Tuesday July 5th

Meramae Caverns

Left  Marshall  Ill   18.246
Arr. Lebanon MO  18608
Elapsed Mileage    362 mi

Toll Chgs. Mo.   .45

Fruit Ill   .71
Food Kirkwood 4.72
Lebanon 3.33
Lebanon 1.95


Gas Lebanon        11 9/10
Hazelwood    11 3/10

Motel Red Fox  14.00

After much threatening Tommy and I had to pull the bedclothes off the ladies in order to get them up at six AM. Had cereal in the room.  made a coffee on the burner - milk for the kids and filled up the freezers from a Coke Freezer that the owners kept ice in.  On the trip we kept seeing advertisements at the Mermae Caverns so I decided that we should see them.  We lost about three hours on the road but to me it was well worth it. Adults paid 1.50 and children .77c so they must have a gold mine there. This was my first experience of this sort and it is somewhat overpowering to see the work of nature. A lecturer went along with a group of about 50  explaining the various formations and the twenty million years it took to create them. Helen and Gladys wouldn't go in so they stayed above deck until we came out. It's the sort of thing that makes an impression that you don't easily forget. Had planned to make Springfield MO by night but ran 54 miles short of that point we pulled up here in Lebanon at the Red Fox Motel.