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#I don’t go to lake of the ozarks too many tourists
dandylovesturtles · 1 year
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All the excitement about the fam going to Arizona makes me want to write a self-indulgent fic where the fam goes to one of my favorite places in my neck of the woods.
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LAKE TRIP LAKE TRIP
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from-the-clouds · 4 years
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Hold Out - Marty Byrde x Reader
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Masterlist
Summary: Reader has worked for Marty since the Byrde's first moved to the Ozarks, and finds him vulnerable and alone after a fight with Wendy.
Words: 1.8k
A/N: I warned ya’ll I’d write something for this show!! im currently obsessed, so please enjoy this. i have felt badly for marty since season 1, and feel like he just needs a love interest who's soft and gentle with him??? i have a whole world planned around these two if you'd like to see more. i know this is a very niche fandom but if you like this at all, please let me know! it was fun to write.
**********
She wasn’t sure what time it was when she stumbled into the clearing. Well past sundown, but not quite midnight. Her arms and legs stung where she’d been scratched by thorns and branches faltering through the forest. It’d been hours since she’d last heard from him. Each call that went unanswered made her more and more frantic. It was unlike him.
After searching all over town, all the spots she’d usually find him when he was hard to track down, she’d come up with nothing. And she had her phone pressed to her ear with Wendy’s number dialed in before she thought of one last place she hadn’t checked.
Gravel spit from the back of her tires as Y/N turned too quickly off the road and parked her car, throwing open the door and nearly sprinting through the woods to the small meadow.
She’d been going here since she was a little kid. It was her own little park she’d stumbled upon one day ambling around town. Very few locals knew about it, let alone any tourists. Tall grass and wildflowers nipped at her knees along with the mosquitoes, and stars glittered against the black abyss above, the moonlight reflecting off the lake. And despite the late hour, she could see everything, including Marty, standing with his back to her, toes over the edge of a rock that hung over the lake at least a hundred feet below.
Her heart lurched. “Marty,” Y/N said his name before she could stop herself, concerned for a moment she might startle him into the unthinkable. But when he didn’t so much as glance over his shoulder in response, she wondered if he’d even heard her.
Treading forward lightly, she paused a foot or two behind him, carefully reaching out. “Hey,” she said, fingers clasping around his wrist, above his expensive watch. He didn’t take the hint, didn’t budge, didn’t look at her, eyes still on the lake. It rippled placidly, lapping against the jagged rocks below them, but he was looking beyond its tranquil appearance, the emptiness beneath the surface that could swallow him whole, like he wanted it to.
Despite the chill of the evening, he was still dressed for work, in a button down shirt with the sleeves rolled up, the moon reflecting off his dress shoes. She stepped a little closer to the edge alongside him, just to see his profile.
A slight tug on his wrist prompted him to step backwards, and she released a breath she didn’t know she was holding. Marty’s chest began heaving, like he just realized where he was standing, his eyes shifting towards her like he finally noticed she was there.
“What are you doing out here?” she asked without thinking, and it was a stupid question, she knew.
He didn’t answer, and she didn’t expect him to. In the dark, she guided him away from the ledge, one hand between his shoulders. Marty tripped over himself, eyes red-rimmed and glazed over. He’d been drinking, or crying. Or maybe both.
He didn’t lose his cool. Even though it seemed they were always getting the short end of the stick, always scrambling to clean up a mess, ten steps behind where they should be. Despite this, he was always a force. Steady. But not now.
Of course she didn’t like being out of the loop. And he did a good job of communicating with her. So whatever this was, whatever could have caused this, she’d almost rather be ignorant to.
“How’d you find me?” was all he asked, and despite the distress on his face his voice was characteristically even. There was an old rotting picnic table they sat down at, with her next to him, looking over the lake, out at the pitch dark sky and the glimmering lights in the distance of a few boats still on the water.
“It took some time,” she said. “I looked everywhere.”
“You should be in bed,” he said flatly.
“Well I’m not,” she chewed on her lower lip, taking a deep breath, her chest catching on the ache in her heart.
“Did you need something?” he asked, his voice had the same frost she saw in the air when she exhaled, and she felt it clutch around her chest, her words coming out choked and stuttered.
“I- I didn’t want….the things I said the last time we talked...to be the last thing I ever said to you...”
“They wouldn’t have been,” he said, although not so convincingly. He still refused to look at her, his eyes never leaving the horizon.
“Are you sure?” she asked, feeling a bit more emboldened.  “Look, you don’t have to tell me what’s going on, or what you’re doing here. But I’m not stupid.”
He didn’t answer her, just leaned forward, elbow to his knee as he rubbed his temple between his thumb and forefinger. She could see clouds rolling in, the wind picking up. It was supposed to storm, and she didn’t want either of them to get caught up in bad weather.
“How’d you get here?” she asked. “I didn’t see your car on my way in.”
“I walked,” he said flatly. They were miles away from anything, let alone his house.
“Let me give you a ride home,” she said. All she wanted to do was help him. He’d helped her before, so many times, probably when he didn’t want to. So she knew she had to do this for him. She wanted to. Even if she couldn’t give him what he really needed.
“I can’t go home right now,” he muttered into his hand.
“Then stay at my place,” she said softly, she felt tears pricking at the corner of her eyes. She hated herself for feeling the way she did about him. Marty was a criminal. He’d made her one, too. But she was stuck on him, for some inexplicable reason. The only man who’d ever truly seen her. And right now, he looked so broken.
