Ride the Ducks (DUKWs)

The final 'must do' attraction for us at Branson was 'Riding the Ducks'. We had seen plenty of these amphibious vehicles on the streets of Branson & in Table Rock Lake. Although the 'Ride The Ducks' vehicles are new vehicles built from the ground up (in a factory just outside of Branson), they are still based upon the famous World War II DUKW amphibious vehicle design. To date, during the 29 years that the DUKWs have been operating over 10 million people have travelled on more than 500,000 duck boat tours!

Ducks were first built by General Motors in 1942 & were effectively a truck enclosed in a water-tight shell. DUKW is a military acronym which stands for the following: designed in 1942 (D), utility/amphibious purposes (U), front wheel drive (K), & two rear driving axles (W). The first operational use of the DUKW was in March, 1943, when the US landed Army troops on Noumea, New Caledonia. Later during the war the DUKWs showed their versatility by carrying ammunition directly from anchored ships to shore. The use of the DUKWs kept American casualties to a minimum, but a bigger purpose surfaced as some of the DUKWs were modified to carry 4.5-inch rockets. Generals Patton & Eisenhower realized the DUKW was an invaluable war tool with over 1,000 DUKWs used in the Sicilian landings of 1943 alone. Operation Overlord, the Normandy landing was the most crucial operation in history with circumstances that made the DUKWs virtually indispensable. Approximately 2,000 DUKWs brought to shore 40% of all supplies landed between June 6 & September 1, 1944.

Upon boarding our DUKW we were all provided with a bright yellow, duck-bill shaped quackers & given strict instructions by our driver that we were not to be out-quacked by any other enemy DUKWs! Loud rock music, diesel fumes, lots of wind, & out nutty (in a good way) driver made our journey along the Branson Strip to Table Rock Lake (near the Branson Belle for our entry into the water) very entertaining. There was a DUKW in front of us that drove into the lake at high-speed sending water everywhere. Our driver radioed back to base to see if this was allowed & apparently it wasn't. I thought that this was just part of the entertainment & that we would suddenly speed up just be fore we hit the water, but we just creeped in. This was somewhat rougher than I expected since as the vehicle was only partly floating the ground must have dropped away causing the side that I was sat on to lurch into the water!

After we drove(!) around the lake for a while our driver got fed up with use quacking him (this was another rule - we had to quack if we thought he was not being entirely truthful) he jumped up from the driving seat & let the boat go around in circles until one of the children on board came up to drive the DUKW. All of the kids had the option to have a go at driving on the water & Beth did a really good job of steering our DUKW towards the shore. On the way back we went via the fishery & power house at the bottom of Table Rock Dam which really helped us to appreciate just how tall the dam is.

Shepherd of the Hills car show

We passed The Shepherd of the Hills Homestead, outdoor theatre, & Inspiration Point (a 230 feet tall, precast concrete tower & viewing platform on top of the hills) whenever we went to Downtown Branson or back to our condo. On Thursday we noticed that the Branson Strip was covered with tyre marks & that there were literally hundreds of chairs placed on either side of the road combined with a dramatic increase in the number of 'cool' cars cruising around Branson. It turns out that there was an annual car show (held at Inspiration point) & cruise in Branson (which I new absolutely nothing about, no really I didn't). On our last day everyone let me have a quick look around (we would have all looked around the show but it was $13 per ticket) so that I could get my car 'fix'.

As well as some very cool cars, there seemed to be an abundance of Dukes of Hazzard related vehicles including four (!) General Lee Dodge Chargers, Daisy Duke's Jeep & one of the Hazzard County Sheriff's patrol cars. Rick Hurst (who played Deputy Cletus Hogg in the show) was also there & I had my photo taken with him in front of the Sheriff's car - definitely the highlight of the show!

The Shepherd of the Hills area was made famous by the book of the same name (first published in 1907) by Harold Bell Wright’. This became an immediate best-seller & one of the first million-selling books by an American author. It was translated into seven different languages & made into four movies (one starring John Wayne in his first colour film). The book helped to start tourism in Branson & the Ozark Mountain region of Missouri. The book was based upon actual people & events during the end of the 1800’s telling the tale of the complicated lives led by the Ozark pioneers, including the Baldknobber gang's on their quest to control the region.

