Hard Work U (Branson, MO)

Keeter Center

in the floor

Here’s an interesting concept: what if a student did not have to pay tuition for a college education? Instead of paying tuition, how about the student works for the college?  Odd concept?  But it does work at the College of the Ozarks (Cofo) near Branson, MO, also known as the Hard Work U.

From CofO’s mission statement:  The mission of this unique institution focuses on providing a Christian education to those who are found worthy, but who are without sufficient means to obtain such training.

The college is small (less than 2000 students), but it offers their students a wide variety of academic classes from Accounting to Unified Science – chemistry endorsement.  According to HubPages, there are only 9 tuition-free colleges/universities, but the majority are geared towards a specific education like music or engineering.

Inside Keeter Center

CofO also encourages outside visitors.  After reading great reviews from TripAdvisor, we decided to visit and eat lunch.  There are no charges for visiting the campus.  The Keeter Center is a lodge with decorative rooms to rent, a dining room, and a conference center.  The lodge’s design reflects a Maine Lodge that was on display in the St. Louis World’s Fair in 1904.  The rustic place is HUGE with massive logs, polished wood floors, and high ceilings.  The dining room’s ceiling had decorative copper tiles and all the furniture has a  handmade look.  French doors open onto a back balcony overlooking the campus. 

 For luch we ordered the smoked Tomato soup, Pork Quesadillas, and grilled Reuben sandwich.  The food was tasty and reasonably priced.  They also have a bakery with a delicious looking display as you enter the dining room.

The campus was so peaceful with most students walking to classes and cows lying quietly in the fields. Yep, you read right – cows. 

View from the Keeter Center's back patio

They have a functioning farm on campus along with a working mill, and a fruit cake kitchen (you can watch them make fruitcake).  We did not visit all areas of campus, just a few, but we were very impressed with the campus and the students.

There are more photos in our album Hard Work U

Edwards Mill

Many Miles Later (Branson, MO)

Branson, MO

We have been doing a lot of traveling since our last post.  We are in Branson, MO and we are planning to stay a couple of weeks.  We are a little tired of the faster pace we have been moving.  We are staying in an Escapees’ campground called Turkey Creek.  We have full hook-ups and cable TV.  A real plus is the campground’s  location.  We are within a 10 minute drive from Branson that is across the river and yet, we don’t feel like we are that close to the hustle and bustle of the downtown Branson.

Historic Downtown Paducah

Mural on flood gate in Paducah

So, to get you caught up with where we were and what we were doing….Leaving Knoxville to Paducah, KY turned into a very long travel day.   We found a nice little campground through RV Reviews that has only been in business for about 5 years.  They have suffered through floods, ice storms, and renovations already.   Can you imagine spending a winter there? Our site faced a small pond that had one Great Blue Heron fishing in it a few times a day.

Sandy has wanted to visit the National Quilt Museum for many years.  We picked one of the hottest days to visit the historic downtown Paducah.  We got downtown early, but it was so hot and humid, we could barely breathe.  We walked along the city’s flood gate while checking out the gate’s mural and Ohio River.  The downtown area had some very unusual buildings and yes, Sandy took photos of a few of them.  We did not last long walking before we decided it was time to spend some time inside with air conditioner!  We were soaked! Ugh!  We had lunch and Sandy went off to the museum.  No photos were allowed.  Sandy did not get enough of quilts, so she walked over to Eleanor Burn’s Quilt in a Day shop.  The employees greeted her with an invite to take photos which surprised Sandy since most quilt shops discourage it.

New kitchen faucet

While Sandy did her quilt thing, Dan headed off to Home Depot for sink parts.  He had installed a new kitchen faucet, but found the new faucet connections have changed.  Of course, they did not fit right and there was some minor leaking.  The next day, he worked on the sink and now it is perfect!

Jay & Sandy in front of Kindly Geppeto

We left Paducah two days later and headed north to see Sandy’s brother Jay in Illinois.   The trip turned into another long travel day with too much traffic.  We were happy to settle at Scott AFB FamCamp despite only having 30 amp electrical and no sewer drop at the site.  We had a wonderful time visiting with Jay’s son Ryan, his wife Kim, and their two boys, Hunter and Caiden.  The following day, Jay played tour guide and took us into the downtown St. Louis area.  We wandered around the City Gardens and under the Arch.  Sandy could have spent more time taking photos, but again it was just too hot and humid to spend too much time outdoors. So we went shopping instead!

1 Fish-eye lens and 2 Arcs x 4

Thanks to Jay for showing us around St. Louis, cooking delicious vegetarian meals, and for letting us talk him into adopting a cat!  What a guy!  It all started when we went to Pet Smart and saw two very cute cats.  They were both quiet and wanted a lot of loving.  I guess we talked about the cats a little too much.  By the end of the evening, Jay was heading home with a 3 year old cat and a trunk full of supplies.  He changed her name from Paine to Charmin as in “Please don’t squeeze the Charmin. You have to admit she does look soft enough to squeeze and she has a very mellow attitude that we can see someone wanting to hug her a lot.

