Highlights of Route 66

with Archers Holidays, June 2015

Another 7am bags, 8am bus day today, but this time we were in a Drury's Inn so there was an inclusive breakfast. We got oatmeal, bagels, toast, sausage patties, breakfast potatoes, biscuits and scrambled egg. Then there were pastries and muffins. There was even plenty of space to sit. A great start to the day.

We boarded the bus ready to head for Cuba, Missouri. As we drove, Beth put on a DVD about the building of Gateway Arch.

About 9.30am we pulled into a little stop, four miles west of Cuba, at the Fanning US66 Outpost, home of the World's Largest Rocking Chair. The rocking chair was erected in 2008. Each rocker is 31.5 feet long and weighs a ton! You can get your photo here, but only on Picture on Rocker Day, which is the first Saturday in August so no good for us. They have to hire a hoist truck to get people up there as the chair is forty-two feet tall. To be certified as a rocker, it had to rock, which it did at first, but the owner found it so scary and potentially dangerous, he welded it so now it doesn't rock. What do you think of this lawn mower (below right)? Neat, eh?

What a welcome, they were handing out some Moonshine - the apple pie flavour was fabulous - as well as having a variety of Route 66 and other country gifts. Unfortunately, the Moonshine was in large glass jars so I had to buy some flavoured whiskey miniatures instead, including a nice honey whiskey for Theo.

This was hunting country, so the store has an archery range in the back and they had a few bears on display. This big guy reminded me of my furend Arthur (@Arthur_the_bear), back in the UK. As folks finished their shopping I sat in this nice wooden chair before someone thought it would be funnier for me to sit in the cider press!

Back on the bus we were headed for Branson. While we travelled, Beth put on The Grapes of Wrath DVD. We made a quick stop at a rest stop and here they have representations of what would be found back when Route 66 was popular - with a gas station, diner and motel

We arrived at Branson Landing at about 1.15pm and would stay until 4pm. Unfortunately, the itinerary didn't mention we'd be doing this so I hadn't done any research about stuff to do. We walked down the hill from he parking lot and spotted a train in the Station. This was the Branson Scenic Railway.

Wish we'd known this was here! They had a train going out at 2pm which looked to be back for 3.45pm, but as we'd got to be back at 4pm we didn't want to take the risk in case it was late. If we'd known ahead of time we could have cleared it with Beth and arranged a taxi to the hotel if we were late, or something, but we didn't like to do it off the cuff. It's a forty-mile journey and I do like a train ride. Shame, cos it would have really killed some time.

We spotted some amphibious Ducks driving around but when we asked at the local ticket office, the next one was at 3pm, but took seventy-five minutes so again, we'd be late. They had other Ducks every half hour but these were in Branson - three miles away so too much trouble.

Dave asked about a river cruise but - again - it didn't fit into our time slot. So we chose to wander up and down the Landing. It's quite a nice shopping area and they did at least have a Build-a-Bear, but unfortunately, the only Branson t-shirt was in pink and white and pink is not my colour!

Having walked up and down we decided there was nothing else to do and that we should get a drink. We headed into Waxy O'Shea's Irish Pub - it sounded local! Not. We don't often do these (Irish pubs) outside of Ireland but we got a friendly welcome. Paul ordered a Founder's Porter and I got a Lazy Magnolia Brewing Company's Southern Pecan Brown Ale. It was surprisingly good! I'm not that big a fan of brown ale but I liked this one. I was a little concerned about a Guinness poster I found on the wall there - Guinness American Blonde Lager - what on earth are they thinking? My buddy Buckster has tried it and was not impressed.

We started to amble back up the hill towards the bus, calling in Dick's 5 & 10 store which had a little bit of everything. The store was opened by proprietor Richard L "Dick" Hartley in 1961 with just 1500 square feet of retail space. It struggled along and in the early 1970s, after acquiring the property of a failed competitor moved to the current building, where the ten thousand square feet store stands today. In 2006, Hartley closed up the store as usual at 9pm and died peacefully that evening at the age of 80. It continues today as a family business. However, it seems we didn't bother to take a photo of it! We returned to the parking lot and the bus and found one of those Ducks parked there.

We returned to the bus and headed for our hotel, the Comfort Inn, Thousand Hills. This had two beds, flat screen TV, fridge and microwave, lots of lamps a table with TWO chairs to sit up to it, an armchair. There were even two sinks - one inside and one outside of the bathroom. There was even a swan towel that Frank tried to ride. Fancy!

