Wild, Wonderful Whites of the West: The Ozarks, MO

The Ozarks, Missouri

June 7-10

I hardly know where to begin here.....

Dad is incredibly active on a Newell forum (no surprise, there) where he posts about all things Newell and reads about all things Newell all the time. Dad posts fairly frequently as do many other owners and often swaps emails as well. He posted about our great adventure West and received advice and even some invitations to visit! Our Newell is #530 (of all Newells ever made since early 1970's), and The Bares of Golden, MO (in the Ozarks near Branson) have Newell #531. Our Newells were next door neighbors during construction! Steve and Suzy are major travelers taking their Newell to both costs almost every year. After living in a huge city for years, they have retired in Missouri and enjoy the area a great deal. The Bares invited us to their home where they have hook ups for guests in motorhomes, so we were truly looking forward to this part of the leg. Steve described the highways and we knew we were in for some major hills and some twisty roads, but all were quite big roads until he met us to lead us to his farm...at least that was our expectation.

Well, let me tell you....

Leaving West Memphis, AK, we thought we had a GREAT day of traveling ahead. We had the iPad with its own GPS, the real GPS, and even hand written directions. Dad and I were both looking forward to visiting the Ozarks.

SOMEHOW between all of the devices that we had, the main GPS didn't even register a turn that was very important to staying on major highways. I had studied the directions in the e-mail, but not as much as I was studying the screen of my Droid. When the GPS told us to make a turn that we were not expecting AT ALL, we quickly realized that we were lost, lost, lost and needed to turn around. Well, there are no U-turns in a Newell and towing a Jeep. None.

This part gets a little hazy because I was truly upset and squeezing my pinky finger and my thumb together to keep from crying (thanks for the tip, Mom). After studying the iPad I realized that we had missed our highway by about 25-30 miles. On top of that, we had tried to call Steve.... We later learned he was at the meeting point and without a cell phone so we had no way to reach him for advice.

After exiting Highway 65, the GPS (in car mode) told us to turn left (we did) onto a small service road down a hill. Well, we heard a LOUD bang, looked back in the mirror on my side, and saw some sizable concrete cylinders that were on the side of the road. We were immediately convinced that we'd scraped the entire side of the Newell. All I see are $$$ floating away and the stress level rises exponentially.

All that's left to do now is trust the GPS, and we did. Keep in mind we are 13 feet 6 inches high (8 feet 6 inches wide, not including side mirrors) and have a complete fear of meeting anything on a bridge, or heaven forbid, come to a bridge that we can't go under and no where to turn around. Route 86 turns out to be a two lane highway that is VERY hilly and very curvy. All I could say to Dad was, just go slow. That's the only way to make it over this road. The people behind us can wait. And Dad was just great. He did an incredible job of moving the bus across 86 as I just sat there with the iPad saying, "You've got a left turn coming up, now right" and wondering what in the world happened to the side of the Newell on that service street.

We finally, and SO happily met Steve. Then he took us to his farm where the roads kept getting smaller and skinnier. At that point, it was almost easier because we knew Steve had driven his Newell here so ours had to make it as well. After pulling into his gravel driveway, Dad was so happy we made it, and it was all I could do to stop shaking and assess the damage.

I got outside and there was not a scratch on the whole Newell. I cried I was so happy (not really any surprise there!) Later, I found where the curb had knocked off the connection box for an outdoor speaker so that was the loud BANG we heard, but that was a quick and easy fix. Once we calmed down, we were able to take in the beauty of the Bare property and had a magnificent three days talking "Newell" and traveling.

Farm Road #2250 (Farm Roads were everywhere)

At dinner in Eureka Springs, AK (about 30 minutes from the farm) with Dad, Cynthia, Suzy, and Steve

Sparky's - where we ate dinner with large array of types of food and a great atmosphere and outdoor/porch eating area

The Crescent Moon Hotel in Eureka Springs. All of the houses in this historic town are built in a Victorian style and the town sits down in a valley between hills.

Moo - enough said.

The Newell site on the Bare farm. The dogs are Spikey and Shaney. About to head to Branson, MO (similar to Pigeon Forge, yet less trashy, and more family oriented)

Branson Landing which is the newest area of Branson. On the hill in the right of the shot there is tornado damage from a twister earlier this year. There was actually quite a bit of damage in Branson to hotels and restaurants.