Meet me in St Louis!

Well, we made it that day through Oklahoma and Missouri, despite my near collision with the divider. We stayed just south of St. Louis. We pulled in about 9:30pm and just had one whole day and another night to rest. Lilly and I took a long walk early the next morning and boy was it humid. However, humid usually means green. The vegetation was beautiful. Our campground had a pond and was by a little church with a cemetery. We passed vines of wild honeysuckle and giant oak trees. We got back in time to wake the kids and do some laundry. We decided, rather than just hang out at the campground we could go site see if something was really close. We were within 10 miles of three different caves, so I went to the office to see which one they recommended. After a long chat where I discovered the owner's mom lives in Oakhurst and one of the ladies who works here has family in Madera (small world) we decided to tour Onandaga State park and cave. What a great experience. the hike down in the cave only takes an hour and 45 minutes, but we saw amazing formations. The kids were a little unsure at first, but really enjoyed themselves. I will be attaching pictures, but be forewarned, as it was soooo dark, it was really hard to get good pictures. Many of the formations were far enough from me that the flash didn't reach. We also discovered when I tried to get the kids in a picture, the flash would just pick them up and make whatever was behind them (usually a fantastic formation) just black.

It was a cool 56 degrees, 200 feet below the earth and a very wet, slippery climb, but I would highly recommend it!

When we were talking to the KOA folks, Micah picked up a pamphlet with a Clydesdale on the front and animals inside and asked if we could go. It happened to be Grant's Farm in St. Louis. The property was once owned by Ulysses S Grant and was purchased in the early 1900's by Anheuser-Busch. It is an operating farm, where you can tour and still see the old Grant homestead. The grounds are beautiful. I couldn't imagine having all that lush green park like land as my home. Anyway, we normally don't take a lot of detours on driving days, but it is hard to turn down that cute little guy. So, on our way out of Missouri, we spent a few hours touring the farm. You only have to pay for parking and the tram and tour are all free. I hope you enjoy the pictures. It was hilarious seeing the children try to feed baby goats from bottles. Micah had the time of his life, and they all loved seeing the Clydesdales. There is a picture of a fence included in the bundle. It wasn't a fence Grant put up, but Anheuser. I put that in just for you, Ken. The fence was fashioned out of civil war gun barrels. Pretty neat.

You'll notice a conspicuous absence of the St. Louis arch--The Gateway to the West. My kids had been looking forward to seeing this since Needles. Unfortunately, the detour we took to Grants farm took us around the city. So we didn't get to see the arch. We'll have to catch it on the way back.

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