From Mississippi to Oklahoma to Missouri!

Last Thursday we left for a trip to Oklahoma, then to Missouri.  What a trip it was!  I have finally caught up on laundry and rest from the trip.  I do apologize for not posting, but I don't take technology with me on the road...besides it was sort of a mini-vacation (if you'd like to call it that). 

For the past 3 years we have put some of our bucklings in a performance test held at The Kerr Center in Poteau, Oklahoma.  Since we had to go to Branson, Missouri for the AKGA annual meeting this year, we worked it out with Mary Penick to drop off our bucks this past weekend.  That really helped us out because it kept us from having to come home from our trip to Branson and turn around to head back to Oklahoma a few days later.  We combined the trips into one this past weekend.  We arrived at Oklahoma Thursday night; then we left Oklahoma and drove 3 1/2 hours to Branson the next day. 

Dillon and Mallory did exceptionally well considering how long we were on the road.  This is what Dillon spent a lot of his time doing.

Playing Nintendo DS

Mallory took a few naps along the way.  That girl can sleep anywhere!  If I slept like this I wouldn't have been able to move for a week!

 

Throughout Oklahoma, I noticed something very similar at a lot of gas stations.  We made a  stop by a station, so I had to take a picture for those of you who may be interested.  I'm probably the only one that found this interesting, but I'm sharing it with you anyway :) 

Many, many of the gas stations had a casino connected to their stores.  It seemed like casinos were on quite a few corners.  We stopped to get coffee at this one particular station and I decided to get out and take a few pictures.

I probably totally looked like a tourist.  I just couldn't believe how "normal" it seemed to have so many casinos at your every turn.  What was even more interesting to me was that they were part of the gas stations.  

When we checked into our hotel in Branson, I took the kids to the pool while Shane attended the seminars held at the convention.  The funniest thing was the Dillon and Mallory had been so excited to get to the hotel to swim in their pool, and ended up spending much of their time here..... 

The hot tub

They took one dip in the pool and came out of it squealing......they said that it was too cold!  This summer, it's been so hot that all of the pools down here are as warm as bath water.  They weren't too keen on the cold water in the hotel pool, so they played in the hot tub.  Luckily it wasn't working real well, and the water was just lukewarm.  I guess that was the highlight of the trip for them. 

We only stayed in Branson one night, and that was plenty for me.  Our hotel was on the "strip" Hwy. 76, and I can honestly say that I don't plan on ever returning to that area for a vacation.  Vacations, to me, are relaxing......What I witnessed was total chaos, someone at every corner trying to get you to spend money at their locale.  It was extremely commercialized; not my idea of a vacation.  Shane's aunt did tell me that there were more relaxing, peaceful things to do in Branson outside of the Hwy 76 strip. I may consider checking that out, but I have no desire to return to that particular area.