Surprisingly, he didn’t argue.
By the time they got to the car, she could hear the thunder rumbling in the distance, and the rain had started to come down.
The ride home went quickly. She was wet and shivering. Neither of them uttered a word and she was partly thankful for it, though with each moment of silence she felt more and more desperate to know what was wrong.
Marty had the decency to pull off his shoes at her front door, sitting on the couch in her living room while she put on some hot water for tea and changed into dry clothes. When she returned to her living room with the mug, towels and a blanket, she found him staring blankly ahead, one elbow resting on the edge of the couch.
He started when she pressed the mug into his free hand, and she frowned as she sat down next to him.
“Are you staying up with me?” he asked, turning to her as she tucked her legs underneath her on the middle cushion.
“If you want me to,” she said, leaning against the back of the couch.
Marty didn’t answer, he took a sip of his tea and then grimaced, abandoning it on the side table next to him. That meant yes. In his never ending quest to remain unreadable, she’d figured out a few things in the years she’d known him.
“Do you want to tell me what’s going on?” she prompted.
“I got into an argument with Wendy,” he said flatly.
In the time it’d taken her to drive him here, he seemed to have pulled himself together enough to be back on the defense, much more collected than before. “That’s all?” she asked, skeptical.
He shrugged. “You know everything else there is to know.”
And most of what he’d been through was enough to make anyone crack.
“I’m sorry,” she said softly. She knew things between him and Wendy had always been tense, but she always assumed it was just because of work. They didn’t seem to really love each other, but it was none of her business. It was probably better not to press.
“I’ve only ever wanted to get us out of this mess,” he said, shaking his head. “And she….well we both...have only gotten in deeper.”
“I know,” she said softly. Marty buried his head in his hands, hunching forward. Tentatively, she reached out, placing her hand at the base of his neck, then slowly working her thumb against the knots she could feel rippling underneath the skin of his shoulders. Marty exhaled, lifted his head up from his hands to look at her, finally.
His normally steely blues were rimmed red and glassy. Whether he’d been crying or not, the strain was evident on his face, somewhere between the dark circles that hung beneath his eyes and his sunken cheeks. Tense was an understatement, and the constant pressure the past few years had taken their toll. It’d been awhile since she’d been this close to him, and she could see the gray in his hair, sprouting up around his ears and along his hairline, the stubble on his jaw.
“Is there anything I can do?” she asked, near pleading, desperate to provide some sort of solace. She never felt the need to fill empty space with words, but she was scared for him. But at the same time, she felt she couldn’t be enough to comfort him.
He answered her with a sad smile. His hand rose to clasp her own, still resting at his shoulder. Gooseflesh rose on her arm as she was drawn closer, and if this were any other man, she’d expect him to kiss her.
Y/N reached out, wrapping her arms around his shoulders, pulling him close. It was impulsive, and she expected him to jolt away, at first. He was warm, his shirt still damp from the rain. His arms wrapped around her torso, she felt his steady breath on her neck, his head tucked under her chin.
“This is enough,” he whispered.
The rain came down steadily outside, thunder rumbling above, and she closed her eyes. She’d stay this way as long as he needed her. It was a long time, then, she only realized, when his breathing became light and even and she, too, drifted off.
When she woke up the next day, alone on her couch with a blanket draped carefully over her, she knew what to expect from Marty. He’d carry on like it never happened. Like she hadn’t let her lips brush over his temple, like he hadn’t whispered ‘thank you’ before he fell asleep in her arms. And she thought maybe it would be better off for her to believe it’d all been a dream.
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hollybalogh · 5 years
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Most popular lakeside towns you can actually afford
You know that last-day-of-vacation, don’t-let-it-end feeling? Here’s a way to banish it forever: buy a house at the lake. You don’t even need a huge budget to do it. There are plenty of lakeside towns around the U.S. that are actually affordable. We looked through the 20 most-searched lakeside zip codes where at least 25% of the housing is made up of vacation homes and found some sweet little towns where your vacation can last as long as you want it to.
Streetman, Texas
A tiny town that’s truly away from it all
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The view from a home for sale in Streetman, where the average listing price is under $273,000.
Just off I-45 about an hour and 15 minutes southeast of Dallas, Streetman makes an ideal weekend home thanks to Richland Chambers Reservoir, the third largest lake in Texas. It’s really a place to get away from it all—you won’t find any bars or restaurants here. (The closest are 15 minutes southeast in Fairfield.)
While there are a few gated communities around the lake, the town of Streetman remains quiet and down-to-earth. And affordable, with an average listing price of $272,981. For example, you can find a 1,350-square-foot two-bedroom custom cabin on 10 acres right near the water for $235,000.
Wedowee, Alabama
A fishing haven outside Atlanta
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Wedowee, where the median sale price is just over $200,000. Photo: moscrilla51/Instagram
Eighty-eight miles southwest of Atlanta lies one of Alabama’s best-kept secrets: Lake Wedowee (officially called the R L Harris Reservoir). Here, the water is crystal clear, the trees surrounding the shore are lush, and bald eagle sightings are easy to come by. Fishermen flock here for the bounty of bluegill, catfish, crappie, yellow perch, redear sunfish, and various types of bass. But the area as uncrowded as it gets without being completely isolated. If fishing isn’t your thing, kayaking, jet skiing, boating, and relaxing in a hammock are also local pastimes.