Shorty Small's

For our evening meal we chose Shorty Small's barbecue restaurant (which isn't part of a chain - yet). Instead of just serving slow-smoked barbecue meats they have a larger variety including ribs, chicken, catfish, shrimp, & burgers (I had a catfish combo). Just like Famous Dave's, the restaurant was decorated country style & the food was really good!

Tangers Outlet Centre

When we left the Titanic, it was like we were in the North Atlantic with the amount of rain that was falling (this was the only time it rained during our vacation) so we though that we would use the opportunity to see if we could pick up a bargain or two from some of the 65+ stores at the Tangers Outlet Centre. Stanley Tanger developed the idea of factory outlet shopping centres to sell-off manufacturers' overstock in 1981 & began construction 50,000 sq feet Burlington Manufacturer's Outlet Center (BMOC) off Interstate 85 in Burlington, NC. In 1993, Tanger became the first outlet centre developer to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange as a publicly traded Real Estate Investment Trust & in 1995 he implemented a money-back low price guarantee program for customers where they receive a difference in price cash refund if a consumer finds the same brand name product for less anywhere other than Tanger.

Titanic

Our second day in Branson commenced with a visit to the Titanic Museum. The travelling Titanic exhibition was on show at the St Louis Science Centre when I first moved to the area but I didn't get the opportunity to visit it (which I regretted) & so this exhibition was on our 'must do' list. This is a permanent exhibition which opened in 2006 & contains over 400 items (including personal artifacts retrieved from the Titanic wreck), models of the boat, interactive displays & recreations of the boat interior. The exhibition was housed in a building constructed to look like the Titanic (complete with fountains to simulate the bow wave as the boat moved forward & an iceberg) which towered above the surrounding buildings & gave an appreciation of the size of the boat, even though the building was reduced in size compared to the actual boat!

As you lined up to enter 'the boat' you were given a boarding pass with a name on it & a brief description about the person that you now were. We had some of the most notable people (including the richest & youngest person on board) & as we passed through the museum there were some exhibitions about these people. We were 'checked in' by one of the crew who was supposedly English but it was immediately obvious to us that she wasn't & this was confirmed when she found out that we actually were - guess not that many people from England choose Branson as their vacation destination! At the end of the exhibition (after seeing how long we could keep our hands in a bowl of water cooled to the temperature of the North Atlantic on the night of the sinking - a chilly 28 degrees F) we got to check out if we lived or died on the Memorial Wall.

There were a number of interactive sections to the exhibition including touching the frozen surface of an 'iceberg', standing on the ship's bridge & operating the boat's controls before walking out & feeling the chill of the night, sending an SOS signal from the ship’s wireless room, & walking up the boat deck at different stages of the sinking. There were also a number of room recreations (with actual pieces of the Titanic) including a First Class Stateroom & Third Class cabin, & Grand Staircase (which was used to get between the upper & lower decks of the the exhibition. It was a really interesting exhibition & surprising to see how many people from places that we know in the southeast were on board.

Showtime on 'The Branson Belle'

There are many shows (over 100 daily) in Branson, but the Branson Belle Showboat is unique since it's show takes place on Table Rock Lake. The show package includes a 2 hour cruise on the lake, a three-course meal, & variety acts during your meal & then a main show after the meal is finished. There are two cruises daily, one at 4:00 pm & one at 8:00pm. We chose the 4:00 pm sailing which (as well as being cheaper than the evening cruise, although still not cheap but definitely good value for money!) meant that we had a great view of the lake for the entire cruise. We arrived just before the meal was due to start & so only had a few minutes to look around 'up deck', but this, & the very hot weather, worked to our advantage since there was hardly anyone around & so we could explore everywhere. We were also lucky enough to meet The Captain who very kindly invited the girls to have their photo taken in his cabin in front of the tiller - cool!

The tables were arranged in long rows around a central walkway & all faced forward with seats on one side only, providing everyone with a great view of the stage. The compare for the cruise sang a couple of songs & introduced the boat's resident band before we watched a short film about the boat & its unique launch from the 'dry dock' (if you could really call it that - more like an area beside the lake) which used a few thousand bananas to provide biodegradeable lubrication that didn't pollute the lake as oil/grease would have done. Apparently, the launch speed (12 mph) was the fastest that the boat will ever travel! Some other facts about the boat include: Christening date: April 13, 1995, Length: 278 feet, width: 78 feet, height: 112 feet (to top of stacks), weight: 2,500,000 lbs, speed: 11 mph (peak) 6 mph (average), draft: 7.5 feet, capacity: 700 passengers, & two paddle wheels (16 feet wide & 24 feet diameter each).