Charmin making herself
comfortable in her new home.

That night Jay sent this text message:

Litter box set up, cat tested and approved: CHECK!
Flea prevention applied while cat purrs: CHECK!
Water & food bowls cat tested and approved: CHECK!
House & owner (servant): Still under inspection, approval pending.

Post note: Jay sent an update today.  Charmin has Jay on a schedule and it sounds like the beginning of a beautiful friendship! 

Great Smokey Mountains (Knoxville, TN)

Cable's Grist Mill

We spent an afternoon at the Great Smokey Mountains National Park.  It was beautiful, but not very relaxing.  We made the mistake of going on a Saturday afternoon and it was very…..very…very busy! Since we were starting late, we had to decide which of the loops we wanted to see.  We picked Cades Cove because we would be able to see an original community from the 1800’s.  The best part was the freedom to walk around and explore the nooks and crannies of the homesteads.  

Some of the barns looked almost top heavy with small first floors and wide second floors.  We were able to explore through the old cabins which seemed dark and very sparse.  

LeQuire Cantilever Barn

We found one of the first Spring Houses in the area to be very interesting.  The family stored butter and other items that needed to stay cool.

Spring House

Sandy had wanted to visit Gatlinburg’s 8 miles of Arts and Crafts.  You guessed right.  There’s a quilt shop there.  We started getting into heavy traffic in Sevierville.  Crawled through Pigeon Forge, and came to a complete stop on Gatlinburg’s main street.  We stopped for a quick lunch and decided we better visit the national park first.  By the time we finished, it was after 6 pm.  By that time we were tired of the traffic jams and the heat had worn us out.

Our Webshots Album: Great Smokey Mountains

Three Halves Make a Whole?

After a long travel day and not much food left in the RV, we decided to stop at a fast BBQ place for a take-out chicken dinner.  We order a whole chicken thinking this could last us for a couple of meals.  One of the workers came up and said they did not have any whole chickens.  “Would we mind three-halves of a chicken to make up for the whole?”  A little surprised, we said sure.  While waiting on our order, our discussion of course was how does 3/2 make a whole?  Most halves are one of each breast, wing, thigh, and a leg, right?  So, how were they cutting up their chicken?  We had to wait until we got home to find out.  Well, it turns out we ended up with one and a half chickens.  All we can figure out is either this one person needs to go back to school or this BBQ place does it by weight. 

All in all the meal was good and the price was even better!  

Shenandoah National Park

Fawns with Mama enjoying our site

We stayed in Loft Mountain Campground inside Shenandoah (webshots photo album link) National Park.  Sandy says she feels like we were on top of the world.  The campground sites were nice and private.  The parking of a large RV is a little tricky on the curved sites, but the spaces were large and surrounded by trees and bushes.  We watched birds, deer, and rabbits.  No black bears.   They must have heard we were in the area with our cameras.

Our first time on Skyline Drive

All the scenic views have been spectacular.  Driving 25 miles on Skyline Drive to the campground felt more like 40 miles because of the 35 mph speed limit.  Sandy wasn't so sure about this drive in the motorhome since she had read a description saying the drive wound around on top of the ridge of the mountains.  But it wasn't that bad.  Most of the time it was a tree lined narrow road with wide and very spacious overlook areas for pulling over.  We could fit our motorhome towing the car with plenty of space for many more cars.

We got a little relief from the hot weather.  We had just settled into our new home when the heavy rains came through.  The rain lasted a little over an hour, but it certainly made a difference in the temperature.  It was so nice to be able to sleep with the windows open at night.

Doyles Fall Trail

For our first full day in the park, we did a 3.5 mile hike on Doyles Fall Trail that was described as “moderate”.   It turned out to be a little more difficult for us since we are no longer use to higher altitude or steep climbs.  Yep our bodies were telling us “Time to get back into shape!”

Virginia Quilt Museum

We were tired the next day so we decided to drive to Harrisonburg.  Sandy wanted to visit the Virginia Quilt Museum while Dan spent time exploring the historic downtown area.  Sandy has a separate blog for her quilt adventures.  You can click on the link to her QuiltinCats Blog in the right column.

We ate lunch at a very unusual coffee house called The Artful Dodger.   The inside was eclectic decorated with local artists’ works along with household items that we recognized from our youth.  There was a large collection of retro wall clocks, old lamps, and other memorabilia from the 70s-80s time frames.  Oh, and the food was good too!

Our next hike was a little over 4 miles on Rose River Falls.  Two friendly Rangers advised us that the trail was an easier walk than Doyles and better because it followed the cascading river.   We did not feel as wimpy on this trail.

Wildflowers along Skyline Drive

We moved to a campground outside of Lynchburg, VA on Tuesday.  We will probably keep this stop short.  Dan is already plotting out our next moves towards the west.