btown, bmayes, b with friends, b safe!

it's ou/tx weekend!! that's why i left! um..ok, not the real reason. actually, a few weeks ago, my friend bmayes shot me a text suggesting a visit to branson. a friend of ours would be getting married, and what better time to visit the ozarks than fall, with the changing of the leaves. so we made plans, but the details were not quite hammered out. it was perfect because it was that weekend that dallas elementary schools have fair day on friday!

unfortunately, as you saw in a previous post, my radar detector went out a couple of weeks ago, and had me feeling naked in my car...like something was missing! so i knew that going on a trip would probably require the comfort and security of a radar detector, but the alarm store where i'd made the original purchase was closed down and no longer there, so i had to look it up on my phone and was pleased to see that best buy sold them. so i stopped in and purchased the new guy.

bff

last week, i got the text that said the wedding was actually to take place at 4 pm on sunday. hmm...that was not good news for me because if you add in the reception, that would put me home WAY late. so, unfortunately as i sit here, i am thinking that i will miss the wedding-because i really want to get home safely. so we decided to drive in separate cars so that b can stay for the wedding.

as i was driving through oklahoma, almost at the halfway point, i knew that i should stop to get windshield wipers, because the ones i had were getting flappy (you know, when the rubber starts to come off and just starts flapping around). um. so when i saw the dark nimbus clouds in the rearview, i decided it was time to stop at walmart in mcalester. and guess what. when i walked out of the store, it was raining. great. so i put my hood up and proceeded to replace my wipers in the rain. i was having a little difficulty, and a young man came over and offered to help. he showed me exactly what i needed to do, so the second one was a cinch! i've been daydreaming about getting new wipers, because i remember getting the new ones for the g-6 and being overwhelmed by the efficiency and the amazing work these things do!

be still my beating heart!

because we drove separately, i was able to leave early and get up to see mom and dad's new place! i had the address, but there was no reception, so when i got to the general area, i turned off to the right on old hwy 5, not realizing that every turn off on hwy 5 is old hwy 5! so when i turned off and drove up a way to see the number on the mailbox, it was too high...i knew i had to go back, but what i didn't know was turn to the right or left. so i started driving and went with my gut and turned on the other side of the highway, and drove up a bit-fortunately i have a good gut-my intuition was right! (it was GOD) i saw mom's car, and when i pulled in, i saw her wind chimes and i knew i was in the right place! i got the nickel tour, and they have quite the property- so i got to spend a little time with them before back-tracking to come back down to toward branson west, where we met up for dinner at dana's bar-b-que! love me some bbq nachos! (if you ever visit b-town, i would highly recommend dana's).

once our appetites were taken care of, we took off to find the air bnb the bmayes had booked. i was following, and we got a little turned around because the directions said to turn in at a time-share complex, and it was a bit confusing...so we came back and took the directions, which led us down to a little road that wound around the complex and into a little mobile home park nestled in a little treed area near table rock lake. the light was on, some music playing and a pumpkin signaling that fall was in the air-so inviting! cozy little place!

by the time we got there, it was probably around 9pm, and i was exhausted from a long day of driving. for some reason, as soon as i got into mo, people seemed to be just driving stupid...passing at their cruising speed, which took them forever to get around semis..this drove me crazy!! driving etiquette folks, if someone is coming up behind you, accelerate, get around the slow car and move yourself on over. it drove me NUTS. i will refrain from revealing my speed, as it was a bit ridiculous. but i digress, bmayes was in the main area room, and i set up camp in the additional add-on space. i figured, since i brought one of my memory foam mattresses (remember how i travel with it whenever i can?), i would take the futon. well, it so happens that the futon was a bit smaller in dimension than mine. this basically meant that the mattress lay sloping on both sides, i tried it-nope. moved it, there was still quite an incline, and i thought it might work, so i tried it.

well, i woke up several times, thinking i should take the mattress and just lie on the floor...i didn't, and i didn't until finally, i couldn't handle it anymore. it was about 6am, so i pulled the mattress to the floor, trying not to wake bmayes in the other room. the best two and a half hours of sleep that night! morning! when i woke up, i was already thinking about breakfast! so i got on yelp and found billy gail's cafe. it sits near a campground, just up the way from silver dollar city. i had seen it several times before, but never stopped. they had great reviews, and when bmayes was awake, she said she'd seen the same thing! so it was a deal!

we drove up to the joint, and as promised by yelp reviews, it was busy-hoppin'! b dropped me off to find a parking spot, and i put our name in-45 minute wait. yes please. i knew i needed a cup o' joe, and then we stood outside with a bunch of other patrons and waited patiently; good chance for conversation! when we finally got sat, we ordered the pecan cakes and biscuits and gravy with a side of eggs to split. wow. it was delicious! good biscuits and gravy make me happy! when we were finished, we were graced with a visit from gail herself! quite the firecracker, this old gal! she and bmayes had a bonding moment, as her granddaughter is named brittany as well.

then we got back to the pad and watched the ou/tx game. sorry tx fans, i cheer for ou, because so many of my closest are from there! unfortunately tx had a lucky day.

after the game, we took off to springfield to get donuts! hurts-thank you! we decided we should take them with us to trish's, as she had offered to make taco soup for dinner that night! yum! so we were able to get the best donuts and back to trish's by 5:30. time with these two is so much fun! we just sat and talked for a couple of hours; i can be very blunt with them, and i know they don't judge me. i am not p.c. around my closest friends. i don't have to be. to be fair i am really not fond of being politically correct anyway. i'm not a politician, so i have no reason to be a hypocrite. if it's going to offend someone, i'd rather just not talk about it at all instead of trying to wear kid-gloves (my hands are much to big and my opinions can come off a little harsh). so i cherish my time with these two, which is why it was a fun surprise when trish invited us back for breakfast hashbrowns the next morning!

we wanted to get some coffee from this cute little joint in hollister, but unfortunately it was closed on sundays. so we went ahead and grabbed our coffee at casey's and made our way to trish's again. we let ourselves in, because it really is home-away-from-home...and grabbed our plates and just kinda' made ourselves at home, because that's how we roll. no one in sight, so we just figured they were getting ready for something or...something. shay came up and was like, "hey! what's going on?! does my mom know you're here?" probably not. so she went and got trish, who just laughed when she saw we'd gone ahead and helped ourselves. like i said: home-away-from-home!

we were going to go geo-caching, but we ended up going to look for shoes instead, and it took awhile, but we finally found something that was going to work well for the dress bmayes had. alas, by the time we left kohl's, it was already almost 1! WHAT?! that basically meant that when we returned, i packed up and took off. the drive home was uneventful, although when i stopped at the rest area, there weren't many family cars, or others around, but there was a man walking around with his cell phone..so i made certain to grab my knife for security purposes-better safe than sorry? i mean...doesn't everybody carry knives with them? or something to protect self?  #ilikebeingalive

never a 'dull' moment!

i picked up the boys the next day, and they seemed to have had a wonderful time with joanne! chaco talkin' all about the backyard, and begging me for one..so i told him when we went to visit mom and dad's new place, he could enjoy theirs.

i can't believe it was just a week and a half ago! which means that a lot has happened since then, and i should be writing up another post in the next few days!

julie