Whoa! The time changes and the 600 mile days are catching up with us. Slept until 9:30 this morning. On the road before 10 with Kim carrying his coffee cup full of coffee, freshly made in the camper. First thing he did last night when we got in the camper was switch out the coffee makers...made the one that works the accessible one.
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The western side of Missouri
is starting to green up...the grass as well as leaves on trees. And there are bushes with purple flowers
popping out so there’s color to go with the green. Cloudy and 50o, not a bad travel
combo.
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I will occasionally use my
computer when we’re traveling...it fills the time. To illustrate the difference
between yesterday’s belt separation ride and today’s used tire ride: Yesterday when the truck had a lame tire I
couldn’t keep track of the mouse pointer on the screen and today I was able to
post to the blog while cruisin’ down the road. Copied and pasted the journal,
imported a picture and posted it without incident. Smoother is an understatement. 😎
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| Soda straws |
For today’s diversion we took a tour of Meramec
Caverns in Stanton, MO. The Jesse James
Wax Museum was closed for we opted for the cave tour. It was a good substitute. Tour was about 1.5 hours and our tour guide
was knowledgeable but spoke very quickly and had a knack for throwing jokes in
with cave information. Neither of us could understand much of what he was
saying but this isn’t our first cave tour so we knew the basics of stalagmites,
stalactites, ribbons and soda straws. Marvel
at the formations and take a picture...we’re both capable of that. Each cave has its own special features and
Meramec did not disappoint in that regard:
*The Wine Room: The Wine Room is home to the world's rarest cave formation, The Wine Table. The onyx table stands six feet high and is supported on three natural legs. Known as an aragonite formation, this structure was composed almost entirely underwater. The Wine Room and the Wine Table are adorned with grape-like clusters called botryoids.
*The Mirror Room: The Mirror Room is a room within the cavern that contains a stream of water about 1.5 ft (0.46 m) deep. However, when a group of lights are turned on, the depth of the water is perceived by many to be as great as 50 ft (15 m), due to the reflection of the cavern's roof on the undisturbed water.
*The Theater Room: The Cavern also contains a massive sheet wall of formations formed during the past several thousand years, which the cave calls its "stage curtain" and which is also used for displaying the light and sound show called "Greatest Show Under the Earth". We were treated to a short video accompanied by the song God Bless America.
Meramec Cave Trivia:
**60o in the cave year round.
**Two episodes of the TV show Lassie
were filmed in the cave as well as some footage for the 1973 movie Tom Sawyer.
**Rumored to be the hideout of Frank and Jesse James
**It was a station on the Underground Railroad
**In 1960, Meramec Caverns rented out billboard space
in the caverns.
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Came out of the tour to find
that it was raining. Not hard but wipers were needed...all the way into
Illinois. Temperature holding steady in
the low 50’s. I did put a pair of socks
on earlier in the day but am still wearing shorts.
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Kim has decided it’s a hotel
night. Not willing to drive another
couple of hours and then crawl over the bike tie-downs to go straight to
bed. Plus he wants a shower. When we stay in the camper we really have no
sitting options as the bikes take up the dining room/kitchen area. Taking the bikes out is an option but one we
don’t usually do on an overnight and especially not in a random rest area.
Stopped for the night at
about 9:15 p.m. There was a Super 8 on
an exit and Kim pulled off. Sitting in a
hotel room and neither of us knows exactly where we are. However, a quick check on the receipt tells
us we’re in Pontiac, Illinois. We’re
maybe 60 miles from the southern end of Lake Michigan...the crazy Chicago
traffic area. About 460 miles to
go...Rapunzel figures it’ll take us about 6 ½ hours. I’m ready to be home.
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