Today we have started early because of Solar Eclipse. Got up at 5:45 am. So after we finished Eclipse at 2:00 om we headed towards Cuba. First stop was Meramec Caverns. Entrance fee per adult. Tour duration around 1.5h.
I was expecting something more exciting, but the stories they told and the views were interesting. Apparently the upper caves there discovered by accident, when some rocks started falling one guy just exploded that place with dynamite and found upper caves. Also when water went down they found out that there are caves under. They send somebody to explore diving through the water to other side. There are more than 20 miles of caves in there! That’s insane!
This one was the wine room as the structures reminds the grapes.
The last part of the tour was this massive formation where they showed us the light show and a short movie about how great the is America and how God bless America… no comments.
I must admit it was quite chill in the caves – around 17-18 C. You can feel the difference when you go outside into the heat. By the way Tom Sawyer, Indiana Jones and Lessie movies were filmed in these caves.
We stopped quickly in Bourbon to take a picture of Circle Inn Malt Shop, but we didn’t go inside as the long road ahead. Also we stopped to refuel there. per gallon for 89th. Price slightly increases as we go west.
Next stop was in Cuba. A famous Wagon Wheel Motel, which is still open and you can book a room there. The guy in the reception didn’t seem too friendly, so we headed further, skipping the guest book.
Cuba is famous or its murals – graffiti like paintings on the wall.
We took pictures of few of them.
On the last mural we stopped at shopping center to get some ice cream and these ni e ola bottles. They were so refreshingly cold!
Somehow we didn’t know about this World largest rocking chair as google maps gave me another one far away when I was searching, but probably just because this chair is no longer the biggest. We stopped for some nice pictures.
We wanted to stop here as we thought they sell wine, but it was closes already as they close 6:00 pm and we arrived 6:30 pm.
The sun was going slowly down and we still wanted to pass Lebanon. We were driving Route 66 towards it. The sunset was so beautiful in orange color.
To our surprise the road suddenly end. We could see that the road was out of use for awhile, since the grass was growing in the middle of it. The bridge was decommissioned.
Again at sunset we ended up at the bridge, which is out of use.. We are getting into habit ending up on out of use bridges at sunset.
The last stop just before 9:00 pm in Lebanon – Munger Moss Motel. We came just in time to see neon lights. Lovely.
We had some detours today. First Solar Eclipse took 6 hrs from our day, then Caverns another 2.
We have made 250 miles (400 km) today.