Route 66 – Day 3

We hopped on the road brightish and sort of early, grabbed a breakfast, then winged off to our first stop. Meramec Caverns near Stanton, Missouri. There was no chance we’d miss them, since there seemed to be a billboard every thirty feet for miles and miles before the exit to the cavern. Oh, and also a barn:

I was expecting a thoroughly cheesy tourist trap. After all, the fellow who started this thing was the inventor of bumper stickers. He would hire kids to take his stickers advertising the Meramec Caverns out into the parking lot and attach them to all the cars while the tourist were taking the tour. 

I was expecting total kitsch, and yes, is was kitschy, but it was a terrific mile and half walk through the caves, with a guide who had a lot of fun stories about the caverns, the river running through it, and local history and myth. Honestly, I’d recommend it as a Route 66 stop.

Also, it has been hot for the last 3 days. Like between 93F (34c) – 100F (38c) every day, all day with lots of humidity. So the caverns, at a sweet 60F (16c) was deee-lightful.

Next up: we drove through several little towns. Got lost almost every darn time the Route crossed the freeway. It is our Achilles heel, those freeway crossings, and sometimes even the best map-following and Rt. 66 sign hunting still got us to nopesville like this dead end that went from pavement to pothole to gravel to nope.

So we got lost, but managed to stay as close to the route as possible. 

Here are some things we saw. The world’s second-largest rocking chair…

A city of murals… 

A Pegasus burning bright…

A fudge factory in Uranus….(as soon as you walk in, you are greeted with a “Welcome to Uranus!” lol. Yes, we bought the fudge. Yes, it’s delicious!

A bar and BBQ at the Devil’s Elbow…

A Pegasus gone to ash…

Half-size replica of the Hubble telescope:

And the sunset.