The weather has been excellent during our 5 night stay here in Branson - fine, sunny days, but not too hot. No rain and NO wind! Meanwhile Hurricane Fay is pounding Florida Keys. At 5pm yesterday we attended one of Dolly Parton's Dixie Stampede (the other two are at Pidgeon Forge, Tennessee and Myrtle Beach, South Carolina). We got there an hour early (seems as though everyone else had the same idea) and were thrilled to find they had parking areas for RV's which were right in front making our getaway so easy. We were the only RV in the car park.
The Stampede is a 2 hr dinner show which was very entertaining and very American -throughout the dinner there is staged rivalry between the North & South (Civil War) and lots of red, white & blue flashing lights and costumes at the end. I am interested to see Australia's version (Australian Outback Spectacular) on the Gold Coast to see if it is similarly patriotic. There were entertaining piglet races and also ostrich races with riders and at one stage longhorn cattle were in the arena - I mean, really long, longhorns! Amazing creatures. The meal was tasty started with warm mildly cheese/garlic scones (called biscuits over here) served with creamy vegetable soup, then a whole small rotisserie chicken (like a spatchcock) served with a thick slice of herb baked potato and 1/3 corn on the cob plus a thick slice of roast pork loin. Dessert was a yummy puff pastry apple triangle. Your choice of coffee, pepsi, water and iced tea was continuously topped up. The way the serving staff deliver the food and beverages is very efficient. One whole row of 34 people is served in no time. There are no cutlery to use - you just drink the soup from the small ramekin, and pull the chicken apart and eat. They provide refresh towels and serviettes to clean up afterwards thanks goodness! The room holds 1000 people and it was close to 100% capacity. Dolly Parton doesn't make a personal appearance, but she is shown on a big screen doing a thank you speech at the end. Very enjoyable evening, but sadly no cameras were allowed, so I have no photos of the colourful entertainment.
This evening we attended Clay Cooper's Country Music Express show. I was able to get a small video clip of his show which was very entertaining to say the least. We had centre front row seats which was great. We enjoyed our Branson visit so much we figure we will need to come back again next year and check out some other shows. I hope you enjoy the video...
Clay Cooper Theatre Show
How are you guys ever going to settle back into the quiet life again?? You have such an interesting day EVERY day!!
ReplyDeleteI love Dolly, I saw the Outback Spectacular here on the Gold Coast but certainly doesn't sound like anything as interesting as the show you went to. But the food was great...as was the Aussie wine!!