Saturday, September 28th, was an adventure. We decided to sleep and wake up using Eastern Standard Time. We were in Central Standard Time. This would give us an extra hour in our first day.
I awoke before Claude and got my shower. That was when I realized there was NO blow dryer in the room. I would let my hair dry naturally and that was how it would be all day. C'est la vie!!
Our first stop was Donut Drive-in on Route 66.
This was a hopping place on a Saturday morning. We were blessed to find a parking spot at this small square cube of a concrete building on a busy corner. We waited in the long line of people out front to get into the tiny counter area. We asked for four glazed donuts. They were out but offered us four glazed twists instead. We happily took that and two sodas and were back to the Buick, breakfast in hand. We waited till we got on I-44 before eating as we went down the road about 20 minutes to our next stop. Yummy donuts. Nice start to our drive.
Claude wanted us to begin with a stop at a Visitor's Center. Eureka, Missouri had turned an old inn into a nice, small Visitor's Center.
The building was originally built in 1935 as the Bridgehead Inn. The main level was an upscale restaurant with hotel rooms on the second floor.
In 1946 it was purchased by Ed Steinberg. Ed had owned a restaurant that burned down. He renamed the business Steiny's. It had dancing in the ballroom, excellent food or a drink served by Dave Steinberg.
Ed sold Steiny's in 1972 and these owners renamed the business Bridgehead Inn. It would be sold again and become Gallery in West. This didn't last long. In 1982 dioxin was discovered in Times Beach, the local community. The Inn was purchased because it was just outside the contaminated area. Times Beach was completely evacuated.
With the contamination removed, you can come to the area again and visit. The Visitor's Center has a nice exhibit about the area.
After touring the Visitor's Center, we went to the bridge over the Meramec River. There are plans to restore this original bridge.
We drove to Sullivan, Missouri to tour Meramec Caverns.
Jessie James was here during the Civil War and would return and use the caverns as a hideout.
We went in to purchase tickets for the tour. That is where Claude realized he did not have his credit card. He last used it at Zia's the night before. Ugh!! We had to wait till after the tour to call Zia's.
The tour was nice. You walk on paved paths thru the cavern for 1 1\4 miles (in and back). It was very roomy inside. A very nice tour. Our tour group was small and that was nice.
Inside, while you wait, was rebuilt cabin. It was found on the grounds and really has no history with the caverns.
The first room was huge. It is called the Ballroom. It is really used for all sorts of functions.
The high school kids made a pendulum that is supposed to swing with the movement of the earth. Theirs is a little off but one gets the general idea.
When they searched the caverns, they found Anvil Rock and at that location they found items left behind by Jessie James.
Running along the pathway is an underground river. This river can flood if they get 10-12 hours of very heavy rain at a time. Doesn't happen often, but it does happen.
A movie and a television show were filmed in the caverns. I tried to take pictures of where Tom Sawyer was filmed. Too dark. But I did get two pictures of when a Lassie episode was filmed.
In several places you can see beautiful stalactites and stalagmites.
To show how deep the river is, we were taken to an optical illusions. The lights were turned on and they cast a reflection on the river. It appeared the water was a very deep cavern. Actually, the water is only 15 inches deep!
We saw an enormous stalagmite. It would have filled a room. The first side was formed by dripping water over eons of time. We walked around to the other side. It is formed by running water, so the surface has a different texture.
In one area there were colored lights shining on the stalagtites and stalactites over the water. Simply beautiful.
There is one particularly interesting formation. There is only one other one like it known in the world. It is in Italy. This formation has three stalagmites as a base. On top of them is large formation with another large formation on that. It looked a lot like a three-legged llama.
Our final stop was theatre seating in front of a wall of formations that resembled a curtain on a stage. One time Kate Smith came to this spot and sang "God Bless America" to every tour group that day. Nowadays they turn out the lights and have a video play with background singing by someone else. Stunning!!
Once outside, I tried to call Zia's and found I couldn't use my phone down in this hollow. We drove back to I-44 and found service. I called Zia's. The credit card was not turned in. I checked our Chase account and no one was using the card. Ugh!! I had so much booked for this trip with this card.
We stopped at the Cuba Missouri Visitor's Center. I wanted pictures of statues of the Osage Trail.
The Osage had clear trails for hunting and trading long before the white man entered the area. This Osage Trail would later become Route 66 and I-44.
On we drove to Fanning 66 Outpost General Store to see The World's Largest Rocking Chair. Claude is standing at the bottom to give your some perspective of the size of this rocking chair.
We stopped at Missouri Science and Technology to see their half-scale replica of Stonehenge. I thoroughly enjoyed this site. The large rock replica was clearly labeled with what that rock was and what it did. Way cool!!
This was the city in which I thought we would spend the night. We still had several hours we could travel. Onward we pressed.
We checked out Devil's Elbow. We saw the bridge over Big Piney River from 1923. We found the scenic overlook but it was totally grown over so we could not see that scene.
We kept pressing forward. This time to Marshfield, Missouri. This was the home of Edwin Hubble when he was a young boy. Today there is a road named after him and at the city center there is a 1/4 replica of the Hubble Telescope.
Edwin Hubble was an outstanding astronomer. In the 1920's and 30's he discovered the expansion of the universe. He showed that spiral nebulae are beyond the Milky Way. This led to the Big Bang Theory. Hence, the naming of the telescope after him that would explore the far reaches of space.
It was time to think about dinner and a hotel. We decided to drive the 30 minutes to Springfield, Missouri.
Dinner first at an original Steak and Shake.
Followed by dessert at Andy's Frozen Custard.
After three tries, we found a hotel room to rest our weary bones for the night.
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