Luckily, I married Katie who can plan anything perfectly.
(The general rule of thumb for Coffeyville. You gotta drive at least 50 miles to be near something)
(Huge image dump of photos at the bottom of the page if you wanna skip the wordy bits...)
Now, something needs to be said. If you look at Coffeyville on the map, there is literally nothing of note for fifty to one-hundred miles. Literally. Towns are small and far apart, with little more than a Wall-Mart to their name. So finding something to do would mean driving for quite a bit no matter what. I ended up logging over 22 hours on the road for the week. No big.
So for Friday Katie found a legit Drive in Theater about an hour and a half away. Now, it's no big secret that I love seeing movies, but something I've never done is gone to a drive in theater. So, immediately I was interested. Katie had been to a number of drive in theaters, just not since she was young. So powered by nostalgia and intrigue, we set out to make the eight o clock double feature of Guardians of The Galaxy and Into the Storm. All for 7 bucks. A complete steal. That's a lot cheaper than a normal theater by nearly half the cost for one movie let alone 2. Sure, we've already seen Guardians, but we were wanting to see it again anyway (because it is that good) and Into the Storm would be at least entertainingly bad.
(More like 66 feet tall...)
What wasn't expected was how awesome the theater would be. Sure we thought it'd be fun, but the entire experience was over the top. Much greater then anything we could have hoped for.
(Trying too hard to be artsy)
There was a great turnout and everyone there was just looking to have a good time. The staff was very friendly and knew how to handle such a crowd. The audio was even pumped in through a radio station if you wanted.
(And in case you didn't know Guardians is one of the best films of the year, so see it. It has a raccoon that talks, what more could you want from a movie?)
(I don't know how this Scify movie wannabe got such a wide release, sirens should go off if it's being shown. Seriously though, sneaky tornadoes?)
Anyway that was our Friday night. Completely worth 3 hours of total driving. Was one of the best highlights of the weekend. Wish drive in theaters were more common, or at least more like this one existed.
Saturday morning rolls around, and we make our way down to Branson. A solid three hour drive one way. We had reservations on a showboat at 4, and the they recommended getting there an hour ahead of time.
(2.5 million pounds of pure Branson entertainment)
Our cruise was going to be about 3 hours including food and a show, all the while enjoying the scenic Table Rock Lake.
(These people insisted we take a picture of them...At least they look happy....)
The show, Made in the U.S.A., was cheesy but in a good way. Fun for the whole family.
After the show and some souvenir hunting (no luck, so no we didn't get you anything :P ) we checked into our hotel The Lodge of the Ozark.
(What you can't see is the go-kart track behind it, not even joking)
It was getting to be nighttime, but being young people we decided to walk down the Branson main strip, taking in the sites. Multiple mini-golf courses, the Ripley's Believe it or Not museum, and the Titanic later we ended up in a 50s style diner.
(Wasn't kidding about the Titanic part)
Cakes n Creams, was a true slice of the past. The atmosphere was retro, the food authentic, and the jukebox even worked(we doubted it, we were wrong.) After walking down the strip this place was exactly what we were looking for. But it was the late time of 10 at this point so the night was called after that.
(Aforementioned jukebox)
Sunday morning was a somewhat early rise, but we knew it'd be worth it. Katie had booked a Zipline tour.
(Indiana Jones font)
Ziplining was an incredible amount of fun. About two hours and and seven lines. Was quite the deal.
(Wall-E and Eve ready for action)
Our guides made sure everyone's face had a smile on it the entire time. From jokes to trying to freak people out over the parking lot by screaming, to tricks on the lines. They always had something witty to say and you could banter with them the entire time.
(Ethan and Christian: goofballs)
Great time. Very safe. They had a double line system so if one did break, there was a backup. Heck the scariest part were the stairs going up to the first tour. Once up there it's smooth sailing. Our group even had a 6 and 8 year old going. Far braver then I was at their age.
(She seems cool, I should marry her)
(Someone saw the camera and tried to look cool)
So if in Branson check out Adventure Ziplines. They have a great staff, zipline course, and took some awesome photos that will clutter the bottom of this page and my Facebook.
After showering (it had gotten to near 100 on the lines) we checked out of our hotel and drove about an hour over the the actual town of Ozark to eat some good old Lambert's.
(Stupid trees blocking the sign)
Now, it was about 2 on Labor day Sunday, so the wait was going to be an hour. So looking what was close, Katie informed me she had never been to a Bass Pro Shop.
(She thought it was just going to be a slightly bigger Gander Mountain...)
(Wall-E and Eve aren't scared of Turtles)
The timing of everything worked out perfectly here. We looked around Bass Pro Shop for a little bit, drove about fifteen minutes back to Lambert's and they called our names within five minutes of getting back.
(Thirsty Eve and Wall-E)
(And if you know what Lambert's is known for...)
Then we drove about two and half hours back to Coffeyville. That was our weekend. Sorry it took so long to get this up, hope it was worth the wait. We had a great time and we will keep posting stuff like this when we do fun stuff in the future. Any thoughts would be appreciated, leave a comment on what you liked and if you'd like something done differently. Till next time, Happy Travels.
P.S. Gallery of pics
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