Day 3 - The Long and Winding Road
After a restful night of sleep in St. Louis, we awoke to rain showers. We packed up and left Tracey's house around 8:30 am. It seems as though much of the Mother Road is littered with stoplights and stop and go traffic... so we opted for plan number 2 - take the highways and get off to tour certain sections of original road and its classic attractions.
The rain cleared the further we drove and it turned out to be a beautiful day. Our first stop was Meramac Caverns in Stanton, Missouri. It's about an hour west of St. Louis. It's the largest cave system in Missouri and one of the largest in the USA. It was amazing... definitely the best cave we've all toured (but we will always have special love in our hearts for "seeing it by boat" at Penns Cave in Centre Hall, PA). The tour was an hour and a half long and featured a lot of much-needed walking and gorgeous formations. It concluded with a fantastic "concert" in the stage curtain/theatre room of the cave. We sat on stadium-seat bleachers while our tour guide played an old version of God Bless America and flashed lights on all the 70-foot tall flowstone curtain. I know it sounds kind of corny, but it was really quite fun.
We drove for a while afterward and stopped for a quick lunch and fuel fill-up. Our next stop was Ed Galloway's Totem Poll Park in Foyil, OK. Ed spent 20 years of his retired life building a gigantic concrete totem poll... and then he just kept going and built lots of concrete sculpture-things on the property. It's billed as the tallest concrete totem poll in the world (not to be confused with the large concrete tee pees in which we will be staying in two days).
We continued on to Tulsa, OK and stopped for dinner at Pancho's Mexican Buffet. It was a cafeteria-style restaurant... The funniest part of this scenario was that for refills, we were required to run a small table-top Mexican flag up a poll. Dinner was ok but not El Rodeo.
Lots more driving after Tulsa. We think we saw the start of a tornado during a freak thunderstorm we passed ... we called Sean to confirm where Tornado Alley exactly was and he told us we were right in the heart of it (kind of scary).
We arrived in Amarillo at the Big Texan at 1:30 am and called it a night. What a crazy place... check out the wild decor inside. Yes, this is a velvet cowhide comforter you're seeing. And the entrance to the bathroom area looks like saloon doors.
Lots of fun planned for tomorrow!
Love,
E, M & K
The rain cleared the further we drove and it turned out to be a beautiful day. Our first stop was Meramac Caverns in Stanton, Missouri. It's about an hour west of St. Louis. It's the largest cave system in Missouri and one of the largest in the USA. It was amazing... definitely the best cave we've all toured (but we will always have special love in our hearts for "seeing it by boat" at Penns Cave in Centre Hall, PA). The tour was an hour and a half long and featured a lot of much-needed walking and gorgeous formations. It concluded with a fantastic "concert" in the stage curtain/theatre room of the cave. We sat on stadium-seat bleachers while our tour guide played an old version of God Bless America and flashed lights on all the 70-foot tall flowstone curtain. I know it sounds kind of corny, but it was really quite fun.
We drove for a while afterward and stopped for a quick lunch and fuel fill-up. Our next stop was Ed Galloway's Totem Poll Park in Foyil, OK. Ed spent 20 years of his retired life building a gigantic concrete totem poll... and then he just kept going and built lots of concrete sculpture-things on the property. It's billed as the tallest concrete totem poll in the world (not to be confused with the large concrete tee pees in which we will be staying in two days).
We continued on to Tulsa, OK and stopped for dinner at Pancho's Mexican Buffet. It was a cafeteria-style restaurant... The funniest part of this scenario was that for refills, we were required to run a small table-top Mexican flag up a poll. Dinner was ok but not El Rodeo.
Lots more driving after Tulsa. We think we saw the start of a tornado during a freak thunderstorm we passed ... we called Sean to confirm where Tornado Alley exactly was and he told us we were right in the heart of it (kind of scary).
We arrived in Amarillo at the Big Texan at 1:30 am and called it a night. What a crazy place... check out the wild decor inside. Yes, this is a velvet cowhide comforter you're seeing. And the entrance to the bathroom area looks like saloon doors.
Lots of fun planned for tomorrow!
Love,
E, M & K
posted by Kristina @ 3:01 AM
2 Comments:
At 7/12/2006 10:08 AM,
Anonymous said…
Was their any Cave Bacon in Meramac Caverns? Sorry Emily . I’m glad you all have survived thus far. Have fun swimming in the Texas shaped pool if you actually get a chance to. Can’t wait to hear about the upcoming adventures.
At 7/12/2006 11:28 AM,
Anonymous said…
Hi Girls!
It sounds like you're having a great time!! I'm so jealous! :o) I just wanted to send some love your way...drive carefully, be safe, and most of all have fun! I love reading about all your little adventures!!
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