Our time at Dogwood Canyon ended the planned part of our vacation. For those of you who know me well, you will rightly assume that this is a bit unusual. I’m not overly sure what happened to my planning gene for this trip; I think it got covered up with trying to take care of a baby!
Anyway, we still had a short list of things we wanted to do, namely visit the other two nearby states that border Missouri and eat a meal at Lambert’s Café, the Only Home of Throwed Rolls. We had no hotel reservations and no plan beyond that.
So, when we packed up at Dogwood Canyon, we headed toward Joplin, Missouri. Only we were sort of in the middle of nowhere, and the shortest route between Dogwood Canyon and the interstate was an hour of the hilliest, curviest roads that I have ever seen. I’m not prone to carsickness, but these roads were enough to turn even my stomach.
Finally, we reached the interstate and made the rest of the drive past Joplin. Our first stop was a place that Jeff had actually found on a map: State Line Road, on the premises of an Indian reservation’s casino!
What was very cool about this particular stop is that there was a marker showing exactly where Missouri, Kansas, and Oklahoma butted against each other. Of course, this was a perfect opportunity for some goofy photos!
By this time, we were ready to eat, and southwestern Missouri has a restaurant that central Illinois, so far, does not: Chick-Fil-A. So, that’s where we headed. While there, Jeff made us a reservation at a nearby Comfort Inn, complete with a swimming pool. I had packed our bathing suits, just in case, so we spent the rest of the evening swimming, watching TV, and playing cards. I thought this was a funny scene.
The next morning, we ate breakfast and decided to visit a place of which we had seen a billboard on our drive through Joplin. Nearby Carthage, Missouri, is the home of the Precious Moments Park. Part Visitors Center, part gift shop, part museum, and part beautiful grounds, this a place that pleasantly surprised all of us.
While I am not a huge Precious Moments fan, I do buy a dated Christmas ornament every year, something I started back in 1995 when Jeff and I were first married. I thought that it might be fun to buy one where the Precious Moments thing started. And there is, indeed, a huge gift shop. But there is also an interesting museum that traces the evolution of this line of giftware and a huge private collection that a woman donated some years back.
There are also some life sized figurines from the Birthday Train collection, which my mom has bought for Charlotte since she was a baby. Charlotte was very excited about this and wanted each of the kids to pose next to their “age.” Charlotte actually posed next to nearly all of them before we left!
We also found a life-size figurine in honor of the rescue workers from the Murrah Federal Building bombing in Oklahoma City.
At the back of the property was a chapel, custom-designed by Sam Butcher, who created the Precious Moments line, that features the 23rd Psalm and the Beatitudes in stained glass. There are also many paintings of stories from the Old and New Testaments and a huge mural called “The Hallelujah Square,” which depicts Precious Momentized real people who have died untimely deaths arriving in heaven. Sam Butcher lost his own son to an early death in a car accident . While the chapel is undeniably sad, it is also a beautiful memorial.
We ended our visit in the gift shop, where I did, indeed, purchase a 2010 dated ornament!
When we finished up here, we headed back toward Springfield, Missouri, and slightly south to the town of Sikeston, where we were seated almost immediately at Lambert’s Café, the throwed rolls place. Lambert’s serves large portions of good country cooking; there is also wait staff walking around with large pots of okra, macaroni and tomatoes, fried potatoes, black-eyed peas, and sorghum and honey, which are served to anyone who has ordered a meal. The throwed rolls come in when the bread man comes along, hollering, “Hot rolls!” Then, you hold up your hand, and he pitches a roll across the room at you.
Charlotte and Elijah were absolutely delighted with this place and ended up eating more bread than anything else! I don’t think that I saw a single roll end up on the floor. When we got done eating, we were nearly sick with how much food we had consumed!
By this time, it was around 2:30, and we were about six or seven hours away from home. We had planned on being gone through Friday, and, as it was just Thursday, we wondered what else we should do.
Wine tasting? There was a good wine trail if we headed back west a bit. But the kids vetoed this one. We could have overridden their veto, but, quite honestly, the thought of pulling the baby and two other cranky kids out of the car at a series of wineries was a bit overwhelming.
Should we head to Mark Twain country in Hannibal, Missouri? This was a possibility, but, when we started looking for hotels, we weren’t having much luck.
At last, we decided to just head home, and we arrived about 9:30 on Thursday night. We spent Friday relaxing and recovering, glad to be home after a busy vacation.
And, finally, finally, I am finished with Branson!
Coming up…Jeff’s birthday and our December activities thus far.
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