There’s not much traffic in town and not much in the way of dining and shopping. But on Main Street, you will find an outpost of the Alabama fast-food chain Jack’s, where the strawberry cream cheese pie is a must-try. Another upside is that there are seriously affordable, really nice homes here. In January of this year, the median sale price for a home was $207,450. You can even find nice places below that price, like a three-bedroom, two-bathroom home for $174,900 built in 2001.
Crane Lake, Minnesota
A small but social resort community
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The dock area of a home for sale in Crane Lake, where most listings are under $226,000.
If your ideal lakeside lifestyle is a bit more social, Crane Lake has you covered. Even though only 120 people live here full-time, in the summer the Canadian border town attracts hundreds to the resorts and campsites near the shores of the 3,088-acre lake. It’s the kind of place where everyone is up for a chat, and many families have been returning for decades. Not surprisingly, the social scene doesn’t revolve around going out (there’s only one non-resort restaurant, Crane Lake Bar and Grill). Here, it’s all about the lake, where you’ll see everything from pontoon boats to paddleboards to houseboats.
If your ideal home is a cabin in the woods, Crane Lake definitely won’t disappoint. Its location in the Kabetona State Forest means you’ll wake up and go to sleep to the scent of evergreens—and you can do it in an off-grid three-bedroom cabin in the low $200,000s. In fact, most current listings in Crane Lake are $225,000 and lower.
Wentworth, South Dakota
A neighborly little lake town
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The view from a lakeside property that’s listed for $399,000 in Wentworth.
It won’t take long for everyone to know your name in Wentworth, a tiny incorporated village roughly 40 minutes north of Sioux Falls. Home to fewer than 200 residents, Wentworth has a seriously small-town atmosphere. It’s the kind of place where neighbors look out for one another and events, like an annual Fourth of July pancake breakfast, are held at the community barn. Lake Madison is a 10-minute drive from the village and offers primo fishing waters as well as some things to do, like stopping into The Broadwater Bar or The Lakes Bar and Grill.
There’s a home for every budget in Wentworth, whether you’d like a four-bedroom contemporary waterfront home with walls of windows and its own beach for $850,000 or a sweet, renovated, two-bedroom cabin on the waterfront for $269,900.
Ellston, Iowa
A friendly private lake community
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A lakeside patio in Ellston, just over an hour from Des Moines. Photo: rachelyancey/Instagram
The next best thing to having your own lake is sharing a private lake with a few neighbors. You’ll find just that at Sun Valley Lake, the centerpiece of a community in the small town of Ellston (population: 57). Designed for leisure, with a community center, restaurant, golf course, and tennis courts, Sun Valley Lake is a bit like living in a resort. And it happens to be a little over an hour’s drive from Des Moines.
Though popular with retirees for its country club setting, the community isn’t age-restricted, and the homes aren’t cookie-cutter. There are options from a five-bedroom home with a basement recreation area for $587,000 to a cozy, two-bedroom bungalow for $132,500.
Kauneonga Lake, New York
An artsy getaway with great food
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The lakefront in Kauneonga, where some homes go for under $200,000. Photo: jessrs6/Instagram
In Kauneonga Lake, a hamlet in the artsy town of Bethel (famous as the site of Woodstock), you’ll find flower-filled gardens surrounding White Lake. The Children’s Peace Garden is a lovely place for families to enjoy, and there’s a variety of local cafes, bars, and bistros along Kauneonga Lake’s small restaurant row. Barrio Kitchen is particularly beloved for its creative cocktails and the lake views from the deck.
While a two-bedroom, two-bathroom home located near restaurant row will set you back $599,000, you can also find a three-bedroom cabin near the water in the White Lake Homes subdivision for $174,900.
Richville, Minnesota
Small-town life among the lakes
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A home for sale on one of the many lakes around Richville.
Living in Richville is a quintessential experience in The Land of 10,000 Lakes. The area contains at least a dozen lakes, from the 35-square-mile Dead Lake to many that are too tiny for a name. A little over an hour’s drive from Fargo and three hours south of Minneapolis, the unspoiled area has a rural character. When not out fishing, your neighbors might be found at the town’s only restaurant, the down-home Rockin’ Horse Cafe and Wild Stallion Lounge. Basically, it’s like Richville hosts a nightly party just for locals.
Since you’re never far from a lake, nearly every home is a lakeside getaway. While the more spacious waterfront homes run in the $400,000-to-$500,000 range, the farther edges of Dead Lake are a bit more affordable. You can find a spacious two-bedroom cabin close to some of the best fishing in the area for $259,000.
Golden, Missouri
A lesser-known spot in the Ozarks
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The lake view from a home for sale in Golden, 45 minutes from Branson, Missouri.
Close to the Missouri-Arkansas border, the town of Golden is situated between three popular weekend getaways: Eureka Springs, Arkansas (25 minutes southeast), Branson, Missouri (45 minutes northeast), and Table Rock Lake (1 hour). In Golden, you won’t find the crowds that flock to those destinations, so locals get the natural beauty of “the lake,” as the residents call it, all to themselves. The town does have one big tourist attraction: the Golden Pioneer Museum, an eclectic roadside stop displaying minerals, cultural artifacts and glow-in-the-dark glass.
