Oh, and to point out as we start this – one thing you’ll notice is that there’s not a whole lot of photos, which just seems wrong, right? Nah. I ended up just being in the moment and enjoying my family that taking tons of photos never once crossed my mind!
But let’s back up…
On Tuesday, Hubby and I woke up at the ass-crack of dawn, about 3am. We loaded up the car and headed south to pick up my mother. We stopped along the way for a vat of Pepsi, and later, a few sausage biscuits to tide us over through the first flight.
Traffic was light on the interstate and we got to mom’s around 7am. My aunt was still asleep, so we didn’t have to dodge that chatty bullet (I love her, but she chats!). I filled up my water bottle with ice from mom’s freezer, then loaded up her luggage and made our way south again, to Tampa. We got our parking spot and rolled our way into the airport, stopping for the obligatory photo with Phoebe (didn’t come out so well, but it’s a good representation of how tired I was already!) We rode the fun little monorail to our terminal, and went through TSA. None of us got dinged for anything, and they even just waved mom through with no scan or detector!
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| Yes, that is a massive flamingo statue in the middle of an airport |
At 8:30am, I got a text from The Kiddo that her flight from Milwaukee had been pushed back 30 minutes. Then another 30 minutes. Then another… The safe, two-hour layover I planned for her in Chicago kept shrinking; I worried about her running through O’Hare like the McCallisters, trying to catch her flight to Springfield!
She then texted that they were able to get her on a different Milwaukee-to-Chicago (MtC) flight that should arrive in Chicago with time to spare, so I felt a little bit better as we got on our own first flight (to Charlotte).
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| Hubby understood the plan; mom didn't realize I was taking a photo! |
She got on her flight at almost the same time we got on ours, and the lucky duck got an entire row to herself in a front row of economy! She landed about 20 minutes before we did, and decided to go check Baggage Claim anyway, just in case, and thank god… her luggage was there waiting for her! They were able to pull it off the other flight and squeeze it on to this flight, which means that there’s no need to come back to Springfield later.
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| 2nd Flight, let's go! |
The drive to Springfield was quick, though we did stop for sodas and Icees at a very janky Maverick. Checking in for our VRBO only took minutes, and they never tried to upsell me anything like show tickets or the like. Our apartment we booked was on the top floor of a 3-level condo (where the 2nd floor was actually level with the parking lot). So we had to lug all of our suitcases upstairs, but it wasn’t too bad. Mom got the downstairs room, Kiddo got the upstairs room, and we took the master bedroom in the back. We all settled in to our rooms for a bit then converged again in the living room to decide on dinner.
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| A terrible photo of an amazing Ozark sunset |
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| Burger & Seasoned Fries, cooked to perfection |
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| Silver Dollar Pancakes, Scrambled Eggs, Bacon, and Biscuit |
Back at the house, we put all of our groceries away, and as I always do, I ordered way too much stuff. I’d gotten Pepsi, Mtn Dew, Diet Coke, Caffeine Free Diet Coke, and bottled water. I got two types of Little Debbies, some Slim Jims, and a variety box of chips. I even got a package of TP (mostly because mom swore that every time she’d been at a VRBO they ran out of TP. Spoiler alert... we never ran out of TP). Oh, and a box of half-gallon freezer bags. Did you know they made half-gallon size freezer bags? I didn’t! Now I love them and want them all the time. Anyway, we all went our separate ways for the night and went to sleep.
Wednesday dawned cold and blustery, only 45º when we all got out of bed. We decided to do breakfast at a local favorite, Billy Gail’s, and holy moly, I see why it’s a favorite! The Kiddo ordered French Toast with eggs, grits, sausage, and a biscuit. Hubby ordered scrambled eggs with sausage and a biscuit. I thought I’d be clever and get a single scrambled egg, a biscuit, their fancy “Million Dollar Bacon” and a single pancake. Now, this place is famous for their 14-Inch Sweet Cream pancakes, but their menu was laid out so it looked like you could get this massive pancake OR a short stack of regular pancakes. So I ordered one. And, y’all… this pancake was massive. It was the size of a frozen pizza! It took up half the table! Everyone helped me eat it, but I think that ¾ of it stayed untouched, unfortunately. It was delicious, and everyone should get one, but be known that it’s MASSIVE and you’ll be stuffed if you try to eat IT and any other food too. The “Million Dollar Bacon” was “Fifty Dollar Bacon,” not nearly as sweet, savory, or spicy as promised; plus it was a little overcooked and tasted like it sat around a while. Oh well… The biscuits were a tasty runner-up to The Farmhouse. Everyone loved their meals.
