We drive via Lake of the Ozarks, which sounds so romantic, but is not. It is another dammed river, this time the Osage River. It is a big holiday resort. Lots of people, huge strip development, lots of boats and generally commercialized- yuk. Our immediate reaction is to drive through it as quickly as possible, only stopping briefly at a Walmart, which we always use for loo stops. It's good to know they have a use.
We get further south, to a much quieter part of this huge lake, which goes on for miles, and find a picnic spot. Artificial lakes are a bit dull. The edges don't look right!
We disturb two buzzards and a flock of geese, who don't like our company. I'm not fast enough to get a picture of the buzzards.
We then go to one of the hundreds of National Parks, which are everywhere. Most are named after Mark Twain, but this one has the wonderful name- Ha Ha Tonka, which apparently means laughing water.
This whole area is full of caves, sinkholes, underground streams and caverns. This is a 'Karst' landscape and apparently a very important geological site.
The first thing we see is this natural stone bridge.
The ruin is of a large house, built by a wealthy industrialist, which burnt down. It's rather beautiful, but you can't see it very well in my not very good photo! Again, the landscape reminds us of the Lot in France.
We are feeling extremely virtuous because we've had lots of exercise. It is quite hot, 86 degrees F.
We then head off to Mansfield for the night.
We go via one of the more reclusive Amish communities near Seymour. I didn't know there were any Amish in Missouri. We pass several black buggies and drivers with their long beards and bright blue shirts. They seem to be living in a large commune. There is a huge vegetable garden and children in long dresses playing and it looks like a film set. We get a very cheery wave from an old Amish man. I don't take photos.
Mansfield is my choice. It has the Laura Ingalls Wilder museum, which I am keen to see. I love her books about her childhood in pioneering days. If you haven't read them, try them.
Our B and B is in the centre of town and much to Roland's delight almost on top of the railway line!!! Luckily, not too many trains are going through, just enough to keep him happy.
Our room is very comfortable, but we have to rush next door to a rather sad mexican restaurant before it closes at 7. No glass of wine to help it down, just iced water.
Next morning, breakfast is grim. Served on polystyrene plates with plastic cups, knives and spoons, the food matches! Watery coffee to wash it down.
The food was horrible, but the museum is excellent and we get there before anybody else.
We get a guided tour of the house she lived in and even Roland enjoys it all. He has never read the books and probably never will.
We then set off south on highway 63, to Grand Gulf National Park on the Arkansas border. We get into the mood by listening to 'Big Country 99" with 'The Rooster'. Brilliant! The radio stations down here are either country or religious, an easy choice!
This is another park of chasms, natural bridges and the like. It also has a very volatile river system. Unluckily for us, the river is non existent at the moment. It can be a raging torrent and it fills the valleys instantly.
We can see that it could be spectacular!!! Never mind. The walk through the trees is lovely.
We then try to find the wonderful, out of the way B and B that I've booked for the night, with hostess Sherry, who has a 'herb shack'. We drive through some beautiful back roads. The autumn colours are lovely and it is still hot, but we cannot for the life of us find the place. We have been driving for quite a while now and it's getting late, so we give up and head for the nearest town. There is no phone reception, so I can't ring for directions.
We end up in a Holiday Inn, which we are very pleased to see, but it wasn't quite what I was looking forward to. Dinner is a take away pizza in our room, but at least it means we can drink beer with it, and jolly good it tastes too- the beer!
Breakfast is another dismal, polystyrene affair. It's not a good way to start the day.
Our trip today is to the Onondaga cave in the Onondaga State Park. Missouri has nearly 6,000 discovered caves, presumably there are a lot more.
This one is spectacular.
It has everything- stalactites, stalagmites. Some look quite rude!
The colours are vivid.
It is good the whole way through, and it has bats.
Certainly worth a visit. There were plans to dam yet another river here, which would have flooded the cave, but it was voted out.
We came back via Herman, which is in the middle of Octoberfest, which seems to have livened the place up no end. There are wine tastings, beer gardens and lots of people. It's nice to see so many people in the streets. There is a real atmosphere to the place. We walk down to the muddy Missouri, which is flowing at a fair old pace.
The water in the Mississippi is flowing at three times it's normal rate for this time of year and it looks as though the Missouri is not far behind. I hadn't quite appreciated just how important these two rivers are to the geography of the area.
We get home safe and sound. It's still 80 degrees. It was a lot of driving for Roland, which he is not that keen on. It's easy to underestimate the distances. This is a very big country. We feel we have seen a good bit of Missouri, but there is a lot more......
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