Oklahoma City, OK --> Branson, MO

Sabbatical Day 7 | June 3, 2011
Oklahoma City, OK --> Branson, MO

Today was pretty epic!!

After the usual gas up the car/breakfast stop, we went out in search of the World's Largest Praying Hands. They looked just like a pair of hands. Whether or not they look like "praying" hands is debatable(sp?) in our car. I say yes, Matt says no. Either way, they are freakishly large hands.

Next we went in hunt of Chris Barbee's house and his bowling ball yard art. It was the funnest (yes, I used the word 'funnest') thing ever!  He actually came out to talk to us as I was out taking pictures of his yard. Apparently he is retired, and started this about 5 years ago just after his wife died. He is always looking for new ideas and he is happy to take donations if any of you have any bowling balls lying around that you want to send to him. He said that right now he would love some red or blue ones to finish off the American Flag that he started. He also said that he has just under 1700 bowling balls in his yard in the different pieces that he has created. *phew!!* I was a personal fan of the pink ribbon that he made, the lady bugs, the Christmas tree (the ornaments were bowling balls) and the Lollipop Row.  The fence that he built along the front of his yard contains 180 bowling balls alone!!  I absolutely loved it and I loved that he came out to talk to us!! He was the cutest thing ever!!! BUT it truly was in the middle of nowhere!

We then went to see the USS Lapon which is a submarine surfacing out of the lawn of the VFW Post in Springfield, MO. Preeeetty funny!! After we left the VFW, we then went to see the World's Largest Fork! It was pretty cool - challenging to find, but cool. Domo and I had fun taking pictures there. From there, we met up with Matt's Uncle Dennis for dinner. We met up at the local tourist center and the followed him to Mountain Mike's (a steak place) which was directly next door to the Titanic Museum that we were going to go to after. We had a really great time at dinner (Thanks again!!) and getting caught up with Uncle Dennis - I loved hearing all the family stories since I haven't had a chance to hang out much with many of the McCauleys outside of Matt's parents & siblings. When we finished eating, the waitress asked if we wanted dessert and Uncle
Dennis said that we should go to this place called 'Andy's' and the waitress totally was all over that idea. The two of them raved over how good the frozen custard was at Andy's so Matt and I said that we would try it if they were open after the museum. 

After dinner, we headed over to the Titanic Museum.  Now, you may be saying: "Um, didn't you go to the one in Vegas?!" and the answer to that is, yes. However, this one is much much bigger, and I would dare say, better. They both follow the same premise that you get a boarding pass as you go in and you track your passenger as you go through, and then you can see if you live or die at the end (I survived both sinkings in case you were wondering). However, the one in Vegas is more centered around pieces and artifacts of the Titanic that they have been able to bring up from the bottom of the ocean.  The exhibit in Branson is more centered around the survivors and the artifacts that were collected floating in the ocean when they picked up the survivors or the floating victims and artifacts that were donated from the survivors families. I think if they combined the two exhibits it would truly be the best in the world. When we paid and got our boarding passes, they also gave us a scratch off ticket to see if we got a discount or free dessert at ... you guessed it... Andy's.

I'm telling ya, this guy Andy must work magic or something!

Either way, again we couldn't take pictures but I really liked seeing all the pieces of the collection and then at the end was an interactive piece where you could experience the different angles of the deck as the boat was sinking, the temperature of the water that the passengers were in while waiting to be rescued, and the size of the life boats that were on board. What surprised me was that none of the boats were filled and many more could have been saved if they had been.

So, we ended up closing out the museum and didn't leave there until about 11pm. We figured there would be no way that Andy's would still be open but we decided to check just in case. Sure enough, not only was it open, but there was a huge crowd of people there! Of course we stopped and of course I couldn't decide so I tried their Blackberry Concrete (basically their custard with the blackberries mixed in) and a sundae with peanut butter and coconut - both were absolutely delicious! I am going to have to run for miles when I get back to Utah to work off all the food and desserts that I have been trying but so far it has been totally worth it!

We took our desserts back to the KOA and called it a night. And if I see another june bug/cicada whatever the hell it was, it will be none too soon. EW!  These things are freaking HUGE and GROSS!  Thankfully they don't bite but they are LOUD and clumsy and weird looking!!  .:shudder:. They were all over the place when I went to get ready for bed. My skin crawls just thinking about it!!