While the average listing price in Golden is $369,544, you’ll find plenty of options above and below that point. And they’re often designed with woodsy details that fit the rustic area, like this gorgeous split-level four-bedroom, two-bath home for $199,900.
Find a home in your favorite getaway town on Trulia.
The post Most popular lakeside towns you can actually afford appeared first on Trulia's Blog.
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gordonwilliamsweb · 4 years
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At Lake Of The Ozarks, It’s (Almost) Business As Usual, Despite The Coronavirus
OSAGE BEACH, Mo. — On a sun-kissed summer Saturday in this tourist town, one could almost imagine the pandemic didn’t happen. Dozens of people mingled, unmasked, outside the frozen custard stand. The putt-putt golf course and the go-kart track had plenty of customers, and the Grand Glaize Beach at Lake of the Ozarks State Park was crowded with visitors tossing footballs and digging their toes in the sand.
“Hardly anyone wears masks here,” observed Bob Harrison, visiting with his wife, Etta Harrison, from Olathe, Kansas, outside Kansas City. “People are sort of like, here, it’s a vacation resort, and they don’t have to worry about it.”
As summer approaches, tourist destinations from Cape Cod to Yellowstone National Park face looming questions over how to reopen tourism-dependent economies while balancing risks from the coronavirus. At the Lake of the Ozarks, a 54,000-acre reservoir thrust into the spotlight over Memorial Day party photos, the answer seems to be: We’re open for business.
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Many residents and visitors at the lake remain relatively unperturbed about the virus and the national outrage over scenes of packed pool parties at Backwater Jacks and other Lake of the Ozarks bars over the holiday weekend. Even after reports surfaced recently that one pool party attendee tested positive for COVID-19 and potentially could have infected hundreds of others in the Midwest, some still look on the sunny side.
“It was a good thing,” said Larry Clark, who was selling coffee at a farmers market stand. “It showed we can open up. … It’s not something that should control our lives.”
His wife, Kat Clark, said people have been eager to get out of the house and don’t want to be told what they can’t do. “It’s just the nature of freedom lovers,” she said.
Just two stalls over, vendor Kathy Peironnet had another view of the infamous partiers. “I have a name for people who do things like that: covidiots,” said Peironnet, who wore a mask while selling art and jewelry at her booth.
A sign instructs people to maintain a 6-foot distance from others while beachgoers lounge at Grand Glaize Beach in Missouri’s Lake of the Ozarks State Park on May 30. The popular resort area made headlines for a viral video showing Memorial Day partiers disregarding guidelines meant to curb COVID-19.(Sara Shipley Hiles for KHN)
Since Missouri’s stay-at-home order expired May 3, retail businesses of various sizes are allowed to reopen as long as they limit occupants to 10% or 25% of a building’s capacity. Restaurants must seat no more than 10 people at a table. At all times, the new order says, people should practice social distancing of at least 6 feet.
The Lake of the Ozarks region opened up cautiously at first. Camden County, Missouri, which houses much of the lake, has recorded 37 cases and one death from COVID-19 as of June 5, a rate of 80.76 per 100,000 people. For comparison, the city of St. Louis — where many lake visitors live — has a case rate more than seven times higher. But if out-of-towners did contract the coronavirus in Camden, they would take it, and their case counts, back to their home counties.
“In terms of total cases, the lake area has been very minimal,” said Nathan Bechtold, editor-in-chief of LakeExpo, a news outlet that covers the lake lifestyle. “By early to mid-May, it seemed like business was picking up. By the time we hit Memorial Day, I think everyone had a sense, economically speaking, we may be making up for lost time.”
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Some out-of-towners who own area vacation homes came to the lake in March and April to ride out social isolation lockdowns. Then, as the holiday neared, demand skyrocketed as visitors from surrounding cities and states booked their getaways. Some boat dealers reported record-breaking sales. On Memorial Day weekend, the population of Camden County swelled from its typical 50,000 residents to hundreds of thousands of visitors, Bechtold estimated.
“There was pent-up demand regionally to get out, to get in the sunshine,” Bechtold said.
Russell Burdette, owner of Your Lake Vacation, a property management company, said his company sold out for the Memorial Day weekend for the first time ever.
Viral video showed customers crammed at local swim-up pool bars over the holiday weekend. Geospatial data analytics platform Tectonix published an analysis of anonymized cellphone data showing that customers at Backwater Jacks traveled to and from St. Louis, Kansas City, Omaha, Iowa, Illinois and other locations for the holiday weekend. St. Louis County issued a travel advisory and the Kansas state health department asked anyone who attended the crowded parties to self-quarantine for 14 days. In an interview on CNN, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, called the party scene “tempting fate and asking for trouble.”
No covid concerns at the lake of the ozarks😳 #loto pic.twitter.com/Yrb4UNM64u
— Scott Pasmore (@scottpasmoretv) May 24, 2020
Late last month, the Camden County Health Department issued a press release saying a Boone County resident had tested positive for COVID-19 after being at the lake Memorial Day weekend. The person visited Backwater Jacks, Shady Gators, the Lazy Gators pool and Buffalo Wild Wings and “was likely incubating illness and possibly infectious at the time of the visit,” the statement said.
In response to the backlash, Backwater Jacks posted statements to Facebook saying that “no laws were broken” and “customers should have the freedom to choose” whether to visit. Hundreds posted supportive comments to social media.
But not everyone was a fan.
