Happy 4th!

To my family and friends that have served or are serving in the Armed Services, my heartfelt thanks!  

Oops!

What an entertaining day on the lake today!

We decided to boat over to the Big Cedar Lodge so that we could see it from the water side.  To give you an idea of the distance, it is about 30 miles, close to Branson. When we drove there the other night for dinner, it took about 1 hour -- one way -- to get there.  By boat?  It is about a 2 hour ride.  Whew!  We are staying near Shell Knob and the water on the lake here is mostly calm.  Over by Branson, the water is REALLY churned up.  That is where a lot of the very big boats hang out so they can make quite a churn.  So it got to be a very rough ride.

About halfway there, we saw a cluster of emergency vehicles at one of the boat ramps so of course, we had to stop and see what was happening.  It ended up being quite the spectacle..... as you can see in these next three pics.

We don't know how, but that truck AND boat trailer ended up in there backwards!  Usually, you back the whole trailer into the water to load/unload the boat.  But somehow this one ended up going in the wrong way.  Someone was having a REALLY bad day!

Just to give you an idea of our flotilla today, there were two other boats besides Ron and Judy's.  We made quite a parade.  :)

Since I'm a girl (and there are others in the group too!), no day is complete without a little bit of shopping.  This time is was marina shopping.  At the Big Cedar Marina, we had our purchases picked out and then were told that they couldn't sell to us.... only to guests of the lodge.  How weird is that?!?  Especially since they have courtesy docks for folks to park at.

So we took our desire to shop, along with our money, to the Branson marina.  Lordy, that place is huge!  It is where all the really big houseboats dock, so we had a great time ogling the million dollar+ boats.  And of course, a great time shopping.

On the way home, the kids finally got to do some skiing.  With three boats in the water, all 5 of them can be up at once.  They assure me that they had a great time.  :)

I was just going to type that we've been having really great weather here.  In the upper 70s to mid 80s (although the water tends to be on the cold side!).  BUT...... as I type this, it has just started sprinkling. Thank goodness for the awning!  Shoot..... now it has turned into a regular rain shower.  Time to go put some stuff under cover!!

Big Cedar Lodge

Yesterday was Judy O's birthday so we celebrated at Big Cedar Lodge. It is a resort created by the folks at Bass Pro Shop. And it is amazing!  Fortunately Max snapped a couple of pics. 

They have a covered bridge that led away from the restaurant where we ate. Below it is a waterfall/grotto area that they are creating. 

The waterfall will drain to this area and then into the lake. You can tell that it will be gorgeous. 

I wish that I had more time to stroll through the entire resort and take more pics.  For those of you that have been to Disney World, think Wilderness Lodge and its surrounds.  It is THAT beautiful!

Quite the setup.....

I mentioned the other day that we spent a fair amount of time setting the camp up when we get here..... so here is our setup!

We've found that the screen house over the picnic table is very nice.  In fact, everyone gathered here for breakfast this morning.  :)  The campsite we are in is tiered so the screen house actually has a set of steps leading from the camper up to it.  When they redid these sites, they did a very nice job of lining the parking site with landscaping pavers and then just continue them up on the steps.  

Of course, this picture doesn't do justice to the lights that we string in the screen house or the strings of blue and white lights that we put along the base of the fifth wheel.  And yes, I have some red, white, and blue light balls.  Grin.  All are very pretty at night and do a wonderful job of lighting the way from one camper to the next.  

We are having a bit of a lazy morning here.  After some cleaning, I'm parked in a lawn chair out next to the girls' pen and we are enjoying the morning.  The guys are making a quick run into the hardware store at Shell Knob.  Apparently there is always something one of us needs from the store.... and they don't have a Walmart here!  Sacrilege!  

As soon as everyone here gets their cleaning done and errands run, we'll head out on the water.  I'm not sure how much skiing or floating will be done today as the temps are only in the mid-70s.  That sounds plenty warm...... right up until you get into the water.  :)  Of course, the kids (there are 5 of them 17 and under on this trip) will jump in no matter what, I'm sure.

Girls night to cook......

And when it is the girls night to cook........

Yes, I know that I said the guys are normally the ones that do the cooking around the camp.  But today it was the girls turn to cook..... so we went to Pizza Hut!  Grin.  Gotta love that kind of cooking!

We actually had a different kind of day at the lake today.  It was cool (around 75 today) and cloudy here with a pretty good chance of rain.  So we all piled in the trucks and headed to the outlet mall in Branson today.  And when I say "we all", I mean all 13 of us!  We got to the mall and it looked like a covey of quail scattering as we went to the various stores.  :)  

After quality time there, we went on to the Coleman outlet store and then, of course, we HAD to stop at the Bass Pro Shop.  Let's just say that we all contributed to the Branson economy today.

Anyway, right now we are sitting around the campfire -- comparing ring tones on our phones.  :)  Amazing how time have changed.  

Did I mention the great food?!

I know that I've mentioned on previous lake visits how awesome the food is when we are camping..... But it bears repeating!  We started the day with bacon. eggs. and biscuits.  Oh yeah, and some fruit, just to balance out the healthy menu.  :)  The best part?  The guys are the chefs.  So we girls get to be the gofers and then, of course, the diners.  Not a bad trade-off, I think.

After that hearty breakfast, we finished setting up the campground.  I've learned with this group that there is a fair amount of outdoor decorating that goes on when camping during the holidays.  I'll try to remember to post some pics of our outdoor living area later this week.  

And then of course, we tooled around and floated in the lake.  It was nice.  And it was tiring.  Amazing how just floating around in the water can wear a person out.

This evening, it was dinner for 13 people on the grill.  We each created our own sausage and vege packets that the guys cooked on the grill -- they had to have 3 grills going to accomodate all of the food.  We even grilled corn on the cob.  Dang, it was good!

Ron O and Max manning the grills this evening.  There might have been some alcoholic beverages involved.....  Grin.

The next adventure.....

This is what adventure looks like to the Johnson girls.  :)  Notice Gabi in the background.....

Getting ready to go on vacation is just exhausting, even for retirees and their furry kids.

We picked up the fifth wheel on Wednesday and started the loading process.  That is a tiring process, even in the best of weather..... but the last couple of days have hovered just over 100 degrees.  And humid!  UGH.  Of course, all of that hot weather brewed up a pretty intense line of thunderstorms yesterday afternoon.  Now normally, storms don't bother me much, but when there is a very expensive truck and fifth wheel sitting in the driveway, I start to fret a bit.

So Max jockeyed the Terrain around in our two car garage, to move it to the side of the garage behind where the trailer is parked.  He moved it around INSIDE the garage, NOT by backing it into the driveway (as it was occupied!) and then pulling back in the other stall.  You would realize what a feat that was if you could see our garage.  It isn't one big opening, but two smaller openings.

Anyway, once he got the Terrain moved over, we were able to diagonally park the truck on the "small side" of the garage.  Whew!  Of course, we only got a little bit of the rain and no hail after all that, but better safe and dent free!  :)

So after a day and half of loading, we set the alarm at 5am to get started this morning.  Sheesh.  I'm here to tell you that retired people should NOT have to get up to a 5am alarm clock.  It is just wrong.  :)

We were hooked up and on the road by 6:30 this morning.... meeting up with our friends in Augusta for the drive.  So where are we headed?  To Table Rock Lake, of course!  Gotta get in some floating time over the next week or so.

So now you know why the girls are so worn out.......