Vakkotaur

...to Arkansas. Though actually we didn't go to Arkansas until after spending a night in Kimberling City, MO. Thanksgiving and the Friday after) were spent in Missouri and Arkansas.

Some observations:

I noticed southern (to me) accents even as far north as Bethany, MO which isn't far from the Iowa border. The accents are a bit more noticeable in southern Missouri. I didn't notice any accent in Des Moines this summer, and I don't think I did in Osceola, IA (south of Des Moines, about an hour north of Bethany, MO).

The local cafe in the area, Table Rock Cafe, had a distressingly high percentage of menu items involving liver, especially chicken livers. (The breakfast menu was more normal, fortunately.) They made carrots that looked like sweet potatoes (ugh). Luckily they managed to keep the carrot flavor.

Even a really nice motorhome is too small to spend a lot of time in with very many people. Even if they pretty much get along. I don't care to imagine otherwise. Consider that you can get out easily. Realize what this implies for space travel.

I had somehow always thought of the Ozarks as being more to the east. While what we saw were not mountains, at least compared to the Rockies, they were certainly non-trivial hills.

A ~12 hour road trip, even if another person does all the driving and you can take a nap, is still about all a person can take. XM's old time radio program channel really, really helps - for about eight hours, if you like the program lineup. (I've discovered I loathe 'family sitcoms' on radio just much as on TV.)

The Radio City Rockettes' Christmas Spectacular is quite good overall, though the final living nativity portion lays it on thick. Thicker than church services I've attended. Thicker than a church living nativity. (I was in one once, hard as that may be to believe. No, not as anyone significant.) This show is one I can recommend seeing (then, I didn't pay for my ticket, so..) though I'd recommend slipping out before or during the final act - it's predictable and you'd miss the parking lot exodus crowd.

Thanksgiving dinner at a hotel is great. There is plenty to eat, with good variety. And any leftovers are not your problem. Sure, you could do that by visiting relatives and not taking anything, but there's no guilt trip with the hotel. The only problem is that with a huge buffet selection and generous servers it's even easier to overeat than at a normal holiday meal.

When a Country Kitchen dessert menu says something is big enough to share, they mean between at least three people.

Star Wars: Attack of the Clones does not benefit from a second viewing. (Though I did ponder referring to Branson, MO as Mos Eisley...)

Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman does benefit from a second reading.

Hello Kitty is scary even on the radio, despite having no mouth.

The trip to Merrill, WI for Christmas is going to seem nice and short.