Indiana Jones, The Butterfly Palace and why the Outback in Branson sucks!

      
           I am on vacation and my first stop today was the theater in Springfield, Missouri. They were showing one of my favorite classic movies Indiana Jones Raiders of the Lost Ark on the big Imax screen. Of course I have seen it several times, but I was too young to catch it at the theaters when it first came out (it came out in 1981 the year I was born). Being one of my favorites when will I get a chance to see it again on a screen that huge!?
            Considering the movie was shot never being intended for screens that size they did a good job. It was by no means HD and sometimes fast motion would be a bit blurry, but set towards the back of the theater and I doubt you would even notice!
           After leaving the movies I went to McSalty's Pizza for lunch and then over to Sam's Club to get gas. I lucked out and Sam's hadn't raised their price like everyone else had. I can't remember exactly what it was, but I think $3.51 and everywhere else was about $3.74, so big savings!
           After filling up the tank I headed on to Branson, Missouri. My first stop in Branson was at the Butterfly Palace and Rainforest Adventure. I diffenetly prefer Branson in the off season and during weekdays, because you can avoid all the crowds!!!! I just about had the place to myself, with only another family in there, or a couple or another photographer at a time. I stayed for a while to get a lot of pictures and I got some really beautiful shots I'm very happy with. 
            Inside where the butterflies are it is very muggy! After I was done taking pictures I was a hot, sweaty, stinky, mess!!!!! It will test your deodorant!!! I kept thinking it must be miserable for the girls who have to stand watch at the door where you come in and leave. They have to have a girl posted to make sure no butterflies have landed on your back and you walk out the door with them on. Also when you open the door a big fan kicks on to blow them off, just incase. An apparently it's also to keep people from stealing them, because they had signs posted up. I'm not surprised, people will steal anything!
            I've got all the photos I took at the Butterfly Palace on Flickr, but as of this time I've yet to get them organized into a set or tagged so you would just have to flip through the pages until you found them.
            The Rainforest Adventure part is pretty small, just a single room with animals in aquariums. They are all very small animals, the biggest being three turtles from South America. A lot of the animals are however really pretty and some very colorful like the fire salemander or poison dart frogs.
            They also have a mirror maze, but being by myself and nothing to really take pictures of, I completely skipped it. I had been through it once before with my family about four years ago. And as I remember it, it was a challenge to tell if it's an opening or just another mirror.
             After leaving the Butterfly Palace I went to my motel to check in for the evening. I am staying once again at the Outback Roadhouse Motel. I stayed here a couple weeks ago and it was pretty disappointing, but I had bought several certificates on the Half Off Deals and still have one more night to use after this one. 
             Once again they stuck me at the back of the motel, but this time on the second floor. In fact I think I'm staying in the room above the room I stayed in last time. However this time because of the location of the stairs to get to my room I have to park my Jeep completely on the other side of the building. I almost feel like I'm being punished by getting stuck in their crappiest room because I'm using a half price certificate. All the rooms have a boomerang stuck on their door decorated with aboriginal artwork, mine has a nasty spot where a boomerang used to be. But at least both locks work on the door this time! And like last time the room does appear to be clean, but then I notice they probably don't check them very thoroughly. If they did, they might have noticed the light bulb was burned out in the lamp beside the bed or the fact I have a coffee maker with no coffee pot.  I went to take a bath and when the faucet is running the shower head leaks horribly bad. Not just a few drops, but like 25% of being fully on. If you are a shower person, no big deal. If you take a bath, it's really annoying!!! All the water is coming down hitting the metal faucet splattering everywhere while the bathtub fills. So you have to close the shower curtain or it will soak the floor and not only is it splattering out but it's also splattering you which is really annoying because now you are taking a bath and a shower at the same time. It was like having someone constantly flick water in your face.
              This time they did tell me about the free breakfast in the morning, which they failed to last time. I stayed two nights last time, so that was two breakfasts I missed out on my previous stay.
              Oh yeah earlier I said how I got stuck on the backside of the motel. When I went out to get ice I noticed they were having a pretty good party going on at the Outback Pub which the front of the motel faces. Loud music and loud people, so maybe the back is quieter. I had time to take in the sights and sounds as the ice machine on the upper level was broken, so I had to walk down to the second level to get ice and then back up to my room.
              I have one more night left to use sometime, so maybe, just maybe, it will be a shot at redemption.
             For dinner I ate at the Outback Steakhouse and Oyster Bar. I ate their with my best friend Jonathan on my last trip to Branson and it was pretty good. I had bought a few half price certificates to use there online, I payed $5 for a $10 certificate. This time it was absolutely horrible!!!
             When I ate their a couple weeks go with my friend, we apparently had the lunch menu. This was dinner so everything on the lunch menu wasn't available. The dinner menu didn't have a whole lot on it I liked (I'm a picky eater) and the prices were sky high!!!!
              My waiter was apparently training a new guy and the waiter was way over doing the nice guy routine. Even when he would come to the table and the new guy wasn't with him, he was just way over doing it to the point it was phony and ackward. Their staff really sucks there! When my friend and I ate their our waitress left our check and then never came back and we had to end up leaving the money on the table.
              Anyway, back to the story, since this is the dinner menu and the prices are through the roof. I ask if I can ran out of my car and get another certificate to use. The waiter had already taken the certificate and made a show of reading the back of it and told me I couldn't use two certificates. This really annoyed me, because I knew it said on the back you could, I read it last time and I used two last time. It said "up to 2 certificates can be used per visit". But I wasn't going to argue and get a big loogy on my food.
              I ended up going with the fried shrimp with a side of french fries and mashed potatoes. They bring you buns in a little tin pail as an appetizer to eat while you wait for you food regardless of what you order off the menu. Since it was just me, they only put two buns in. This kind of annoyed me, like on what I'm paying don't be skimpy and stick with the "two per person" rule! I probably would have pitched them anyway as they are horrible! Hard as a rock, hard to chew and not the best tasting. You could play baseball with these things! (little did I know my food would be so bad, later I would choke them down so I wouldn't starve to death).
             The mashed potatoes were decent, although I did have to flag my waiter down to get a spoon because they gave me two forks and a knife in my silverware. The shrimp was horrible! I got six maybe eight pieces, they tasted bad and were rubbery. I had to force myself to eat three of them! I am not picky on french fries, but they were the same! Way over cooked and horrible tasting! It's french fries for crying out loud, they are hard to mess up. Unless you count over salting them, they are one of those foods you can go pretty much anywhere and if all else fails you can have the french fries.
              The food and the drink came to over $21, plus a $3.00 tip (which I probably shouldn't have left, but I'm too nice). That's way to expensive and I would feel like I was getting ripped off even if the food was good! But it was so horrible I don't think I even ate half of it.
               Since I've gone back to my motel I've been munching on a few fruit roll ups I brought along to snack on and the remainder of the popcorn from the movies this morning. (Just so you all don't think I went and got spend crazy, Tuesdays are the only days I get popcorn and a drink at the movies, because you can get a small popcorn and drink combo for $5.00)
               As you can gather I'm pretty frugal with my money, I stretch a dollar for a lot of adventures. So to say how bad Outback was in Branson, I have two $10.00 certificates left expiring at the end of this month and rather than go back I am not going to use them!!!!
              So if you are ever in Branson, my recommendation...... avoid that whole Outback Complex (Motel, Restaurant and Pub) because THEY SUCK!!!!