November 6 2011 Cairo, MO and Cape Girardeau area

We drove across the river to Illinois so John could go to the low point on Illinois, outside of Cairo. It is named after the one in Egypt since it is also on a river delta.

Headed out of town on the bridge in Cape Girardeau , MO to Cairo, Illinois  to the low point in Illinois. Here are a couple of the old mansions from when Cairo was a thriving city.

  A bridge on the way into Cairo. It goes through the levy and has a huge door that can be lowered. Most of the cities near the lower Mississippi have levees for the yearly floods.

Cairo  was huge, it is now largely abandoned, as in the photo above. Eerie. It is huge old houses and building, boarded up and falling down.  Fort Defiance. It was a civil war fort. Ulysses Grant was the commander. They kept the Mississippi open so they could transport munitions and troops. It is also the low point of Illinois.

Here is John at the low point. Kentucky was just across the river, so we drove over for the photo of the sign.

a few good signs on the trip, Horseshoe Lake is filled with bald cypress trees

More cypress trees, A pig mobile

aliens and the National traveling breast museum. These were all in the parking lot of a strip joint, the  Pony. Traveling breast museum, I have seen everything now.

a grist mill and covered bridge out side of Cape Girardeau , innards of the mill

reflection of the leaves at the mill, John inside the bridge

November 4, 2011 Missouri

It ended up taking all day for them to get the radiator in.  It rained all day. We finally left the repair shop  late in the afternoon yesterday. We spent another night in Cuivre River state park. Beautiful place. We drove down to Meramec State Park, Missouri today. snagged a lovely camp spot in the campground by the Meramec River and toured the Meramec caverns. We went for a short hike in the park afterwards. It is so nice to get out in the woods after a week of being  behind the shop in town.

bus getting the radiator back in, and how many guys does it take to put  the transmission fluid back in?

Wonder if this store will give John a discount on new flooring for the bus?? Maybe in the John??

We saw this motor home at a rest stop. Check out who is looking out the window.

We are route 66 again

Meramec Caverns, Jesse James and his gang robbed a bank in 1875 and took the loot into the caverns(they had to swim thru some water to get to this room ) and counted it out then escaped with the booty out another exit, while the posse waited outside the original entrance for them to come back out. Seems they have the same statue in two places.

cool caverns and cheesy lighting in the caverns

two shots are the theatre drapery. The visible portion is about 35 feet tall, they go up another two levels of the caves. They had bleachers set up in front of them, the guide played music and did a light show by flipping switches on and off. The drapery was awesome, with out the lame light  show

more of their ‘artistic’ lighting on the caverns

a  photo of looking out the mouth of another cave in the campground. A cardinal. Not sure I have ever seen one before this.

November 2, 2011 Cuiver River State park and Historic St Charles

The radiator arrived this afternoon, finally. They are putting it in tomorrow AM at the screech of dawn. Then hopefully we can continue on our journey. Yesterday we had lunch with Bev from Salida, Co. It was nice to see her.  She is on her way to Indiana to pick up a truck. John and I  have been hiking the last couple days.

John on Blazing Star trail at Cuivre River, Poison ivy

a turtle John found, fungi

a tree tunnel in Cuivre River thru the windshield, old town St Charles, MO

We went down to old town in St Charles, Mo for Halloween.  Check out the brick streets there. They had the children trick or treating in the afternoon. We sat on a bench and watched. After having lunch at the local brewery.  Lots of cute costumes.

historic trap door, historic wall

trick or treating in St Charles

trick or treaters-see the line across the street?, I loved the dog with the pink, sparkly fairy wings, cute kids

a princes with her sparkly dog, not sure if the guy on the horse is a real policeman, or if that is a costume.

the ballooner was adorable. My kind of  balanced diet.

John in a tall grass prairie at the Lost river conservation area. The big blue stem grass can get up to 8 feet tall.  Used to be whole prairies of it, but now only a few places left., and fall color at Lost river

 

fall color at Cuivre River state park

wild turkeys crossing the road , and a close up of one.  Cuivre River state park.