Tall Pines RV Park, Branson, MO, Oct 1-7, 2013

Twisting road

The road we took to Tall Pines was for about thirty miles as twisting as the Devil’s Backbone in North Carolina. In spite of my looking straight ahead and trying not to look side-to-side, I was very relieved when we arrived in Branson West and Rich stopped to mail Peter’s birthday present!

Tall Pines

As you probably have realized if you know us or have read much

of this blog, we don’t often stay at private RV parks because we prefer the (usually) quieter, less cramped, and more forested feel of Corps, national, and state parks. With all the federal parks closed and the nearby state parks crowded, we scoured the web

More of the campground

and opted for Tall Pines. It was a pleasant surprise. Nicely wooded and in spite of the lack of buffer between sites, the layout of the place gave a feeling of privacy. The park was located in the Ozarks on a finger of land that dropped to a valley on three sides. The restrooms/showers were spic and span.

The countryside here is beautiful – I’m sorry we won’t be able to

be here in a couple of weeks to see the leaves change. Next year hopefully we’ll be in the Northwest and see that show.

Praying Mantis

Around the area

The town of Branson is very much like Gatlinburg or Pigeon Forge

– touristy and expensive and too many people. We did go into a 5 and 10 store that has more stuff crammed into less space than any place I’ve ever seen. Inventory there must be a nightmare – and they do it by hand. We did find a couple of nice little produce stands with fresh apples, okra, cheese curds, and homegrown

Around the area

tomatoes, which we visited multiple times.

Around the area

There was a couple next to us in the RV park who were very

interesting. They were traveling with their horse trailer, which although there were no horses was outfitted with living quarters. The woman raises and shows horses (she had bought one from a farm in Ocala, FL), raises sheep and spins yarn from the fleece then weaves with the yarn. She told me a lot about spinning and weaving – enough to know I wouldn’t have either the patience or the pocket book for it! She said she comes to Branson for classes and that Missouri has the largest population of spinners and weavers in the US. Strangely enough, the northeast is where the most sheep are raised.

We didn’t go to Silver City, the p ark where craftsmen display techniques and crafts as well as teach. There are also entertainment shows with impersonators of big name artists, lots of shops with presumably homemade/handmade food items, and a train that takes visitors around the park. The $58 ticket price per person was just too steep for the little in which we were interested, but a lot of folks enjoy that sort of thing.

We enjoyed our time in the area and will plan on spending more time there next year.