Meremac Caverns

We decided to visit Meramec Caverns on a whim Sunday morning when coming home from Cobblestone.  Our original destination wasn't open yet and Meramec Caverns was just down the road as well as the flooding river.  So to kill time, we drove to it to really just go to the bathroom, see the flooded river and look around some; we never intended to go through the cave.  Shawn loves going through them tho, so after making sure there was no massive amount of steps I was going to have to climb, we decided to tour the cave. 

It's a huge cave, took about an hour and 20 minutes to go through and we walked about a mile the sign said.  I toured all of the cave except for the upper room - there was about 50 steps to get to that room.  But for the people that don't want to climb the steps, there is a ramp you can go up to a separate room to continue the tour.  That's where I went. 

Throughout the whole trip, they are warning you to be careful because of the wet concrete.  Well who is the first, and only, person to fall in our group?  Yep, me!  I couldn't believe it!  We were walking down a little slope to leave the main cave, the concrete was somewhat wet, and I was even holding on to the handrail and down I went.  It all happened so fast!  I remember hearing Shawn ask if I was ok and I saw some people ahead of our group turn around and ask if I was ok.  I said I was and jumped up as quick as a fat girl could get up!  I finished the walk out of the cave and knew the whole time that underneath my capris, my right knee (which by the way is already my bad knee) was jacked up!  It was burning so I knew I had scraped it and I could feel some blood underneath my pants.  I also scraped the inside of my right foot some.  Upon checking in the bathroom, my knee wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, but it was still scraped up. 

Before we left, we stopped at the smashed penny machine to so I could get one.  Once again, I didn't know they had one and was excited when Shawn pointed it out to me.

Between our experience at Squire Boone Caverns and this cave, I think my caving days are over unless it's a sit down and ride on something cave tour like Louisville Mega Caverns was. 

(I'm not sure why this picture is turned this way; I tried ever way I could in Blogger to fix it and it kept turning sideways.)

 



 

Shawn gives my new smashed penny "two-thumbs up"

 



They have zip lining at Meramec Caverns and there were lots of people zipping through the parking lot!  (Can you see the person in the middle of the picture just above the tree line?)

 



 

Due to all of the rain we had had in the last day or two, the river was flooding!  It was spilled over into the parking lot of Meramec Caverns!

 

 

 

Riverside Wildlife & Reptile Center

I had read about this place on Roadside America and then googled it to find out more about it  What a fun place!  I'm so glad we went! 

We were given an up-close, hands-on personal tour of the place with Howard our tour guide.  He was friendly and knowledgeable of the center.  And when he couldn't get Leo the lion to come over to where we were so I could take pictures, he mentioned it to the owner and she had someone else take us back out there so that I could get some pictures!  We were also offered the opportunity to hold a baby alligator and a snake.  I choose the first and backed away from the latter.  Eww, I hate snakes!

 

I love, love, love taking pictures of the tigers!  I could of stood here for hours watching them and taking their pictures!

 

 

I really don't like snakes at all, but thought it was neat to see the active snake instead of it curled up in the corner like they usually are in zoos and such.

 

And I can't even begin to believe I did this!  There was another lady and her son in our group that held it and thought, I think I want to do that too!  I was afraid to touch it at first, but once I did, I decided to hold it.  It was definitely a quick experience and only long enough for a picture, but I did it none the less!

 

 Howard, our tour guide, with a komodo dragon!

 

And then there's Leo...Leo the Lion!  Howard couldn't get Leo to come down to us so we could see him and take his picture.  So Gary came out and immediately got the lion to come over.  Leo likes to drink water out of a spray bottle!

 

Cobblestone Vacay 2013: Sunday 6/2

Breakfast: pancakes, bacon

Well another year at Cobblestone has come to an end.  We got up a little earlier today so we could get ready and get everything packed and loaded into the car before breakfast.  Everyone had breakfast, we all said our goodbyes until next year, reserved our cabin for next year, took our annual picture on the steps of the lodge, and then got in the car and drove down that gravel drive one last time before hitting the highway and heading home.

 

Overall we had a great time at Cobblestone again.  We had a few snafu's with our cabin this year - like 3 air conditioners, a leaky roof, and a huge wolf spider in the bathroom - but we still survived and can't wait to come back next year and are staying in the same cabin too!  I'm hoping that my sister will let us bring Gavin with us next year.  I know he'll have so much fun playing on all the playground equipment they have, playing in the sandboxes, playing in the pool, participating in all the children's activities, and just having a good time playing with all the kids there! 

