Branson, MO

 Today, Sandy and I said goodbye to Ramona, grabbed breakfast at a local coffee shop, then drove from Lebanon to Springfield, MO on old Route 66.  Then we drove south to Branson, MO.  No iteration Route 66 ever went through Branson, but we felt that since we were so close to this over-the-top town, we should go take a look.

Our first stop along the way was in Marshfield, MO, home of Edwin Hubble.  Hubble was an Observational Cosmologist and the man who proved there were objects outside our own galaxy.  He did this by determining that objects that were previously thought to be clouds of dust and gas, then classified as nebulae were in fact galaxies, and that there were billions of them.  It was also his work that provided the data and math that helped prove the concept of the ever expanding universe.  On the courthouse lawn, Marshfield celebrates Edwin Hubble with a replica of the Hubble Space Telescope.  It is one quarter the size of the actual telescope but still an exciting thing to see.  To think, a little town like this, in the middle of Ozark hillbilly country had a little barefooted boy running around that some day was going to change how all scientists view the universe.  Just shows we should be careful of who we look down upon.

While we were looking at the telescope a man came out of the courthouse and thanked us for visiting Webster County.  It turned out he was the county recorder.  He talked to us for the better part of an hour, with many interesting stories about his family, the county, and the people that lived there.  He explained to us how he was related to David Letterman, but by far his most interesting family tie was that his wife was a Dalton (Ma Dalton and her boys) and also related to the Younger brothers (road with Jesse James).  We enjoyed his conversation, but I was saddened that my wife only descended from Scottish pirates. 

While driving through Springfield, MO we came across the first ever "Steak and Shake".  Who's not going to take a picture of that?