I love going on vacation. And I love old things. We stayed at a great place right on Lake of the Ozarks in Osage Beach. Ben had such great memories of going there with his grandparents as a kid and I can see why. But there's some mystery to the older areas, like the Bagnell Dam Strip. It was like walking onto an old movie set... arcade games, bumper cars, wax museum, mini golf, and old time tourist boats... operable, but not updated, just collecting dust.
There isn't even any advertising for it. Awesome, and I mean awesome old neon signs were everywhere! Some of the coolest things we did: a cave tour lit by lanterns we held, Tom Sawyer paddle boat ride, and some amazing hikes in Ha Ha Tonka state park.
We also found the Swinging Bridges. The first one is a little rusted out corregated metal thing suspended by cables. The second one is much larger and rickety. Some of the planks had big gaps between them!
The Strip is bizarre because there are so many abandoned businesses sitting there rotting, with no graffiti present, and no real safety measures in place. An abandoned carousel sits at the edge of the sidewalk. Giant catfish await us under an old dock's refreshment stand. We asked a few shop owners and waitresses what was happening but we didn't get anywhere with them. The next day, though, the dock was boarded up and my photo opps were gone.
The Indian Burial Cave he remembered is boarded up. It used to be privately owned. Who wouldn't want to own a cave???!!!