We didn't fancy the optional tour this evening - the Grand Country Buffet, followed by the Legends tribute concert at the Dick Clark Theatre. Not a big fan of tribute acts so we looked for something else to do.

We had decided to head to Stone Hill Winery which was a twenty-five minute walk away. Boy it was hot, and a little hilly as we passed by the Dinosaur Canyon Mini Golf. By the time we got there, at about 5.25pm, my assistant Di was looking a bit purple!

The tours are supposed to be every half hour, with the last one at 6pm (closing at 7.30pm) - we had emailed to confirm. We hoped to catch the 5.30pm tour, or maybe the 6pm. As it was, we got there at 5.25pm and were told the last tour of the day would be the next one, at 5.45pm. Good thing we hadn't waited to go to the 6pm tour! Would have been very annoying to walk all that way and miss the tour. While the assistant drank copious amounts of water, I had a wander around the shop. They had a lot of wine and a selection of gifts and glassware. The tour started and there were only the boys and I and the assistants. Our guide showed us a map and talked us through their locations and their many, many awards.

We began our private tour with a short movie of the history of Stonehill Winery. Then we headed into a barrel room where they were maturing cream sherry. Sherry is wine mixed with brandy and then heated, before being left in barrels for three to four months to mature. In here they had a couple of old barrels that they were able to secure as historic artefacts from a local monastry - all their old barrels were smashed to bits during the Prohibition era! The large barrels had to be cleaned on the inside and someone had to enter the barrel and manually clean them out - sometimes the fumes would mean they would be struggling in just twenty minutes and would have to be dragged out. Theo offered his services.

We went to a bottling room where they bottle the carbonated Spumantis. The wine is produced further north and shipped to Branson where it is passed through a machine to add carbon dioxide (for the bubbles) then adding the plastic cork, the foil cover and wiry metal cork-holder. They do something like 50,000 bottles a year manually, which sounds a lot to me. They have pictures on the wall of two USS Missouris - both christened with Stonehill Wine, the first in 1901 and the second (below right) in 2009.

Then we headed into the tasting room. Here we tried fourteen (yes, really!) different wines and didn't taste a bad one! Of course Theo and I did most of the tasting, but Frank did ask to try the cream sherry. They had a couple of non-alocholic drinks too but we only tried one of those.

Done with the tasting, we returned to the store and bought a few bottles - at $8 and $12 a bottle it was pretty good value, though not sure if we would get them home in one piece - or even if we'd try to!

We tried to get a cab back from the winery but there was a thirty minute wait so we decided to walk back. We could take our time a little bit more this time, though we had to put the wine on the pack mule...er, I mean Paul. We knew once we got back to the Dinosaur Golf we were nearly back at the hotel - from this side of the road the dinosaurs were really cool.

Just before the hotel there was a Lone Star Steakhouse so we decided to go there for dinner. We immediately got shown to a booth and ordered some beers (Sam Adams and PBR). Blinking heck! Check out those beers! They were as tall as Frank! Di asked if she could have a Pepsi, but they had run out so she got Dr Pepper. Di asked if they did a veggie burger and was surprised when the server came back and said that they did. Wow! Her hopes were soon dashed, however, when a guy came over and said they used to do a veggie burger and - while the server had been to ask and told yes - they no longer did. Was there anything else Di would like? Well, it's a steakhouse - even the salads have meat (though they would do without, I'm sure). Anyway, they had an appetiser called a Texas Rose - an onion spread out like a flower, battered and served with dipping sauce. It sounded good, so she ordered one of those and would steal some of Paul's fries.

Oh. My. Bear. When the Texas Rose came it was HUUUUUGE!!!! Seriously. One look and Di was stunned. As, you'll see from the pictures, so were we. The batter was a little spiced and, while it tasted good, we didn't manage to make much of a hole in it as it got a little sickly after a while.

When Di asked for another drink they said she could have Pepsi (not sure how, if they'd run out) but she was happy with her Dr Pepper. I got a steak and Frank and Theo got burgers but we were so hungry we forgot to take photographs! Oops. We dropped them a Ted for no real veggie option and for the mix up with the veggie burger and Pepsi. Still, the beer was good.

After dinner we returned to the room and were too zonked to do much more than sort out the recharging (a very complicated operation involving four phones, two cameras and two laptops!) Time to call it a night.

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