On leaving Fayetteville this morning, bound for Branson, you knew which direction we had to take, didn’t you?

This one.

And yes, I did.

But although I’ve technically put down both feet in 42 states now, a five minute stay hardly means I can claim to have enjoyed the full Oklahoma experience.  I’ll still count it though

We are in truck territory here.  Large pick ups with names like “Ram” and “Silverado”, which make our seven seat van look pretty namby pamby when we’re out on the highway.

We pass pawnbrokers for “guns and guitars” and this church with a free archery range for “sportsman’s fellowship”.  It appears to be a man’s world in this neck of the woods.

We just had to keep on going.

Through Tontitown.

Past roadside advert hoardings for dentistry and braces.  Sorry, a bit blurred there but you get the picture?

We were heading for Eureka Springs.  No, not to stay at the Land-o-Nod Inn.

Not even to mooch around what appeared to be a tackier version of Hot Springs, where we were the other day.

We were there to visit this architectural masterpiece, winner of several awards in the 1980s, the overall “design of the decade” and fourth on the American Institute of Architecture’s list of top buildings of the twentieth century.

Is it a bridge? 

No, it’s a church.

The Thorncrown Chapel was on our AAA guide as being worth a diversion, so we did. 

Well, we had to, really, didn’t we?

From there, it was a short distance into Missouri.  You know what that means, don’t you?  But not yet…I was on the Arkansas side of the line when I jumped out of the car, took the photo and jumped back in again.  Our rule: Both feet on the ground to count!

Soon, we were in Branson, our destination for the next two nights.  When we were planning our route, Branson seemed like an “interesting” place to stop, but as soon as we mentioned it to our American friends, they looked askance.  Branson?  Really?

Well, with these names on the billboard for tonight,  wouldn’t you?

(I know….)

Every building on “the strip” houses a different show and with our excellent Californian concierge’s advice, we’ve booked to see The Haygoods tonight.  When we collected the tickets earlier this afternoon, Jared commented “good choice!”.

We’ll see.

For now, we are spending a couple of hours in the hotel as it pours with rain outside.  Yes, that is a model of the Titanic there on the street and yes, there is water there at the bow.  If I’d been able to take a picture of the other side, you’d have seen an iceberg too.

Such is life in Branson.

We just had to do it, though, didn’t we?

(and yes, I have chalked up state  #43 now!)