Our meal comprised three courses, starting with a salad which was followed by a main course which included steamed vegetables with beef, & Chicken Cordon Bleu, (to make sure that we got beef, chicken, & ham!) & then a really nice Raspberry Torte desert. After a short break whilst the tables were cleared, the boat's 'house quartet' performed a number of songs (including a composition that included more than 80 songs in 5 minutes). They were followed by a Russian husband & wife acrobatic team that performed an impressive routine which at one point included the husband jumping off the stage & spinning around in a huge circle whilst hanging from a 'silk' sheet attached to the top of the stage with his wife clinging to him & being thrown further out over the audience! The headlining act was hilarious! It was a guy called Todd Oliver & his talking dogs. Obviously the dogs didn't really talk (hope I haven't ruined the illusion) but were rather used as live ventriloquists dummies. It looked like the dogs may have been wearing a muzzle with a movable, false, lower jaw so that it looked like they were talking, but they could also have been trained to open their mouths when given a signal. It was difficult to tell from where we were sitting but the dogs looked like they could talk, the guy was very funny, & when one of the newly trained dogs didn't want to participate as trained it was made to look like it was part of the act.

Cakes 'n' Cream Dessert Parlour

This is a 1950s themed dessert & burger bar on the Branson 'Strip' that is fully decorated with 1950s Americana, including an original Wurlitzer jukebox. The menu contains a huge variety of desserts, including pies, cobblers, & cakes made with fresh fruit. There is also a soda fountain with dozens of different flavors of soda & over 50 different flavours of ice cream. Beth had a hot fudge sundae, whilst Cheryl & I shared a loaded Funnel Cake. Normal Funnel Cake is made by pouring batter through a funnel into hot oil in a circular pattern & deep frying it until golden-brown. It is then usually covered with powdered sugar. However, our loaded cake also had chocolate syrup, powdered sugar, vanilla ice cream, whipped cream, & glace cherries on top just to ensure that we definitely managed to consume our recommended daily sugar intake :)

Famous Dave's

We stopped off for a light lunch at Famous Dave's which is a fairly new barbecue restaurant. This type of restaurant is fairly common in the Mid-West (Kansas City is well known for its barbecue) & typically serves slow-smoked barbecued meats. The food was great & judging by the number of trophies & awards (over 300 for best ribs, best new restaurant, best music, best take-out & best barbecue) plenty of other people think so too. The decor was also somewhat unique, including a variety of stuffed animals (which were once real) hung up on the walls & other hunting/outdoors related 'stuff'!

Branson Landing (shopping & entertainment district)

Branson Landing is a recently opened shopping & entertainment district (which includes apartments & a hotel above the shops) in downtown Branson. It is anchored by the Belk outlet store & the Bass Pro fishing store, & the development also includes a new state of the art conference centre. We spent a while in the Belk store since Sandy had previously shown Beth a watch that she bought there during her & Jerry's last vacation to Branson & so Beth had been saving her pocket money so that she could by one as well. The mall reminded us of outdoor, high-street, shopping centres back home (Fremlins Walk in Maidstone sprang to mind as did Kingston Upon Thames) with two rows of shops separated by a pedestrianized area. The district has a number of free trolley-buses that take you from one end of the mall to the other but we thought that we would be healthy & walk the relatively short distance.

One of my favorite stores was Ridemakerz. This was like Build-a-Bear (but for boys) since instead of stuffed animals built & customized your own model car (which you could also make radio controlled). There were a number of stylized bodies (including a Dodge Ram pickup, Dodge Viper, 1930s hot rod, & a Ford Mustang) in a variety of colours which (much like Build-a Bear) included all the 'standard' accessories (wheels, tyres, & sound module). For an additional cost you could upgrade your parts to make a seriously wild ride. After choosing all the appropriate parts, you assembled your car at a mechanics station with mini air-wrench & then registered the VIN so that you could login to the Ridemakerz website & see you car online!

