Shed Shmed and tons of pictures

This week was supposed to be vacation week. We planned back in May to return to Branson from Tuesday the 18th of September through Friday the 21st. But then a few weeks ago the Court scheduled a hearing on one of my cases for Wednesday the 19th. Ugh! oh well, we'll go in October :( Besides, the shed needs shingles and paint.


But then Tuesday morning, about 2 hours after we were originally supposed to leave, the court date was cancelled. Ahhhhhhh!!!!! So I ran out back and hollered for Tony to git down off that shed and git ta packin'! We were on the road by 2:30 and in Branson by 6.


So the Shed still needs a roof and paint but we got our vacation!


We stayed in the same place we stayed last time: the Alpine Lodge. The Alpine is a bit dated and the mattress and pillows are . . . lets say firm, but the cabins are clean and quiet and you get a lake view from your balcony. Plus we can leave precious puppy there while we are out and don't have to worry about her disturbing the neighbors.

Inside: dated but roomy and clean

Outside: hills, rocks, trees and a lake



For me, though, the Alpine is perfect for a little knit time. I wake up two hours before Tony on most days -- vacations included -- and the Branson attractions don't open until 9 or 10 a.m. during this time of year so I had a nice chunk of quiet time to spend with my coffee and my UFOs.

Actually, I wanted to start a new sock. I brought all the essentials:

And this yarn was so delicious in the morning light.

But:

I have a terrible habit of dropping DPNs at the end of a row and I was NOT going to lose one of my best sock needles in this decking.

So I settled for working on the ballband which was a total mess since I hastily threw it into my knitting bag.



Tony had similar thoughts and only worked on a warshrag as well:


We knew from experience that Branson has no yarn shops and although SDC is full of craftspeople, there are no spinners or knitters or weavers or anyone doing anything with fiber. Therefore we were very surprised to find this right inside the gate:

A Yarn Totem! And a Spinner:





And she's selling handmade needles and spindles. We picked up some US8s since the precious puppy ate our favorite pair just a few days earlier.


She had tons of yarn -- handspun and handpainted -- plus handknitted items.

She also worked flax into linen.
We picked up some of her handspun/handpainted. 6.6 ounces/200 yards for $20. We couldn't leave without a picture together.

On the other side of the park, we found another booth full of yarn.

And more handmade needles.

In other parts of the park there were weavers and quilters and who knows what we missed. Normally, all this fibery goodness is not present at SDC -- except for a quilt shop. But we were there during the Festival of American Music and Crafts where they bring in tons of crafters to showcase and sell their goods.

Outside the park, we did something we'd always wanted to do: we rode the Ducks!

Also, we partied one night in Springfield. Who knew Springfield, MO, has such a huge gay nightlife? We went to Martha's Vineyard where they had a drag king show, The Edge where they had karaoke, and finally to Latin Vibe where they had go-go boys and drag queens. Squeee!

These pics and more from our vacation can be seen on my Flickr! account.

More to come soon!

Eric