Dailey and Vincent

The low was 15 degrees.  Brrrr!  This morning there was a slight wind blowing, so it really felt cold.  We are hoping pipes and tanks made it ok.  Today, we are eating lunch at Lamberts and we wanted to visit Wilson Creek National Battlefield.  We had been to the battlefield before when John went to college in Southwest Baptist University but that was 25-30 years ago.  We missed the signs for the battlefield so went to the Lambert area to do some antique shops and then eat.

Got to Lambert's at 11:00 and we still had to wait 10 minutes.  Everyone wants to eat at Lambert's.  The food is plentiful and delicious.  It is just good, downhome cooking.  Carol had gizzards and I had Chicken pot pie.  One of the best thing about Lambert's is the "pass arounds" and "throwed rolls."  As you are eating, huge pans of fried okra, tomatoes and macaroni, black-eyes peas, and fried potatoes are being brought around.  You can have any of all of these things put on your plate in addition to your meal; and, there is the rolls which they throw to you.  Needless to say, everyone takes home food.

Santa Claus is coming to town!

As we driving to the battlefield, we passed this car and Santa was driving!  Driving a car with big dice hanging from the mirror didn't fit my picture of Santa.

This is the Visitor's Center.  I don't usually take a picture of the Visitor's Center but the last time we were here, the Visitor's Center was a small white building.  Since that time a nice center has been built.  We never learned about Wilson's Creek in history but evidently there were several small battles in Missouri during the Civil War.   At the beginning of the war, both sides  wanted Missouri to be on their side.   Missouri's governor was pro slavery and there were slave owners in Missouri but there were also people who were against slavery.   In this battle, the governor sent the state militia to fight with the Confederate soldiers against Union troops.  In this battle, the first Union general of the war was killed.  This battle was fought in August of 1861 just a few months after war was declared and the Confederates won (this time).

This house is original to the site.  A man named Ray lived here with his wife and 10 children, his slave and her 4 children, and the postmaster of the community.   At times, they watched the battle from the front porch.

This is the spring house located down the hill and front yard of the Ray house.  The house was also used as a hospital during the battle, and the kids carried water from the spring house to the big house for wounded soldiers.

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After touring the battlefield, we returned to camp to "nap" off the huge lunch.  The Dailey and Vincent show was at 8:00 p.m. and we had great seats.  We were in third row, center.    Above is Jamie Dailey and below is Darren Vincent..

The madoline and fiddle players were great.

Carol's favorite instrument is the dobro and this young man could really play it.

The bass singer and also guitar players.

Vincent's mother joined them to sing a song or two.  The show was nearly two hours long and unlike the other two shows we saw this weekend, they did not take a break.  

We got back to camp around 11:00 p.m.  Our two month "big adventure is nearly over.  I didn't do my blog; but instead, got up at 5:15 this morning to do it.  I remember what it was like the days I didn't have internet and I didn't want to have to play catch up.  We enjoyed these last three days at Branson and it was a good way to end our trip.  Carol is up now and as soon as it gets light, we will pack up and load the car.  We have 360 miles to drive today and at this point in our trip, we want to get home as quickly as possible.

I will be busy unpacking when we get home so I probably won't post tonight and maybe not tomorrow night, but I want to post a final blog to wrap up the trip.