Hold your horses! We’re going to the Live Music Show Capital of the World.

What, you’ve never heard of the live music show capital of the world? Have you been living under a rock?

It’s Branson, Missouri.

Population: 6,050. Home to Silver Dollar City, The World’s Largest Toy Museum and The Beverly Hillbillies. Yep, the Clampetts visited their Branson home in 1969, or taped a few episodes there at least. Guess their bubblin’ crude, black gold, Texas tea was actually brewin’ in Missouri.

A couple weeks ago my aunt and uncle mentioned they were going to Branson for a few days. Being from New York they didn’t realize how close Branson was to Arkansas. When my mom told them we were only a measly four hours down the road, and since we don’t get to see them very often as they live 1,100 miles away, they promptly invited my mom to meet them in Branson. In turn my mom promptly invited me to join her for a little road trip. She said maybe I could find something fun to do with the old people in Branson. Her words, not mine!

So I said, “Heck yeah, I love old people. This road trip is on!”

I’ve been to Branson once before, but don’t remember much about it. Wait, I vaguely remember owning a Silver Dollar City shirt that a six-year-old might fit into. And the name Shoji Tabuchi (Branson’s #1 violinist of all time) rings a bell. It’s all coming back to me now (the Meat Loaf or Celine version, listener’s choice)!

I’ll try just about anything twice, so Branson here we come.

My aunt emailed us a list of all the shows they plan on seeing – two shows a day. They are getting serious. We said we’d pick one or two shows and join them. My mom did a quick Internet search and narrowed down our list to Yakov Smirnoff, Legends in Concert, Clay Cooper, Jim Stafford, Pierce Arrow and a couple others.

If you haven’t already stopped reading because I offended you by my old-people comments (Hey, my mom was the one who mentioned the old people. She doesn’t realize she just gave me a great gift idea for her 90^th birthday. Do you think Shoji will still be rocking out in Branson?), I’m happy to tell you we decided on hitting up the Clay Cooper show tonight and then Legends in Concert tomorrow.

As Jed would say, “Y’all come back now, y’hear?”