What a Country!

If you remember the 80s, you remember that slogan from a young, russian comic named Yakov Smirnov. Well, he's realized the American dream. He has the brightest signs, advertisements and show house in all of Branson. I can tell you this first hand as we just returned from a fun yet harrowing trip to the bottom of Missouri.

J and I braved the worst snow/ice storm in MO since 1934. We started out for Branson on Thursday but were forced to use good judgement and stop just outside of St. Louis that evening. We were fortunate to get a room at a nice hotel (for cheap!) which was in the parking lot of a Target, Lowes, and a number of other shopping options. There was also a Sonic (fast food drive-in) in walking distance.

After we got our room, the hotel filled up quickly as others could no longer brave the icy roads and power started to go out all around the city. Our power flashed a few times but the hotel had its own generators, so we never lost cable tv. (whew!)

The next morning, we learned about the woeful "MODOT" which was ill-equipt for this much ice. We got an earlier start on Friday in case there were any setbacks. The whole trip was a setback as only 1/5 of the highway from St. Louis to Branson was actually clear. The rest was bumpy, slick, dangerous road that put our new CR-V to the test. It passed.

We saw probably 20-30 or more vehicles off the road, including a semi that was flipped completely upside-down. So, it took us as long to get from St. Louis to Branson as it took us to get from Branson all the way home two days later.

More later...