Today was a very early start with breakfast at 6.15am and on the road by 7.15am. It was a big traveling day as we had to go from Branson to Oklahoma city which was approx. 522km. On our way we passed through the outskirts of Joplin, a town that was virtually destroyed by a tornado in May of this year...many buildings still had tarps on. Our first stop was in a town called Miami ( they don't pronounce the i ) to visit a magnificently restored theatre. It is called the Coleman Theatre and they have really worked hard to get it back to its original state. It has a huge lighting switchboard backstage which was fascinating to see in action. On the way to the next stop we came across a dead skunk...and even though we drove passed it in the bus the smell still came through ( rather unpleasant!). We had a buffet lunch at the Golden Corral...and it was huge...there are some interesting food combinations including honey in the butter and sweet yams which is sweet potato and marshmallows (???). There was even a chocolate fountain in the dessert section...wow. Randy, our tour guide has a saying...' it's all about he food' and we at definitely learning about that ! We then ventured up the road at Claremore to visit the Will Rogers museum...didn't actually know who he was...but do now. He seems to be an all round nice guy who was a performing cowboy before going into movies ( both silent and talkies) and combined this with journalism...he was portrayed as a normal guy who kept the politicians honest and was a real American icon in the 1920s and 30s. Unfortunately he died in a plane crash in Alaska....there is Will Rogers everything so he must have been very very big... I sensed his wholesome values were a key factor there. We then visited the blue whale, one of those route 66 icons along the road. In its heyday it was a water activity park that would have been a huge relief for those traveling back in the day when air conditioning was not around! We have also come across some rather flat armadillos on our travels...strange little creatures. Our last stop before our hotel was to visit the round barn, built in a way to ward off tornadoes as they would follow the curve and veer off the building. It is still standing so there must be something in that theory. The acoustics in the second storey of the barn are amazing..you stand in the middle of the room and it sounds like you are talking into a microphone. For tea we went to the Spaghetti Warehouse...and we are definitely recognizing the huge size of serves in the US...they are massive...I think we could feed a small African tribe for a decade on what is left on our plate at the moment. We are looking forward to our sleep in tomorrow until 8am...yippee!!!!