The Landing includes a boardwalk along the 1.5-mile Taneycomo Lakefront, & at the centre of the complex there is a town square that includes a performance area & small water feature with fountain. At this location there is a break in the riverside shops & apartments & the square extends down to the $7.5 million riverfront water attraction. This features moving fountains (which shoot water up to 120 feet high) & fire cannons which are all choreographed to music & light. This was created by Wet Design who are also the producers of shows for Downtown Disney marketplace in Orlando, Universal City Walk in California, & the Bellagio hotel & casino in Las Vegas.

Big Cedar Lodge

This is a resort owned by John Morris who also owns the Bass Pro Shops chain of fishing & outdoor shops & Tracker boats. The lodge was opened in 1988 & is a luxury vacation destination which includes a variety of different types of accommodation ranging from rooms in the Adirondacks-designed lodge (that reflects the grand lifestyle of early 1900s wilderness retreats) to individual multi-storey log cabins constructed from rough-hewn logs located within the woodland surrounding the lodge & lake.

The lodge is fishing & outdoor orientated (signs are in the shape of a Bass, as are the dividing lines between parking spaces). Jerry drove us around the lodge grounds so that we could see what the premier Branson resort looks like. We also had a quick look around the lodge itself & whilst driving down to the lake we saw a Skunk wondering towards the tennis courts! Unfortunately, the photos of this didn't come out too well since it was getting fairly dark & I didn't want to get too close in case it sprayed me. Having driven along highways where Skunks have been hit by vehicles & experienced their odour, getting sprayed by one would be very, very, bad!

Hard Work U

The College of the Ozarks (otherwise known as 'Hard Work U' after an article in the Wall Street Journal in 1973) is a private, Christian liberal-arts college located between Branson & Hollister at Point Lookout (which overlooks Lake Taneycomo). There are approximately 1600 students on the 1,000-acre (4 km²) campus, who can study over 30 academic majors. The unique feature about Hard Work U is that is exactly what the students have to do. Instead of paying for tuition (which is normal for higher education here in the US) students that are unable to pay for there studies can apply for entry to The College of the Ozarks & 'pay' for their tuition by working on campus. There are over 80 campus workstations including the cafeteria/restaurant (which is open to the public), landscaping, laundry, dairy, farm, powerplant, computer lab, alumni, library, & financial aid.

Table Rock Dam

The US Army Corps of Engineers designed & built the Table Rock Dam across the White River, creating Table Rock lake in August 1958 when water from the White River was impounded. It was designed as a flood defence for the properties downstream along the White River with the secondary benefit of providing hydro-electric power generation for the surrounding area. The dam is 6,423 feet long & consists of a concrete section & two earth embankments (the concrete section is 1,602 feet long & the earth embankments total 4,821 feet) with the highest point 252 feet above the riverbed. There are approximately 1,230,000 cubic yards of concrete & 3,320,000 cubic yards in the earth in the dam. There are four, 18 feet diameter tunnels that convey water to four 50,000 kilowatt generating units in the powerhouse below the dam. The first two units were ready for generation of power in June 1959 with the remaining two turbines & generators coming on-line in August 1961. The Dam cost approximately $65,420,000 to construct.

We crossed the dam on a few occasions during our stay in Branson (there is a main road running across the top of the structure), mostly in Jerry & Sandy's day van but also a couple of times in a DUKW (more on that later). There is an overlook at high level on the downstream of the dam which we briefly stopped at. We had a great view of the dam (which really allowed you to appreciate how deep the lake actually is), powerhouse, & fish hatchery, & also of the White River in the valley below.

Table Rock Lake

Our condo overlooked Table Rock Lake, which is one of the main Branson attractions for those that don't want to go to all the shows. It covers more than 43,000 acres & has over 800 miles of shoreline. It is, apparently, one of the top Bass fishing lakes in North America, with Bass, Crappie, White Bass, Catfish, & Bluegill all living in the lake. The lake was created in August 1958 when the US Army Corps of Engineers built Table Rock Dam across the White River & was named after the surrounding, flat-topped rocks. Construction of the dam began in October 1954 & by June 1959 hydro-electric power was being distributed to the Ozarks (the surrounding area). The area had already established itself as a prime fishing & recreation area in the 1930s, but needed protection from devastating floods on the White River which was achieved by the dam construction. The water temperature in Table Rock Lake varies, but on the other side of the dam in the White River the temperature is constant & the water ideal for Trout breeding. To take advantage of this, there is a Missouri Department of Conservation fish hatchery on the downstream side of the dam which is used to stock trout in Lake Taneycomo.