“I thought it was stupid,” said Etta Harrison, the woman visiting from Olathe, who is also a retired nurse. “But these are young people and they want to have fun.”
On that recent Saturday, she and her husband wore masks after eating lunch in the cafe at the local Dierbergs market, which had installed a hand-washing station outside.
Kathy Turner, an Osage Beach resident watching her daughter’s dance recital on an outdoor stage, said people make “bad choices” everywhere, but she wasn’t too worried about visitors bringing the virus to town.
Bechtold, the LakeExpo editor, said many people felt the national media sensationalized the story. He said lakeside pools might have held a few thousand people, but hundreds of thousands were at the lake, most of them acting responsibly. “The pictures of the pools,” he said, “were not a very fair and complete representation of what happened here last weekend.”
In the end, the negative Memorial Day party publicity will end up being positive for the lake, predicted Burdette, the vacation property manager. He envisions a busy summer as Midwesterners rethink faraway vacation plans and look for closer destinations where they can spend time outdoors — boating, fishing and grilling.
Burdette said he wouldn’t have gotten into the pool shown in the viral video. “On the other hand, we are a tourist community, and if people act responsibly, there are plenty of things to do here,” he said. “We have plenty of room for people to social distance.”
Fauci, in the CNN interview, cautioned against making quick conclusions. Some people are asymptomatic carriers, testing still isn’t widespread, and the virus takes time to incubate. A study published in March in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine said virtually all who develop symptoms of COVID-19 do so within 11.5 days.
Fauci said “people who were out there frolicking” should not be overconfident if cases don’t rise immediately. “The effect of spreading is not going to be seen for two, three or maybe even more weeks,” he said. “That’s the reason why we encourage people … to take a careful look at the guidelines and to the best extent possible, to follow them.”
At Lake Of The Ozarks, It’s (Almost) Business As Usual, Despite The Coronavirus published first on https://nootropicspowdersupplier.tumblr.com/
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dinafbrownil · 4 years
Text
At Lake Of The Ozarks, It’s (Almost) Business As Usual, Despite The Coronavirus
OSAGE BEACH, Mo. — On a sun-kissed summer Saturday in this tourist town, one could almost imagine the pandemic didn’t happen. Dozens of people mingled, unmasked, outside the frozen custard stand. The putt-putt golf course and the go-kart track had plenty of customers, and the Grand Glaize Beach at Lake of the Ozarks State Park was crowded with visitors tossing footballs and digging their toes in the sand.
“Hardly anyone wears masks here,” observed Bob Harrison, visiting with his wife, Etta Harrison, from Olathe, Kansas, outside Kansas City. “People are sort of like, here, it’s a vacation resort, and they don’t have to worry about it.”
As summer approaches, tourist destinations from Cape Cod to Yellowstone National Park face looming questions over how to reopen tourism-dependent economies while balancing risks from the coronavirus. At the Lake of the Ozarks, a 54,000-acre reservoir thrust into the spotlight over Memorial Day party photos, the answer seems to be: We’re open for business.
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Subscribe to KHN’s free Morning Briefing.
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Many residents and visitors at the lake remain relatively unperturbed about the virus and the national outrage over scenes of packed pool parties at Backwater Jacks and other Lake of the Ozarks bars over the holiday weekend. Even after reports surfaced recently that one pool party attendee tested positive for COVID-19 and potentially could have infected hundreds of others in the Midwest, some still look on the sunny side.
“It was a good thing,” said Larry Clark, who was selling coffee at a farmers market stand. “It showed we can open up. … It’s not something that should control our lives.”
His wife, Kat Clark, said people have been eager to get out of the house and don’t want to be told what they can’t do. “It’s just the nature of freedom lovers,” she said.
Just two stalls over, vendor Kathy Peironnet had another view of the infamous partiers. “I have a name for people who do things like that: covidiots,” said Peironnet, who wore a mask while selling art and jewelry at her booth.
A sign instructs people to maintain a 6-foot distance from others while beachgoers lounge at Grand Glaize Beach in Missouri’s Lake of the Ozarks State Park on May 30. The popular resort area made headlines for a viral video showing Memorial Day partiers disregarding guidelines meant to curb COVID-19.(Sara Shipley Hiles for KHN)
Since Missouri’s stay-at-home order expired May 3, retail businesses of various sizes are allowed to reopen as long as they limit occupants to 10% or 25% of a building’s capacity. Restaurants must seat no more than 10 people at a table. At all times, the new order says, people should practice social distancing of at least 6 feet.
The Lake of the Ozarks region opened up cautiously at first. Camden County, Missouri, which houses much of the lake, has recorded 37 cases and one death from COVID-19 as of June 5, a rate of 80.76 per 100,000 people. For comparison, the city of St. Louis — where many lake visitors live — has a case rate more than seven times higher. But if out-of-towners did contract the coronavirus in Camden, they would take it, and their case counts, back to their home counties.
“In terms of total cases, the lake area has been very minimal,” said Nathan Bechtold, editor-in-chief of LakeExpo, a news outlet that covers the lake lifestyle. “By early to mid-May, it seemed like business was picking up. By the time we hit Memorial Day, I think everyone had a sense, economically speaking, we may be making up for lost time.”
