Friday

Slow start to the day, this was intentional.  No real agenda today so we could have a leisurely breakfast: pancakes with chocolate chips and raspberries.  We then took a walk around the area we find ourselves in.

Only the main road through the ranch is paved.  Everything else is large-grade gravel and two-tracks.  Several two tracks lead off into the woods behind the horse pasture and we walked down a couple of them.  We found the sawmill and the burn pile.  We also found lots of old cars and boats in various stages of decay. Must be they are used for parts for the mechanics classes, although I’m not sure that an old Studebaker would have the parts that someone needed.

We ran in to Tim again outside the metal shop.  He showed us the shop as well as the wood shop.  Very well tooled although the shops get so full that it sometimes is difficult to park the vehicle being worked on in the shop.

And then it was lunch time.  Back to the academic building where we had ham & cheese sandwiches with the staff and the boys.  We’re getting to know them little by little, starting with the names. I think I have about three names down now.

We took off in the afternoon to check out the thrift store.  A few miles away, this 14,000 square foot store supports the ranch and has a big draw from a wide area.  Probably the biggest thrift store I have ever been in.

We then drove to the lake house, a cottage owned by the ranch right on Table Rock Lake but we found when we got there that we would have to carry the kayaks down a steep rocky path to the water and that seemed a bit much, so we drove to Mill Creek, an Army Corps Of Engineers access site and campground and launched them there.

If you need a place to camp near Branson, this could be it.  Beautiful terraced camp sites, most right on the water, and fairly cheap, too.  Popular place to launch a fishing boat also.  We had parked by the boat ramp and were soon surrounded by lots of fishing boats all arriving around the same time.  I figured out later it must be some sort of tournament as everyone seemed to know each other and the boats all sped off in different directions at the same time.

We stuck around for a while to enjoy the cooling of the evening and the views of the lake before returning to the ranch.

And, as usual we’re doing constant little fixes to the RV.  One drawer slide came apart and I managed to find most of the little ball bearings before they rolled too far away and put it back together again.  My WiFi booster stopped working so I spent some time on the roof trying to figure out if it was the connecting cable or the roof antenna.  It appears to be the cable, so I have one on order, due on Monday.  Amazon doesn’t deliver next-day here.