 

On or way home this year we went to Meremac Caverns and the Riverside Wildlife Center.  I'll blog about them in separate entries.

 

 

 

Cobblestone Vacay 2013: Saturday 6/1

Saturday's Menu:

Breakfast: eggs with ham, biscuits and gravy
Lunch: mustacholi, garlic bread, salad
Dinner: BBQ hamburgers, hot dogs, pork steak, baked beans, potato salad, chips, cupcakes

Saturday's Activities:

 

We played in the bocce ball tourney this morning, but we didn't win.  After the tourney, Shawn, Garret and I went into Cuba to get a drink at Sonic for me and then went to a new Amish deli and bakery.  They had a lot of yummy looking foods!  We'll definitely make a trip back there next year.  Garrett had never been to Steelville before, so we drove into that town and drove around for a few minutes.  On the way back to Cobblestone, we took one of the roads down to the old put-in point for the rafting and canoeing.  The river had risen so we weren't able to go all the way down the road and had to turn around.

 

I don't really remember what all we did between lunch and dinner.  I know we played table bingo in the lodge with everyone instead of the po-ke-no that was listed, and I'm thinking I just walked around to take a couple pictures and then took a nap. 

 

Saturday night for dinner, we had a BBQ outside.

 

 

Barrel train ride for the little...and big, kids 

Shawn and I with Steve and Terry Anderson



 

The Cobblestone Welcoming Committee!  Hee!

Ping pong tourney

Lots of naps going on around this place!

 

Time to place your bets......let's race those horses!

 

 

Horse Racing Jockeys! 

Next year, our family IS going to have matching t-shirts too!

Talent show night!  Someone signed Shawn up to sing Georgie Porgie.  He didn't want to do it, but everyone rooted him on.  Since they didn't have the karaoke machine out, he didn't know all the words so he just sang a quick little chorus of it.  Georgie Porgie is really Stevie's song, so it definitely wasn't the same! 

 



 

And finally Night Club Night!  The lodge is transformed into a nightclub with disco ball, colored light show, the lights are dimmed, small little lamps are lit, snacks are put out and they have champagne.  Usually this is one of my fave nights and I like to boogie down, but this year I just wasn't feeling it.  I stayed for a little bit, but eventually ended up going back to the cabin and started packing to head home.

 

Cobblestone Vacay 2013: Friday 5/31

Friday's Menu:

Breakfast: French toast with powdered sugar, bacon
Lunch: Ham and cheese sandwiches, coleslaw, onion straws, cinnamon rolls
Dinner: Baked chicken, augrautin potatoes, peas/carrots, pasta salad, coconut cream pie

Friday's Activities:

We had the shuffleboard tourney after breakfast, then Shawn and I drove into Steelville for about an hour to go to yard sales, only there wasn't any.  The weekend we are there they usually have their town-wide yard sales, but I'm thinking all of the rain the night before prevented everyone from setting up.

After lunch, we spent the afternoon in the pool.  The water was chilly, but was fun!  And I had a little visitor friend near me :/  I saw a lot of little lizzards around the grounds this past week.  Too many for my liking!

 

After dinner, we had a Fling 'em tourney.  Shawn and I made it into the finals, but lost to Jim and Stephanie :(  I'm thinking we could of won, but the sky started getting really dark and the storms were starting to roll in so I was trying to hurry the game along so I could get inside before it started raining. :(

After that we played Buzzword in the lodge with everyone.  What a fun game!

Then we had a movie, popcorn and koolaid.  I don't remember the movie since I really didn't watch it, I had taken my laptop into the lodge to play around on. 

That evening, it poured down raining for a LONG time.  That night after I left the lodge and ran to the cabin in the rain, I changed my clothes and went to get into bed only to discover that the roof was leaking over my bed!  I thought great, what am I going to do?  I've already changed into my jammies, it's pouring down raining, and Shawn's over at the lodge and his phones are in our cabin.  So I went out on our porch and screamed over to the lodge for Shawn to tell Lee that the roof was leaking.  It was leaking a lot, but had been leaking for a while because all the blankets and the bed were wet!  I ended up getting the bathroom trashcan and the icebucket and put them on the bed to catch anymore water.  They next day they had to repair the roof :(