More From The Midwest Bureau
View More
Some out-of-towners who own area vacation homes came to the lake in March and April to ride out social isolation lockdowns. Then, as the holiday neared, demand skyrocketed as visitors from surrounding cities and states booked their getaways. Some boat dealers reported record-breaking sales. On Memorial Day weekend, the population of Camden County swelled from its typical 50,000 residents to hundreds of thousands of visitors, Bechtold estimated.
“There was pent-up demand regionally to get out, to get in the sunshine,” Bechtold said.
Russell Burdette, owner of Your Lake Vacation, a property management company, said his company sold out for the Memorial Day weekend for the first time ever.
Viral video showed customers crammed at local swim-up pool bars over the holiday weekend. Geospatial data analytics platform Tectonix published an analysis of anonymized cellphone data showing that customers at Backwater Jacks traveled to and from St. Louis, Kansas City, Omaha, Iowa, Illinois and other locations for the holiday weekend. St. Louis County issued a travel advisory and the Kansas state health department asked anyone who attended the crowded parties to self-quarantine for 14 days. In an interview on CNN, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, called the party scene “tempting fate and asking for trouble.”
No covid concerns at the lake of the ozarks😳 #loto pic.twitter.com/Yrb4UNM64u
— Scott Pasmore (@scottpasmoretv) May 24, 2020
Late last month, the Camden County Health Department issued a press release saying a Boone County resident had tested positive for COVID-19 after being at the lake Memorial Day weekend. The person visited Backwater Jacks, Shady Gators, the Lazy Gators pool and Buffalo Wild Wings and “was likely incubating illness and possibly infectious at the time of the visit,” the statement said.
In response to the backlash, Backwater Jacks posted statements to Facebook saying that “no laws were broken” and “customers should have the freedom to choose” whether to visit. Hundreds posted supportive comments to social media.
But not everyone was a fan.
“I thought it was stupid,” said Etta Harrison, the woman visiting from Olathe, who is also a retired nurse. “But these are young people and they want to have fun.”
On that recent Saturday, she and her husband wore masks after eating lunch in the cafe at the local Dierbergs market, which had installed a hand-washing station outside.
Kathy Turner, an Osage Beach resident watching her daughter’s dance recital on an outdoor stage, said people make “bad choices” everywhere, but she wasn’t too worried about visitors bringing the virus to town.
Bechtold, the LakeExpo editor, said many people felt the national media sensationalized the story. He said lakeside pools might have held a few thousand people, but hundreds of thousands were at the lake, most of them acting responsibly. “The pictures of the pools,” he said, “were not a very fair and complete representation of what happened here last weekend.”
In the end, the negative Memorial Day party publicity will end up being positive for the lake, predicted Burdette, the vacation property manager. He envisions a busy summer as Midwesterners rethink faraway vacation plans and look for closer destinations where they can spend time outdoors — boating, fishing and grilling.
Burdette said he wouldn’t have gotten into the pool shown in the viral video. “On the other hand, we are a tourist community, and if people act responsibly, there are plenty of things to do here,” he said. “We have plenty of room for people to social distance.”
Fauci, in the CNN interview, cautioned against making quick conclusions. Some people are asymptomatic carriers, testing still isn’t widespread, and the virus takes time to incubate. A study published in March in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine said virtually all who develop symptoms of COVID-19 do so within 11.5 days.
Fauci said “people who were out there frolicking” should not be overconfident if cases don’t rise immediately. “The effect of spreading is not going to be seen for two, three or maybe even more weeks,” he said. “That’s the reason why we encourage people … to take a careful look at the guidelines and to the best extent possible, to follow them.”
from Updates By Dina https://khn.org/news/missouri-lake-of-the-ozarks-business-as-usual-for-tourists-despite-pandemic/
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stephenmccull · 4 years
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At Lake Of The Ozarks, It’s (Almost) Business As Usual, Despite The Coronavirus
OSAGE BEACH, Mo. — On a sun-kissed summer Saturday in this tourist town, one could almost imagine the pandemic didn’t happen. Dozens of people mingled, unmasked, outside the frozen custard stand. The putt-putt golf course and the go-kart track had plenty of customers, and the Grand Glaize Beach at Lake of the Ozarks State Park was crowded with visitors tossing footballs and digging their toes in the sand.
“Hardly anyone wears masks here,” observed Bob Harrison, visiting with his wife, Etta Harrison, from Olathe, Kansas, outside Kansas City. “People are sort of like, here, it’s a vacation resort, and they don’t have to worry about it.”
As summer approaches, tourist destinations from Cape Cod to Yellowstone National Park face looming questions over how to reopen tourism-dependent economies while balancing risks from the coronavirus. At the Lake of the Ozarks, a 54,000-acre reservoir thrust into the spotlight over Memorial Day party photos, the answer seems to be: We’re open for business.
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Many residents and visitors at the lake remain relatively unperturbed about the virus and the national outrage over scenes of packed pool parties at Backwater Jacks and other Lake of the Ozarks bars over the holiday weekend. Even after reports surfaced recently that one pool party attendee tested positive for COVID-19 and potentially could have infected hundreds of others in the Midwest, some still look on the sunny side.
“It was a good thing,” said Larry Clark, who was selling coffee at a farmers market stand. “It showed we can open up. … It’s not something that should control our lives.”
His wife, Kat Clark, said people have been eager to get out of the house and don’t want to be told what they can’t do. “It’s just the nature of freedom lovers,” she said.
