St Louis to Springfield, Missouri

We rolled out of St Louis around 10:30am this morning.  Really had no idea how far we might go this sunny day, but confident we would figure it out as we drove along the "Mother Road."  Coming out of St Louis we took US 44 which has pretty much replaced the old Rt 66 in Missouri.  There is a lot of Rt 66 left along US 44, but you have to find it.   My books warned that it was not always easy to find the "old Mother Road.'  We learned this the hard way (click on the photo to enjoy the full size version):

And when you don't know where you want to go, you just might end up anywhere.  We found this wigwam village, unmarked on our maps, once we got back on the road.  It was definitely worth a picture, so we stopped.  That is one of the great things about this trip - we just go with the flow!

Of course we had heard about a few places and one in particular stood out on today's route - the Meramec Caverns in Stanton.  The descriptions in all the books would have you believe that you "might" want to see these caves but that they were not much.  Also in dispute was the cavern owners' claim that the caves were used by Jesse James and his gang as a hideout.

Let me dispel all that bunk.  The Meramec Caverns are unbelievably beautiful and huge.  It also appears that much research has gone into verifying the Jesse James stories.  Here are some shots I took today (as always, just click on the photo to bring it up full size on your display):

These caverns are the third largest in the world, . . . .that are family owned.  They stretch over 26 miles underground and they boast some spectacular formations including this one that resembles a waterfall:

Below is a shot of Kathleen and me in the cave:

The other thing we all agreed on today was that we wanted to get some good Missouri Bar-B-Q.  In that we did not fail.  One of the guides at the caverns recommended a place in Cuba called "Missouri Hick Bar-B-Q" and it turned out to be a great lead.

We ordered our food and were not disappointed.  I will warn you ahead of time, if you are hungry, you may not want to click on these photos and blow them up to full size - you will just be torturing yourself:

The ribs, baked beans and cole slaw were delicious!  As was Kathleen's pulled pork sandwich on Texas Toast, with coleslaw on top - Memphis style:

After lunch we took advantage of some of the props on the property to make some fun images:

Finally, completely sated with our bar-b-q lunch, we got back on to Rt 66 and continued our adventure.  You never quite know what you will find on this road.  As we drove along, the world's largest rocker appeared.  It came up so fast and unexpected, I had to turn around.  It was erected by some iron workers about 3 years ago on April Fools day, right next to the new Trading Post, a pretty neat store.  Turns out, the husband wife team who owns the Trading Post are related to one of the iron workers.  The chair has turned out to be quite an attraction.  I know I enjoyed taking photos of it:  

We pulled into a Hampton Inn on the north side of Springfield, MO at about 6:00pm this evening.  Just in time to catch a two hour episode of "24" and the NCAA Playoff--what a game that was!

And that's how we rolled today.  We have hit two of the eight states that Rt 66 runs across - six more to go for a total of approximately 2,250 miles by the time we reach Santa Monica, CA.  Tune in again tomorrow to see what we run into on our way to Kansas!