Holidays with Stacey in Florida

As we had been invited to spend Thanksgiving with Stacey in Florida, and Ashley's visit with us was conditional on our getting her home for the holidays, we and our "Lincoln family" decided to have Thanksgiving early!  Shanna is a great cook and working together we all put on a pretty nice spread!    (I'm referring to what went on the table, not on our waists!!)The only thing missing was the Texas-Texas A&M football game, which they adamantly refused to reschedule for us!  But it was still great fun having "Thanksgiving" dinner with my Brother and the nieces/nephews that make up our Lincoln family!

We left Lincoln and headed for Branson, MO where veterans are highly esteemed and Veterans Day is treated like a national holiday! We stayed for a week, saw several shows and the Veterans Day parade. 

The Kilgore Rangerettes were a pleasant Texas surprise!

Some of our fellow SMART RV friends from Kansas marched in the parade.  We were a little surprised to see Gen. MacArthur riding in the parade, but I guess we shouldn't have been.  It was Branson, after all!

Tony Orlando has a large theater in Branson and he is a great supporter of our country and our vets.  He hosted a free variety show for us, along with Mike Huckabee, who then followed with the live  taping of his own weekly show.  So, we got "two-fers" and a wonderful evening of entertainment, thanks to these two patriots. 

Mike and Tony were joined in the fun by "Obama", a great impersonator often seen on SNL.

A fun musical theater production in Branson is "Smoke On The Mountain"; well-worth your visit!  During the holidays they put on a Christmas version: "Sanders Family Christmas."

Any trip to Missouri calls for another mandatory stop at Lambert's Cafe, the Home of the Throwed Rolls!  Wonderful food, always!

We moved on to Tupelo, Mississippi where we visited the Tupelo National Battlefield and had a chance to learn a little more Civil War history.

Then on to Little Rock, Arkansas for the night at a lovely little campground right on the river.  We visited the Arkansas State Capitol before moving on. 

Next on our list of capitols was the stately Montgomery, Alabama Capitol which we visited on a very rainy morning.  Our visit was interrupted by a tornado warning, which prompted a movement of all visitors and employees to the basement "crypt", where we entertained ourselves for about an hour.

This year we reversed our usual order: we spent the holidays in Florida with Stacey's family and Sabrina was able to fly in from California to be with us.  We enjoyed Thanksgiving and Christmas with Stacey and Darren's family.  Lots of fun!!  And food!!

During the holidays we enjoyed a fun day at Homosassa Springs State Park, home to many rescued animals and also several manatees.

 

It's worth your visit if you're ever in that area of the Florida Gulf Coast.  Hope you enjoy your travels as much as we do.  We're so blessed to be able to travel this wonderful country of ours freely.