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| French Toast, Scrambled Eggs, Sausage, Cheese Grits, Biscuit |
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| Scrambled Eggs, Sausage, Biscuit |
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| Scrambled Eggs, Biscuit, "Million Dollar Bacon," Pancake |
Our first stop, Elevate, was lovely, but very small. A little bit of everything, but no luggage to be found. Next, we went over to the Branson Humane Society thrift store, and we found a great, barely used, Samsonite carry-on roller bag for just ten bucks! No stink or smell, no little bits of detritus in the seams. We also found a really nice leather computer briefcase/roller bag that could be used as her Personal Item, so we snagged that up as well. Twenty bucks for two pieces of luggage that will keep her travelling for quite a while? Yes please!
On the way back to the VRBO, we stopped at Hurts Donut for some treats to bring back. Everyone picked up three donuts (I think it cost about $30, oof). Now, I say this with love, but… it didn’t feel the same in there. Like, when we were there in 2021 there was this fun, funky vibe to it, but this time around, the vibe was “Yeah, we’re super-cool and you know it so give me five bucks for a donut so you can feel cool too.” It’s hard to explain why I wasn’t nearly as impressed with them as I was last time… maybe I was expecting too much?
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| Butterfinger Chocolate Cake, Lemon, Slim Shady, THE Brownie, Jesus, Birthday Cake, Jesus, Maple, Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup, and German Chocolate (I don't remember what the two missing ones are!) |
First up, we went to Dick’s 5 & 10. I expected a small, tourist-tacky type store, but this was something else. There were probably 30 aisles, 3 deep, that just kept going back and back. Everything you could think of was in this store. Some touristy, some kitschy, some quirky, some useful, some nostalgic, some silly… some of everything! Originally, I was hoping to get some bottled beverages for a Weirdos video, as well as some nostalgic or wacky foods to try – I had a vision of all four of us trying weird stuff and making a video. But it seemed like the choices were “normal candy that was marked way up” or “shitty candy from Japan that none of us want.” At some point, Hubby and The Kiddo split up from me and mom, except for when Hubby came back to tell me that there was something The Kiddo kept arguing with herself about buying but didn’t want to blow so much of her budget on that item. So I snuck over there, hid it in my coat and bought it for her for Christmas. I think, all in all, we were in there for about two hours, and I honestly could have stayed for more. Maybe we’ll go back before we leave.
Our next stop was Branson Landing to ride Parakeet Pete’s Zipline. Mom had thought that this was a good zipline to try out first since it seemed ‘calmer’ (?) than the Shepherd one. Now, I do have to point out at this time, it was about 40º outside, and at night. Right? Okay, let’s go. We walked up to the booth and asked to ride, and the two attendants looked at us like we were insane. But gladly took our fifty bucks. They put us in the seats – which were too shallow for adult butts and extremely cold – and then made us get out so they could fix something… yeah, that’s a vote of confidence right there… Back in the seats, they strapped us in with simple lap belts and told us to have fun, and then we were pulled backward and upward to the other side of the Tanycomo. It was a LOT faster than I was expecting, and those shallow seats felt really shallow with gravity doin’ its thing. At the top of the lift, we were let go and we zipped back down over the river, again at that insanely steep angle, and after about 15 seconds, we ‘landed’ at the bottom. It was a bit of a rough ride, and scarier than I’d expected. It totally gave me "Unsafe County Fair Ride" vibes. Mom seemed to enjoy it at the time, but she didn’t really say much about it, now that I think about it now…
After we got out of the chairs, I asked Hubby and the Kiddo if they wanted to do it, and The Kiddo was all “HELL NO!” but Hubby was open to it, so I immediately got us paid up to do it again. I gave him a few heads’ up about what will happen and then back we went. He wasn’t a huge fan of the backward part, nor the waiting at the top part, but then they let us go and we zipped back down, and he really enjoyed himself. I wore a GoPro for both of the trips, but like a dumbass, I wore them facing OUT (like a POV shot) instead of pointing it at us so I could record our reactions instead. I’ll share them below, anyway.
We walked around Branson Landing afterward, but it was very cold, and very empty, so we gave up and decided to hit up Billy Bob’s Dairyland for dinner. I think we got there within an hour of them closing, because it was mostly empty. We all got burgers except for Mom who got onion rings and a bowl of chili (she said it was delicious). Burgers were okay, but tough and overcooked. Fries were delicious. Shakes were meh. Definitely not the best meal we’d had in town, but they can’t all be winners!
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| Cheeseburger & Crinkle Fries |
Tomorrow is one of the two things that I’ve most been looking for this entire trip, and I can’t wait!
