Meramec Caverns in Stanton Missouri

Today we had breakfast at the Flying J and guess what? I had Sweet Cream Pancakes - yum! After breakfast we headed to the Meramec Caverns. It was raining pretty hard so it was the perfect day to sightsee inside the cave!  The underground river runs through the first floor of the caverns and is only a couple of feet deep.  It is strange walking along side the river when you are under ground!  The batguana (bat poop) produced saltpeter deposits which was used in a gun powder formula.  The mill in the cave was blown up duing the Civil War by the Confederate guerrillas of whom Jesse James was a member.  The story is that after the war he and his band used the cavern as a hideout.  There is over 26 miles of cavern but you only see a small portion of it on the tour.   The last part you see is "The Stage Curtain".  The stalagtites (from the ceiling) are 70 feet high, 60 feet wide and 35 feet thick.  They have a dramatic light and musical presentation using the curtain which is very cool.  The temperature in the cavern stays 60 degrees all year long.  Since it was only 48 outside, the cavern was comfortable! 

After our cave and gift shop tour, we hurried back to the RV so I could get some laundry done.  Would you believe the water is turned off because they are working on it!  So I decided to blog instead!

Cave sightseeing and blogging..."Ain't Life Grand!"

Cuba, Missouri

We left Arcola, Illinois this morning and have stopped in Cuba, Missouri. It's raining and in the low 40's but I'm finding Missouri very pretty. There are nice rolling hills and lots of pretty trees everywhere. After we set up the RV we took off to the "Missouri Hick" for dinner (highly recommended by a fellow camper). It is such a cute restaurant. They have a water wheel outside and very rustic looking. Inside they have buckets for lamp shades and the table legs are Singer Sewing Machine Manpowered Pedals! The waitress' shirt says "Missouri Hick Chik". I had the barbeque sampler with ribs, brisket and pulled pork. Ted had the brisket and boy was everything delicious!
After dinner we took a ride through town. There are over 12 murals that the town had painted by local artists of subjects concerning the war and also famous people that have been in town. They are very nice. We drove a little further into Fanning where they have the "World's Largest Rocker"! Pretty funny!

Eatin' barbeque..."Ain't Life Grand!"

Bosch Family Wiener Roast

Yesterday was the 45th Bosch Family Wiener Roast! Todd Bosch's grandmother started the family roast in 1964 to celebrate the family farmers having their crops in and this started a tradition that's gone on every year since. Grandmother Bosch has since passed on and the tradition has been handed down. This year Todd's Uncle passed the wiener baton over to Todd and they had a very successful gathering with over 100 relatives showing up. There were cousins, aunts and uncles galore! Ted and I were the "mystery guests" for the Roast. Finally one of the Uncle's asked Ted, "Just who are you?" We decided we came the farthest for the event!

It was supposed to rain yesterday but the skies parted to a beautiful day. The fire was lit about 10:00 a.m. and roared all day. Being a pot luck there was great food and especially great desserts! I decided I was off the diet for the day and tried a little bit of everything! There were some pumpkin cookies to die for! I think Ted decided that chocolate chip cookies were just the thing to eat! Todd and Shawna have a huge barn and yard that easily held everyone with room for more! There were card tables set up and card games went on all day long. The TV was set up for football (yep, they love their football). There was kite flying, marshmallow cooking, a bean bag game, some football and lots and lots of gabbing!

A successful wiener roast..."Ain't Life Grand!"

Fall in Illinois

The fall is very pretty here in Illinois. The trees are golden and red and quickly losing their leaves. Fall is the time for football and we went to the Tuscola Warriors football game Friday night. The rain stopped just in time but boy was it cold! I had four layers of shirts and jackets, two pairs of pants, two pairs of gloves (except having two pairs cut off my circulations and my fingers were colder so I had to remove one pair), a scarf and knit cap! Stayed warm first half but managed to get cold in the 4th quarter! We rooted the Tuscola team to a victory of 27 to 6!

Yesterday we went to Arthur for lunch at Yoder's, an Amish restaurant. We waited for about 45 minutes for our table - obviously a popular place! They have a buffet for about $6.00. We ate off the menu and three of us had lunch for less than $20! They have a gift shop and sell their donuts, breads, butters and more! HAD to buy the peanut butter. They had it at the dinner table and it is very carmelly (made up word!), creamy and delicious! On main street there is a house with a ton of carved pumpkins and everyone has Halloween yard decorations. Fall is here!

Last night Suzy and Bill Bean had Bill's daughter and her family over for pizza and we were invited to join in. We all sat around the kitchen, watched a great Iowa/Penn State football game, watched the baby sing and dance and chatted! The Wii game was also being played in the den.

