Missouri to Tennessee

July 4th the weather started out lousy in the morning, so we just hung around until late afternoon. Once the rain stopped and it seemed like there would actually be fireworks, we threw the grill and some food in the back of the truck and headed out to find a spot to watch them. The ones we wanted to see were being set off on Table Rock lake, so we found a grassy area near the lake and cooked some burgers once we got settled. The fireworks were not of the caliber that we are used to but we had a great time hanging out. The weather was perfect- no jacket needed. Getting back to the trailer was a long process, since we had to get in line with thousands of other cars.  

              Our last day in Branson was spent on the other large lake in the area-Taneycomo. Two lakes- separated only by a dam, and yet they are so different. Table Rock Lake had warm, beautiful blue water, and was wide, and roundish, like you would think a lake would look. Lake Taneycomo is on the other side of the dam. This lake is long, narrow and shallow, and seems more like a river, with trees growing all along the banks- and the water temperature is about 20-30 degrees colder. It is fed water from 140 ft below the surface of Table Rock Lake, which makes the water about 55 degrees and perfect for trout. The lake is stocked with up to 80,000 trout per month from a nearby hatchery (which we toured). We took the inflatable a few miles down the river, and watched fish swim and jump all around us. There were so many fish, we could see trout swimming around the people who were trying to catch them! We went as far as Branson Landing, the river walk where we had gone shopping the other day. On the way there we went slowly, because the lake is pretty shallow in most spots- only 3-5 feet deep. On the way back though, we zipped along wherever we knew it was deep enough.

          Back at the trailer we headed to the pool to cool off before cooking dinner, then once the boat was dry we put it away. We were invited to our “neighbors” for dessert. We had become friendly with some of the people in the trailers near ours, and they had made homemade ice cream and cobbler, so we weren’t about to turn that down. We sat around until we couldn’t stay awake anymore, then said goodnight.
          This morning we drove very carefully to Springfield, where we had all new tires put on the Everest. The old tires will be sent to Goodyear for evaluation, and we’ll see what they will do for us. Once that was done we drove all day long and ended up in Dover, Tennessee, in a National Recreation area that is called “Land Between the Lakes” because its basically an island, with Kentucky Lake on one side, and Barklay Lake on the other. The site we have is on the water, and the sunset was awesome tonight.
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