Welcome to the autumn 2015 blog of our seven-week trip to New England and Canada, with Branson “along the way.”
We had been wanting to visit Maine and Acadia National Park, so when several resorts in the Northeast became available, we decided to plan a 6-week vacation there.
We left home at about 7:15 Friday morning, The trees along I-29 in Iowa had gorgeous foliage, which isn’t showing fall colors yet except the sumac, which is starting to show some red. That will all change soon! The ride was fun . The countryside is very wet from a lot of rain lately. By the time we reached Clinton, Missouri, the corn fields had all been harvested. We checked into the Spinnaker Palace View Heights Resort — a gorgeous unit. There’s much storage space, and everything looks new. We love it.
Saturday: We went to Eureka Springs, Arkansas to the Passion Play there. It was a lovely Ozark drive to reach the Passion Play area. We had time to visit the impressive display of old Bibles at the Bible Museum. The first scheduled event was at the Tabernacle constructed on the grounds.
The presenter was an 87 year old Messianic Jew, who 
had been involved in the planning and construction of the tent and its parts. He is an excellent communicator, and we enjoyed the hour + presentation.
Next was The Holy Land Tour, in which a bus took us from station to station with actors playing their part at the various stops — telling about a cave at Bethlehem, the Sea of Galilee, etc. It was interesting and each message was faith centered. This was followed by a backstage tour, which showed us much about how the passion play scenes were produced, a great buffet supper, a Gospel Sing-a-Long with a talented Pastor Acra Turner in the Jerusalem Chapel, a David the Shepherd presentation, and an excellent “Parables of the Potter” presentation in which the potter spoke of how we are in the potter’s hands — as he fashioned a pot on the potter’s wheel.
The Passion Play started at 7:30. It was amazing! It was totally Biblical and was especially interesting since we had seen in the Backstate Tour how they lift the cross, manage the lights, costumes, animals, and Christ’s ascension. 42 scenes are skillfully highlighted as the play moves along. The ending with the Hallelujah chorus playing was one of the most inspiring things we have been a part of in a long time.
Sunday: We attended the Harvest E-Free Church. This is the same church that we attended last year. The music, sermon, and Bible class were not especially interesting, but the church was very friendly, has a lot of young people, college students, and babies. In the afternoon, we attended a Spinnaker presentation to learn more about what is happening with Capital Resorts, Grand Crown, and Surrey. Trying to get to the bottom of this issue was the biggest reason for our trip to Branson.
Monday: We continued trying to solve the Timeshare Puzzle by going to Capital Resorts to talk with them. I was exhausted by the time we got home, and took a long nap. Later we went to the hot tub which was wonderful — the best yet.
Tuesday: We rode our bikes on the trail along Table Rock Lake — it’s so lovely and the weather was gorgeous.
On the way back, we drove into to a State Park on the east side of Table Rock Lake. A walking path went off from a parking area. I took my walking stick from Everett and we walked a path that went out from there. We walked about a mile out and a mile back — very enjoyable – nice weather, easy path.
Wednesday: We drove back down to Dogwood Canyon to ride our bikes through that lovely area once more (3rd time?). the weather was comfortable/cool/lovely. We stopped at a chapel with a waterfall at the front instead of an altar — lovely for worship – or a wedding.
I asked a park fellow about the big spider-type 
nests that we see all over this area in the trees. They look almost like a big chrysalis inside. The ranger said that each contains numerous web worms – also called tent worms. They kill the branch, as we had observed, or even the tree if too many get on a tree.
We have gone to the hot tub each day that we’ve been here. This one is big with powerful spray spouts, and no one else seems to be using them.
We brought several books from the Hillcrest church library along on this trip. We expect to have quite a bit of opportunity to read in some of the remote places we will be staying.
Thursday/Friday: We drove from Branson toward Jeary’s Shorewood cottage going through Illinois, Kentucky, and West Virginia. The fall colors are starting to show on the trees, and we enjoyed the drive. We drove in rain, which got to be a real problem as we cotinued, with poor visibility at times with Interstate traffic driving 70 mph. – not fun – but the trees became gorgeous with their fall colors as we drove through the high Alleghenies. Our route took us to the bridge across the Chesapeake Bay south of Jeary’s Shorewood home. It is a toll bridge, and we waited in line for an extraordinary time before we could cross.
We found Jeary’s home by following the GPS address–it was farther into the area than we had realized. It was SO good to see Jeary. He’s looking good, having lost 40 pounds since his stroke. We met Franci, Rowan, Troy, and Franci’s mom. They have “adopted” Jeary and really helped him during the time following his stroke. They met many years ago when Troy started taking lessons to become a helicopter pilot through the West Chester Airport. We ate supper at a Chinese restaurant nearby. It was really good and we had a great visit. Back at Shorewood, they explained the improvements and repairs that they had been making on the place, and it looks great. On Saturday, Franci fixed breakfast for us and again for dinner, and Rowan grilled the meat.