Family fun!..."Ain't Life Grand!"

Columbia Missouri to Arcola Illinois!

We left Columbia Monday morning a little later than planned! At about 7:30 watching the morning news and weather, the weatherman talked about the surprise storm that was heading across Missouri (and in our direction). They said the storm was moving at about 45 mph but they didn't expect it to last too long. We decided to wait it out since they also said there was a lot of lightning and thunder that came along with it. Boy were they right! Max didn't settle down for a couple of hours he was so scared of the noise! We finally got on the road about 11:00 a.m. The campground in Columbia was very nice.

We arrived in Arcola, Illinois in the afternoon. There aren't many campgrounds around but this is a small one in the middle of this small town. Ted's Aunt is in Arthur, an Amish town about 9 miles east of the campground. On Tuesday we drove over to Arthur, had lunch and looked around some of the shops before heading over to the Retirement Home to see Ruth. When you drive through Arthur you see some interesting things:

We also visited Ted's Aunt Wanda yesterday in the town of Atwood! Today we had lunch with her. She sure keeps you laughing she's such a character!

Last night we drove over to Shawna (Ted's cousin) and her husband Todd's house in Possetum and dropped off Ted's Grandfather's chair and his Grandmother's champagne glasses. We are happy to get the items to them (and out of our backseat)! The glasses are really pretty and I think Shawna was especially happy to have them (they were her Great Grandparents). Her daughter, son-in-law and grand baby are staying with them for a little while so I think she was less happy to see the chair! I got the best baby hit from the sweetest, cutest, prettiest little girl, Aubrey:

Today we visited Ruth again and stopped by to see Shawna's Dad, Bill and his wife Suzy. They are such nice people and we had a good visit with them. We will see them again tomorrow and plan to go to a local football game (I told you they love their football in the Midwest) if the rain stops!

All the farmers were busy trying to get in their corn and soybeans before the rain started today. The farmers were sure busy!

Visiting family and friends in small towns..."Ain't Life Grand!"

Traveling to Missouri!

We left Assaria Kansas this morning and planned our first stop at the Flying J only about 20 miles from the campground! Flying J's are truck stops that also cater to RV'ers! When we were in Albuquerque last April we found that the Flying J Restaurants have "Sweet Cream Pancakes". They are soooo yummy and I have been thinking about them for months and since we had to go right by there on our way out of town, we stopped and I had some. Boy are they good! I did maintain and not eat the whole plate full but still felt a wee bit guilty after all I've been eating lately. Guess what? They now sell the pancake mix! I'm not sure that's exactly a good thing, but we did buy some to see if tastes as good. I'll let you know...

As we were leaving the campground this morning we found we had no trailer brakes which is not a good thing. But if you are in a place like Kansas that is flat at least you don't have to worry about not being able to stop going downhill!!!! Fortunately it was not broken (like it was one time) and Ted was able to reattach the brake line while we were still at the Flying J. There is so much vibration from the bumpy roads that it had loosened enough to come apart and just hang there! Yikes.

Anyway...we are now in Columbia Missouri for the evening. We found a really nice campground and will think about returning here some time. They are apparently going to get very busy this weekend because it is their homecoming game: the Missouri Tigers versus the Texas Longhorns. They are expecting a lot of Alumni as well as Texans to come stay at the campground for the game. Midwesterners definitely love their football!

And I love sweet cream pancakes..."Ain't Life Grand!"

The Brookville Hotel

Today we had lunch at the Brookville Hotel. Our friends Katie and Gary had friends and family coming from Texas, Arkansas, Wichita and another couple from Salina for a total of 10 of us, to meet at the restaurant. They serve family style and there is no menu. First they served sweet pickles, candied apples and peaches. The next course was cottage cheese and cole slaw. Then they brought in the heaping plates of fried chicken, mashed potatoes, cream corn, biscuits and gravy (no calories or fat). For dessert they served french vanilla ice cream! Everything was really good.

The hotel was built in 1870 in Brookville and purchased in 1894 by the relatives of the current owners. It was moved to Abilene in 2001 by the fourth generation of family where they built a replica of the original structure. Each of the dining rooms are named and the restaurant has grown over the years. They even have rooms set up in the second story and a little gift shop. It is very cute.

We've had a great visit with Gary and Katie this week and enjoyed seeing some long-time friends of Aunt Lucille's today. We have plans to stop and see Martha in Kerrville, TX and June (Lucille's cousin) near Dallas, TX when we get down there.

Fried chicken in a grand hotel..."Ain't Life Grand!"