19 Apr 2025 - Rain-forced Move; Veteran's Memorial Museum

 

Rained very hard last night.  Branson/Hollister received about 2.6 inches.  The campground here does a good job of communicating safety information and this morning they said we needed to be ready to move if the lake level continued to rise followed by more rain. They actually came to each camper to talk with the occupants and hand them a relocation map should that be needed. 

Taken when we first got here.

Taken this morning

Ducks are loving this! 

The City truck was driving by about every 10 minutes to watch the lake level rise and the rain continued.  I went out to talk with him again and suggested since the rain had let up a bit I would much rather move now than in a downpour, and he agreed.  I voiced my concerns about the size of the site #3 (below) they had us targeted for, and he came back with a new map with a new site identified.

Doreen and I had already prepared the inside of the coach for a move, so we finished up inside and then moved outside, disconnected the hoses, power, etc and hooked up to the truck.  It did not take us too long to relocate to site #76.  Even with my Gortex on we got pretty wet as the rain continued.  We had finished our move and then received a text that they were having everyone on the first row move,  

Had we not moved voluntarily earlier we would be moving now!  As Clark W, Griswold would say, "It's all part of the experience!"  So we got all settled and dried off in our new site, and tuned into grandson Daniel's first of three baseball games today.  No streaming video today so we had to rely on Game Changer mechanized broadcast.    

Later after it appeared the rain had subsided for a while, we drove a few miles to the Veteran's Memorial Museum in Branson, which is "is a national tribute to the brave men and women who defended our liberties during the 20th Century".  

Per their web site, the Veterans Memorial Museum is composed of ten great halls covering the wars and conflicts fought during the 20th Century. Circulation and viewing starts in the World War I Hall, progressing through World War II, Korea, Vietnam, Desert Storm, and more. 

There are mannequins throughout the museum with uniforms and stories of those warriors.  And the stories go on and on.  There are also artifacts that were captured and brought home, and weapons of all sorts that were used during those time periods wars.  

In each of the halls, posted on the walls are the names or those who gave the ultimate sacrifice for that specific war or conflict. Each of those names were brave warriors who's family and friends grieved for their loss. 

Doreen found the name of her relative that died during World War II. 

 The museum is wonderfully done and very sobering.  

From here we headed south to the College of the Ozarks to visit the Ralph Foster Museum.  One of the items in that museum is the Beverly Hillbillies truck.   

Unfortunately they are closed due to it being Easter weekend.  We found other things closed tomorrow also.  So that may be the extent of our touring here.  We will have to see what the weather does tomorrow as this rain is supposed to continue Sunday into Monday when we move to Fort Leonard Wood, our next stop.  Hopefully in the mean time the lake behaves itself so we do not have to bug-out completely.