night visiting Doug's family. Thanks to everybody who came out and wished us luck.

For more pictures of Hamburger Night at The Mayfield's go to http://public.fotki.com/Marlonfleenor/1/2007/september/sightseeing-around-/ .

To be continued...