Beware the Timeshare Salesman's Lair

I'm sure all of you have wondered what ever happened to our "bargain Branson trip." (All three of you.)

A couple of weeks ago, we loaded up the Lunchbox (as Chad affectionately refers to my Expedition) and headed for Branson. We went to a show the first night - Chinese Acrobats. These people were incredible! There were Asians in tights flying everywhere! -- catching each other on their feet, swinging one another by their teeth and contorting their bodies in ways that should be illegal in this country. It was fascinating. Tate was perhaps the most impressed that those boys "actually agreed to wear the outfits." (I had to agree.)

Our timeshare presentation was the next morning and that was when we were scheduled to get all our free stuff to make this trip worthwhile. 90 minutes, no more no less - that was the promise. We participated in Buck Fry's monologue and fact finding hoopla then toured the "you-gotta-get-a-piece-of-this" facility. It was nice, sure - but not for us. We've been through enough of these gigs to know the best thing to do is play along until exactly 1 minute past your time committment. We probably let it go too long this time...I interrupted Mr. Fry to recap the situation for him in case his watch had stopped. "This isn't going to happen for us today. We're out of time." The next step was predictable...send in the big guns. "We're not buyers today," we explained to man #2. Enter man #3. "NO" (condensed version for man #3). Whew, end of game. Give us our free loot, Silver Dollar City is waiting.

We left with about $450 worth of gift certificates we used over the next 2 days. On the way out, as a last ditch "make you feel stupid" attempt, man #2 says to Chad, "I just don't know how you're going to provide great memories and vacation with your family in the future without something like this." We didn't say what we were thinking...Yeah, we dont' know either. I guess we'll have to rely on timeshare companies to fund them for us... (so far they've funded a couple of fun ones!)

If you're tough enough to say NO and mean it, 90 minutes of your time is a good trade for a bargain weekend.