Tuesday 4-26 Moving On, Visitor Center & Fish Hatchery

 

We had a super day. The sun was shining with no wind. It got up to 61 degrees.

I slept in until 8:15. Then I made oatmeal for breakfast. Afterwards we decided to walk the lake trail to the Dewey Short Visitor Center. It was open today from 9:00 to 4:00.

As we entered the center we were greeted by two people with big beautiful smiles and a good morning. The lady said that the 20 minute movie was just beginning and that there were going to be 80 elementary students coming in the next half hour. The movie was about the construction of the dam and the surrounding area. It was a good film but obviously quite old and needed to be updated, the lady at the desk agreed. After the movie we walked around the center and looked at the displays, they were on three different levels. The lady was right, we were invaded by 80 children but they were well organized and the children were well behaved. There was an adult assigned to two to four children. They had two buses, each child wore a tee shirt, one bus wore green and the other wore orange. The Corps of Engineers had setup games for the children. In the field outside they went over the safety of wearing a life vest and how to save people with life rings. The displays were about the history of the dam and the function of the dam. There was a display, where you can experiment using bicycle types of pedals to generate power, by turning the pedals you could see how much power is needed to get a hair dyer, light bulb, blender and coffee grinder to work. We always like hands on displays. There was an observation deck where you get a great view of the dam and Table Rock Lake. We had a fun visit.

The gates for the power plant

Table Rock Lake

Standing on the observation deck

After walking around the visitor center we hiked the trail back to the Minnie. By the time we got back it was almost time for lunch.

After lunch we put things away because we're going to move on. We're not going too far, just to the another loop in the campground. Yesterday, we decided we were going to stay a little longer here because it's suppose to rain Thursday. Larry went on the computer to extend our stay but our site was not available through Thursday. He made a list of sites available for the three nights. We walked around and found one we liked. We moved from site #178 to site #114. It's perfect. It's level and we don't have to use any blocks. We have a path right behind the Minnie that goes to the Lake trail.

Before moving to the new site we decided to go to the Shepherd of the Hills Fish Hatchery. It was 3.5 miles from the campground and right below the dam. It is the largest trout-rearing facility operated by the Missouri Department of Conservation. It produces more than a million trout each year. They raise both rainbow and brown trout and release 80 percent of the trout into Lake Taneycomo. The rest go to other Missouri trout management areas. The hatchery takes the water from the bottom of Lake Table Rock, which is an average of 48 degrees year round. This temperature is ideal for the fish. The construction of the hatchery started in 1957 and production of the trout began in 1958. 

The facility has a huge aquarium that takes up a whole wall, it is stocked with rainbow and brown trout. There were other aquariums with turtles and different snakes that are found in the area. Outside of the visitor center they have raceways with trout in them. You can feed the fish for a quarter, I forgot my quarters. The trout do get fed twice a day. As you walk around the raceways there are signs about the trout and what the facility does. The facility has fishing areas, hiking trails and garden with different plants with sign to identify them. It's a nice facility.

Shepherd of the Hills Fish Hatchery 

Rainbow and brown trout on display

 

The raceways

 

Rainbow trout in the raceway

On the way back to the campground we stopped at a observation point because we saw the Showboat Branson Belle sailing on Lake Table Rock. We watched the Belle turn around. This was interesting because one of its paddles slows down  and the other one speeds up. Once it gets turned around they both run the same speed. 

Showboat Branson Belle turning around

After parking the Minnie at our new site. We relaxed with a book. I did my computer games. I did the Daily Challenges of Solitaire and Mahjong. Then I did the Event: Two Game Tango of 20 games (10 Free Cell and 10 Pyramid). It took me 2 hours, 25 minutes and 11 seconds, which put me in 18th place in my group.

After dinner Larry and I went for a walk. We walked around for a half hour. We walked to the marina. We hiked a small section of a hiking trail that goes to the other campground., we were surprised that it wasn't too wet. The weather today had dried it up. When we got back to the Minnie Larry went inside. I continued walking for another hour and a half. I ended up doing the whole lake trail to the visitor center and marina. I ended up doing 27,000 steps, which put me in 3rd place in my group.

We had an outstanding day.