Monday - around the campground and Dolly Parton's Stampede

On Monday, we did some tasks around the campground and in the late afternoon, went to Dolly Parton's Stampede Dinner Attraction.

A picture of Gracie in her spot at Escapees Turkey Creek - the sites are pretty close to each other...

We were glad that our spot was near the end of a row so we had an easier time backing into it.

Two of our Tire Minder sensors had been indicating "No Signal" at the monitor the past two days of driving, so I had a mental note to check their batteries. I got the information about the system out of the cabinet, retrieved the two sensors from their tires, and started checking...

Opening each sensor and checking the charge

I have learned to make detailed notes on what I've done and when. Theoretically, the batteries should last a year, and we thought we'd last changed them in March (the notes indicate 3/23/2023), but the notes also indicate that some of the batteries tested as weak when we made the change, and these two sensors had received some of the weak batteries...

... I tested them again, and sure enough, they were dead as a doornail (how dead are doornails?). Again, the new batteries that I put in tested weak, but they were better than dead!

In the afternoon, we drove over to the theater area of Branson to go to Dolly Parton's Stampede. Note that Dolly Parton was there, pretty much, in name only -- a couple of the recorded songs were hers, and her name is on the theater.

Once we picked up our tickets, we found the signage inside the building to be distinctly lacking in providing us with direction. Eventually we were given directions by a young lady on the ground floor that we would need to go upstairs -- which we did...

-- and then we were upstairs with a bunch of people waiting to get into the show space (we thought at first that the area just below us to the left was where we were supposed to do - we knew that the seating area was tiered above the arena -- but there wasn't an arena below this tiered space).

We followed the crowd and found the doors to go in...

We were seated in section F, row 2.

Looking across the arena - you can see that folks are seated in tiers -- the people dressed in red are the servers for each section. It may appear that they are walking on top of the tables where folks are seated, but they are on a walking area right in front of tables.

I was a little surprised that the show was *during* dinner...

The Master of Ceremonies started off the show.

Looking down our section -- we were all seated facing toward the arena and the servers walked just in front of our tables to serve our drinks and food and clear up.

One of the early performers was a Roman rider -- a young lady standing on the backs of her two horses, galloping around the arena...

... jumping through a ring of fire.

The show then turned to a story of the west...

...bison (they appeared to be pretty small)

... and longhorns and cowboys.

Wagon trains moving west...

... singing and dancing...

... and demonstrating prowess with a lasso.

Meanwhile our meal was being delivered -- soup came first, and a delicious biscuit, and then a small whole chicken (?Cornish game hen? How would we tell the difference?).

Aerialists performing with aerial silk...

... this and the acrobatic riding (which we seemed to get no pictures of) made our shoulders hurt!

There were a couple of events that involved audience participation...

... these intrepid young ladies had to chase chickens down the arena to cross the finish line!

These guys were tossing horseshoes...

... except they weren't exactly horseshoes - they were toilet seats!

I should mention that much of the show involved a competition between two teams -- the arena was separated into North and South, or Red and Blue, and we were to cheer for our competitors.

They had pig races - or Pork Chop Derby...

... and they're off!

Racing around the track!

There was also a competitive dog agility race with dogs that had been rescued from local animal shelters and provided with a home (and work to do?!?!?).

The show ended with the presentation of the colors...

The riders stayed in the arena up next to the fence so we could greet and talk with them on our way out. I asked one of the young ladies how long she had been doing the show and she said 3 seasons.

We enjoyed the show -- it was a little odd eating while there was a performance going on in front of us (and we were supposed to be cheering and clapping too!). Carl mentioned that he thought that the lighting could be updated, but it didn't detract from the show.

This is my first visit to Branson, and thus my first Branson show -- enjoying and looking forward to more!