Just two stalls over, vendor Kathy Peironnet had another view of the infamous partiers. “I have a name for people who do things like that: covidiots,” said Peironnet, who wore a mask while selling art and jewelry at her booth.
A sign instructs people to maintain a 6-foot distance from others while beachgoers lounge at Grand Glaize Beach in Missouri’s Lake of the Ozarks State Park on May 30. The popular resort area made headlines for a viral video showing Memorial Day partiers disregarding guidelines meant to curb COVID-19.(Sara Shipley Hiles for KHN)
Since Missouri’s stay-at-home order expired May 3, retail businesses of various sizes are allowed to reopen as long as they limit occupants to 10% or 25% of a building’s capacity. Restaurants must seat no more than 10 people at a table. At all times, the new order says, people should practice social distancing of at least 6 feet.
The Lake of the Ozarks region opened up cautiously at first. Camden County, Missouri, which houses much of the lake, has recorded 37 cases and one death from COVID-19 as of June 5, a rate of 80.76 per 100,000 people. For comparison, the city of St. Louis — where many lake visitors live — has a case rate more than seven times higher. But if out-of-towners did contract the coronavirus in Camden, they would take it, and their case counts, back to their home counties.
“In terms of total cases, the lake area has been very minimal,” said Nathan Bechtold, editor-in-chief of LakeExpo, a news outlet that covers the lake lifestyle. “By early to mid-May, it seemed like business was picking up. By the time we hit Memorial Day, I think everyone had a sense, economically speaking, we may be making up for lost time.”
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Some out-of-towners who own area vacation homes came to the lake in March and April to ride out social isolation lockdowns. Then, as the holiday neared, demand skyrocketed as visitors from surrounding cities and states booked their getaways. Some boat dealers reported record-breaking sales. On Memorial Day weekend, the population of Camden County swelled from its typical 50,000 residents to hundreds of thousands of visitors, Bechtold estimated.
“There was pent-up demand regionally to get out, to get in the sunshine,” Bechtold said.
Russell Burdette, owner of Your Lake Vacation, a property management company, said his company sold out for the Memorial Day weekend for the first time ever.
Viral video showed customers crammed at local swim-up pool bars over the holiday weekend. Geospatial data analytics platform Tectonix published an analysis of anonymized cellphone data showing that customers at Backwater Jacks traveled to and from St. Louis, Kansas City, Omaha, Iowa, Illinois and other locations for the holiday weekend. St. Louis County issued a travel advisory and the Kansas state health department asked anyone who attended the crowded parties to self-quarantine for 14 days. In an interview on CNN, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, called the party scene “tempting fate and asking for trouble.”
No covid concerns at the lake of the ozarks😳 #loto pic.twitter.com/Yrb4UNM64u
— Scott Pasmore (@scottpasmoretv) May 24, 2020
Late last month, the Camden County Health Department issued a press release saying a Boone County resident had tested positive for COVID-19 after being at the lake Memorial Day weekend. The person visited Backwater Jacks, Shady Gators, the Lazy Gators pool and Buffalo Wild Wings and “was likely incubating illness and possibly infectious at the time of the visit,” the statement said.
In response to the backlash, Backwater Jacks posted statements to Facebook saying that “no laws were broken” and “customers should have the freedom to choose” whether to visit. Hundreds posted supportive comments to social media.
But not everyone was a fan.
“I thought it was stupid,” said Etta Harrison, the woman visiting from Olathe, who is also a retired nurse. “But these are young people and they want to have fun.”
On that recent Saturday, she and her husband wore masks after eating lunch in the cafe at the local Dierbergs market, which had installed a hand-washing station outside.
Kathy Turner, an Osage Beach resident watching her daughter’s dance recital on an outdoor stage, said people make “bad choices” everywhere, but she wasn’t too worried about visitors bringing the virus to town.
Bechtold, the LakeExpo editor, said many people felt the national media sensationalized the story. He said lakeside pools might have held a few thousand people, but hundreds of thousands were at the lake, most of them acting responsibly. “The pictures of the pools,” he said, “were not a very fair and complete representation of what happened here last weekend.”
In the end, the negative Memorial Day party publicity will end up being positive for the lake, predicted Burdette, the vacation property manager. He envisions a busy summer as Midwesterners rethink faraway vacation plans and look for closer destinations where they can spend time outdoors — boating, fishing and grilling.
Burdette said he wouldn’t have gotten into the pool shown in the viral video. “On the other hand, we are a tourist community, and if people act responsibly, there are plenty of things to do here,” he said. “We have plenty of room for people to social distance.”
Fauci, in the CNN interview, cautioned against making quick conclusions. Some people are asymptomatic carriers, testing still isn’t widespread, and the virus takes time to incubate. A study published in March in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine said virtually all who develop symptoms of COVID-19 do so within 11.5 days.
Fauci said “people who were out there frolicking” should not be overconfident if cases don’t rise immediately. “The effect of spreading is not going to be seen for two, three or maybe even more weeks,” he said. “That’s the reason why we encourage people … to take a careful look at the guidelines and to the best extent possible, to follow them.”
At Lake Of The Ozarks, It’s (Almost) Business As Usual, Despite The Coronavirus published first on https://smartdrinkingweb.weebly.com/
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nzingaknowstravel · 7 years
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Nzinga Knows the Best Mountain Destinations for Autumn Vacations!
