Wilderness Club @ Big Cedar
These last few months have been pretty wild with us moving across the country and then a second move across the state of MO. I have now worked at two different clinics and loved working at each of them. We have spent a lot of time with my family and friends and traveling around the Midwest so much, that our car still can’t figure out where “home” is on our mapping service. Even though we have been on what feels like an extended vacation, we haven’t had a lot of time with just the two of us. We decided to take a trip to The Wilderness Club @ Big Cedar, which is a resort outside of Branson, MO. We thought that we were going to be able to play a round of golf on one of their beautiful golf courses, but the weather had other ideas for us. We were surprised when they canceled our reservations because our weather had been so nice, but apparently the Branson area was hit with a huge ice storm (like 6 inches of ice).
Miles - 4823
Quote of The Blog - “Still around the corner, there may wait, a new road or a secret gate.” - J. R. R. Tolken
Song of the Blog - Thunderstruck - Steve’n’Seaguls
We got in on Friday evening and decided to get an Uber and head to Branson for dinner. We ate an excellent sushi restaurant called Momo’s. Their sushi rolls were huge and delicious! We then went to a pub on the landing and stayed out a bit too late, but it made for great people watching on a karaoke night. We did have a dilemma getting back to our resort though. Apparently, there are not many uber drivers and we couldn’t get one to take us back! Fortunately, there was another group headed to the same place and we were all able to squeeze into a little uber that they had managed to lock down. It was a bit stressful, but led to a funny memory.
On Saturday we walked around Big Cedar resort and went to breakfast at Truman’s Café and Custard. We were a couple minutes past their “breakfast” time, but they made an exception for us. We had tasty breakfast burritos and lattes to fuel us for our afternoon adventures. It is such a nice time to be at Big Cedar because it their “shoulder season” and not as busy. As a couple of jaded people coming out of a tourist town, we can totally appreciated a place during their ”off” season. It was easy to get in to restaurants and super peaceful to walk around the property, though quite icy!
That afternoon we decided to embark on a golf cart tour of “Top of the Rock Lost Canyon Cave and Nature Trail”. It was pretty cheesy, but also a lot of fun. We grabbed a couple of beers and hopped in our very slow-going golf carts. We followed a beautiful trail along rock formations, waterfalls, bridges and views of Table Rock Lake. We definitely had to make a pit-stop at the “Bat Bar”, which is a tiny bar inside of a cave. What we thought was going to be a sit down bar ended up being a hole in the wall built inside a cave where we could get more beers for the rest of out golf cart tour. The waterfall inside the cave was too cool! I had found this gem on the “Atlas Obscura” website and definitely had to check it out.
After our adventure, we headed back to the condo and got ready for our evening activities. We had a reservation at Osage Restaurant at sunset and the views were breathtaking! A little bit of snow, makes everything a little prettier and more vibrant! The golf course was indeed covered with ice, so our hopes or being able to golf were squashed. We had a fabulous dinner, though a little advice would be to not order the house wine at “market price”. Thankfully I only ordered 1 glass of $27 wine…and Billy will probably make fun of me forever for this.
Following dinner, we went to the Ancient Ozarks Naturally History Museum. I am pretty sure that we were the only people in there, so it was nice and quiet. We found ourselves getting lost in galleries about prehistoric creatures, American west, civil war and native American artifacts. I would definitely recommend checking this museum out and it comes with your ticket to the Lost Canyon tour.
We finished our night at the Buzzard Bar at Big Cedar to listen to Cowboy Cliff. Our timing was great because we were able to secure a table, though Billy was not too excited to find out that our table was right up front. Cowboy Cliff is very interactive with the audience and I could tell that Billy was pretty nervous that he was going to be called out. And of course, he was made fun of, because he got up to go to the bathroom during a Johnny Cash song and I think Cliff was offended (Billy hates Jonny Cash so it works out). We will definitely be back at the Buzzard Bar next trip.
On Sunday we headed into Branson for breakfast at “The Farmhouse Restaurant”, before heading out to explore Branson. Billy went to the the dam to do some fishing and I headed out on a very sporty trail run, as conditions were variable with ice, snow and mud. We then headed to the Branson outlet mall. Billy headed to a bar and I headed to Lululemon. If you are a fan of Lulu products, definitely go check it out because things are way more affordable! Though it might be a little too dangerous that it is so close…Following my shopping adventure, we were headed back to St. James, though we are already planning our next trip back to Big Cedar.