March 24 - 25, McAlester, OK - first night in Branson
By Brian Gilbar and Chris Ransdell
Not much to say on this blog so it will be quite short. Luckily we had our massage in the morning because we ended up driving all day. The trip to McAlester started around 10 a.m. and we got there about 10 p.m. My upper back and neck have been bothering me for several days and the pain comes and goes, but it was quite intense by the time I finished driving a bit over 200 miles of our 500 mile trip today. We ate a nice breakfast at the hotel in San Antonio, then had lunch at Dairy Queen on the way. I had some very nasty nachos with melted plastic looking cheese. Chris had a good burger with some deep fried jalapeno's on top. He said it tasted good.
We had quite a few stops along the way to get gas and use restrooms. On our way we stopped at Applebees for dinner and had a really nice meal in Ada, OK. Our server was on his second day on his own and did a great job. My back and neck were feeling a little better by then...I think the ibuprofen kicked in.
We pretty much just went to bed when we got to the hotel knowing it would be a fairly early start to Branson. In the morning after checking out the hotel breakfast we decided to go to a cafe instead. Our waitress was great and it was good food, except for the fact that Chris stole the middle (and best) part of my cinnamon bun. I was traumatized all day because of it. he he
Chris here: The drive started heading East on OK-1 towards the Talimena National Scenic byway. The air quality was very poor but it was still fun climbing up, up and away on the Winding Stair mountain. The grades and terrain along that drive are amazingly different than what most people imagine or remember from Oklahoma. I try to go through it every time I'm in Oklahoma. Then we got into Arkansas and average speeds dropped down to maybe 40 MPH. I tried asking for the fastest navigation route but what passes for a road network in Arkansas (especially South of I-40) is dismal. Very few and very short passing lanes, little straightening or flattening of anything. It seems like they just took what was probably a trail or a wagon road and paved it, albeit with a decent shoulder sometimes. It took about 5 hours to slog through the 200 miles of AR between the OK border and the MO border. It did take us over the Pig Tail byway which was, unsurprisingly, very curvy and very very slow. And really, this wasn't me attempting to make the route more difficult, it is the same route On Star gave me or Google maps would give you. Add in some thunder, hail and rain and it made for a bit of a long day.
Getting checked into the hotel in Branson was easy and everybody has been amazingly friendly here. We are at the Radisson which is oddly huge (9 floors) for Branson. Then we headed back into the thunder and rain to head to dinner. Originally I thought we were across the street from a Longhorn steakhouse (which I've never tried and we have gift cards for) but once we were in the car we realized it is Lonestar not Longhorn (it was really raining hard!) so we headed off to Red Lobster figuring that at least our gift cards would work there (Longhorn and Olive Garden and Red Lobster gift cards are usually interchangeable). Dinner was really good. Red Lobster isn't necessarily top shelf dining but everything we had was top of form for Red Lobster and that includes our server who was a delight. Only at the end did we realize that the gift cards got left at the hotel. So dinner was supposed to be steak, ended up being seafood because we thought we were being smart using our gift cards which we were then unable to use. Sometimes life is funny like that.
Not much to say on this blog so it will be quite short. Luckily we had our massage in the morning because we ended up driving all day. The trip to McAlester started around 10 a.m. and we got there about 10 p.m. My upper back and neck have been bothering me for several days and the pain comes and goes, but it was quite intense by the time I finished driving a bit over 200 miles of our 500 mile trip today. We ate a nice breakfast at the hotel in San Antonio, then had lunch at Dairy Queen on the way. I had some very nasty nachos with melted plastic looking cheese. Chris had a good burger with some deep fried jalapeno's on top. He said it tasted good.
We had quite a few stops along the way to get gas and use restrooms. On our way we stopped at Applebees for dinner and had a really nice meal in Ada, OK. Our server was on his second day on his own and did a great job. My back and neck were feeling a little better by then...I think the ibuprofen kicked in.
We pretty much just went to bed when we got to the hotel knowing it would be a fairly early start to Branson. In the morning after checking out the hotel breakfast we decided to go to a cafe instead. Our waitress was great and it was good food, except for the fact that Chris stole the middle (and best) part of my cinnamon bun. I was traumatized all day because of it. he he
Chris here: The drive started heading East on OK-1 towards the Talimena National Scenic byway. The air quality was very poor but it was still fun climbing up, up and away on the Winding Stair mountain. The grades and terrain along that drive are amazingly different than what most people imagine or remember from Oklahoma. I try to go through it every time I'm in Oklahoma. Then we got into Arkansas and average speeds dropped down to maybe 40 MPH. I tried asking for the fastest navigation route but what passes for a road network in Arkansas (especially South of I-40) is dismal. Very few and very short passing lanes, little straightening or flattening of anything. It seems like they just took what was probably a trail or a wagon road and paved it, albeit with a decent shoulder sometimes. It took about 5 hours to slog through the 200 miles of AR between the OK border and the MO border. It did take us over the Pig Tail byway which was, unsurprisingly, very curvy and very very slow. And really, this wasn't me attempting to make the route more difficult, it is the same route On Star gave me or Google maps would give you. Add in some thunder, hail and rain and it made for a bit of a long day.
Getting checked into the hotel in Branson was easy and everybody has been amazingly friendly here. We are at the Radisson which is oddly huge (9 floors) for Branson. Then we headed back into the thunder and rain to head to dinner. Originally I thought we were across the street from a Longhorn steakhouse (which I've never tried and we have gift cards for) but once we were in the car we realized it is Lonestar not Longhorn (it was really raining hard!) so we headed off to Red Lobster figuring that at least our gift cards would work there (Longhorn and Olive Garden and Red Lobster gift cards are usually interchangeable). Dinner was really good. Red Lobster isn't necessarily top shelf dining but everything we had was top of form for Red Lobster and that includes our server who was a delight. Only at the end did we realize that the gift cards got left at the hotel. So dinner was supposed to be steak, ended up being seafood because we thought we were being smart using our gift cards which we were then unable to use. Sometimes life is funny like that.
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