Captain Caveman!!!

Exiting St Louis and heading toward the small town of Joplin on the edge of Missouri, we spotted a sight on the map that we thought we may as well investigate further.

The Meramec Cavern's lie (funnily enough) in the Meramec Vally, which in itself is enough to provide some beautiful scenery - and us with a short joyful drive away from the Interstate. The caverns themselves are millions of years old, but that doesn't stop dear old Uncle Sam from claiming the most important thing that's ever happened to them are the James Younger Gang led by the James brothers Frank and Jesse, who used the caves to hide their stolen loot during the 19th century.

Now the caves had an undeniable beauty and eeireness that makes any trip inside them worth the entrance fee of $17.50 per head. The stalagmite and stalactite formations are quite stunning to behold, although the mention of them always reminds me of Harry Hill for some reason.

The caverns contain some amazing rock formations, and the sound of water constantly trickling down the walls creates a natural atmosphere that that is only broken by the Tour Operators attempts to "spice things up". Poor, fake coloured lighting is used to emphasise points of interest at every turn, and cardboard cutouts of Lassie are used to show where an episode of said TV show was shot over 50 years ago. Our tour guide looked like Fred Savage from the Wonder Years, and he failed to capture the imagination of the group in-front of him, whose number was a quite ridiculous 80!!! All those people meant that it was impossible to hear what was being said, and meant the tour lasted at least half an hour longer than it could have done. And just to top it all off, they managed to ruin one the best natural formations of the cave - known as the "theatre curtain", by playing "God Bless America" and putting on a phony fake light show that culminated in rather predictable fashion with an American flag being projected onto the beautious natural feature before us. All this was rather grinding. It's not as if these Caverns are present in these lands because of America! They've been there for millions of years, and they belong to Mother Nature. If the tour operators had got a sense of this, we may have enjoyed this wonderful place in all it's majesty - instead of seeing it dressed up like a prom queen!

We left the caverns behind with a sense of both achievement, and dissapointment and headed back onto the road. Cutting through Missouri, Route 66 runs almost parrallel to the Interstate for the entire duration, breaking off at times when small towns appear, and dissapearing completely when rivers block it's path - the bridges long ago dismantled upon its declassification as a US Highway. We kept to the Interstate for the most part, as such was the close proximity of the two roads, that we felt we were in no way cheating by taking a road which allowed us to travel at 70mph instead of 40 and 55mph. Stopping off in Joplin, just before the Will Roger's Turnpike, we checked into our hotel for the night, and headed across the road to Outback Steakhouse, where we enjoyed a surprisingly good meal, at yet another reasonable price. Tomorrow we get back on the road and head toward Oklahoma, but this time we'll be sticking to legendary 66, as we bid to avoid the Interstate, and the dreaded toll-route.

----------------
Now playing: Green Day - American Idiot
via FoxyTunes

CHECK OUT THE PHOTOS FROM MERAMEC CAVERNS HERE