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Sometimes you want to skip the plane tickets and security checks, pack up the car and drive yourself and your family to an amazing destination away from home. Why would you want to spend your vacation driving, my friend? Well, because you can pack skis, camping gear, hiking gear and much more in a car. Or, you can hop on a plane, whatever you like. Traveling isn’t all about fancy dinners, gambling and shopping. Getting out into nature and getting to know the Great American Backyard is a must to add to your travel plans. I’m going to recommend three amazing mountainous destinations to consider for your your next vacation.
Book with me, Dan Nzinga for the best deals on Mountainous Vactions! Register for exclusive, deep discounts on travel packages. Phone:http: 720.515.8613 Email: [email protected]
The Ozarks
For a great midwest vacation, the Ozarks are a great choice. Barely mid-west, as they sit as close to the Southeast the “midwest” can go, the Ozarks are an easy destination for southerners, north westerners, east and west coasters alike. As a matter of fact, if you’re meeting your cousins from across the midlands, the Ozarks may be the most fair location for everyone. If you google “the Ozarks” you may see Arkansas or Missouri mentioned, that’s because they exist right on the border of two of America’s most spectacular states.
The Ozarks are rich lands with a “Heaven on Earth” vibe. With Lakes like Ha Ha Tonka and Table Rock, The Ozarks feel like the most perfectly surreal and cinematic place in the country. With dream like hues of blues, and rich fertile browns, orange skies, and crisp white waterfalls, Branson, MO is a must-see for connecting with the miraculous nature of this land, a land that attracted the very types of people that could appreciate it’s lush gifts as much as those who came before them. Irish and Scottish settlers moved in with their culture, knowledge of remote green locations, and farming history, cultivating the Ozarks into the Strawberry and Tomato bearing lands that they became for our country.
Color is a huge deal in The Ozarks during the fall. While many destinations bring in tourism with theme-parks and tours, which exist in this region plentifully, It is the extremely colorful changing of the leaves that draw energy to this place. All through October, especially the last week, tourists can take highways and hike to the perfect mountain peaks to experience the extraordinary event of nature. Follow me here all week for photos and suggestions of things to do in the Ozarks!
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See the Ozarks by following me here and checking back all week for amazing photos of places to visit, hike, camp and hang out in the Ozarks. Don’t forget, I have deals for 3 nights at $199. So you can SEE the Ozarks in person, if you’re too tempted by this week’s blog!
Book with me, Dan Nzinga for the best deals on Mountainous Vacations! Register for exclusive, deep discounts on travel packages. Phone: 720.515.8613 Email: [email protected]
Smoky Mountains
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There is something extremely profound about the way the Mountains were formed in the Appalachians. N. America, and my continent of Africa, collided, somewhat 250 million years ago. The collision caused the Earth to shift in the mid-eastern region of America. The settling of the Smoky Mountains hold a dark history, as the site of the Trail of Tears, where the American gov’t was responsible for sending natives to Oklahoma, and many, to their deaths. Still, the mountains remain, as native as the continent itself, and are worth our time, energy and respect.
Still home to diverse wildlife in the country, The Smoky Mountains boast 800 square miles of mountainous region to camp, hike, glamp and bask it’s majesty. One way to see the majesty of the Smoky Mountain region is by taking a ride on the Drop Line in Dollywood. The ride takes guests up 20 stories, rotating 360 degrees before quickly and excitedly dropping guests back to the ground. The Drop Line is an amazing way to bask in the entire offerings of the Mountains, if you can stand a little excitement at the end.
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Speaking of Dollywood, a prime location for those who love Fall, this October is the perfect time to take a trip and experience the harvest at the region’s favorite themed park. It’s not too late to plan a trip, and 3 nights for $199 can’t be beat! Book with me and you won’t have to lust over this week’s photos on the blog. You’ll be on your way to the warm fall colors, smells, tastes and vibes. Nzinga knows vibes, and the Smoky Mountains are a vibe worth the trip.
Book with me, Dan Nzinga for the best deals on Mountanout Vacations! Register for exclusive, deep discounts on travel packages. Phone: 720.515.8613 Email: [email protected]
White Mountains
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Continuing on northeast, I recommend the White Mountains of New Hampshire. The eastern seaboard is full of small, richly historied states and cities that benefit from the short drive or flight to the White Mountains. Though this region is also richly diverse in wildlife, moose, bring the wildlife enthusiasts to New Hampshire for tours and hunting. Hunting in New Hampshire begins October 21st and ends on the 29th. Hunters from all around apply each year for permission to hunt moose for the season. A primitive sport, but a respected tradition still kept in this region.
If hunting isn’t your idea of family vacation, and you don’t want to wait until 2018 for a license to hunt moose, you can always visit the various waterfalls, hiking trails and campsites. If you are interested in catching you food, fishing in the White Mountains is superb in the serene, scenic area.
If you are traveling to New Hampshire with the family, consider visiting StoryLand, a fantasy theme park based on fairy tales. The beauty of New Hampshire is like something out of a fairy tale, so to have Storyland as a staple of the local community seems fitting.
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Take a trip to New Hampshire this fall and experience the most heartwarming time of the year for New Hampshire living. If you book with me, I have deals as wonderful as 3 nights for $199.
Book with me, Dan Nzinga for the best deals on Mountainous Vacations! Register for exclusive, deep discounts on travel packages. Phone: 720.515.8613 Email: [email protected]
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