Road Trip 2- Missouri to Oklahoma, Oklahoma to Texas

We started our third day by visiting the Ha Ha Tonka Castle Ruins in Missouri. We went earlier in the morning in hopes of avoiding the heat. It was still humid and warm which made the walk a real sweaty one but the sights were great. It was neat to see the ruins of a carriage house, mansion and water tower that a man had built at the top of the mountain. The boys were just a little disappointed that they couldn't actually walk around in the ruins. There were also some beautiful views of Missouri. I can imagine that it would be a beautiful place to visit when all the leaves change colors in the Fall.

 

When we finished hiking the ruins we went on a short drive to our next destination, The Fantastic Caverns. These are one of just a few caverns that you can do a ride-through tour of. Grams did not want to have to walk down lots of steps so this ride through aspect really appealed to her. It was actually a pretty small cave but it was still neat to see the cool formations and the tour guide gave us lots of interesting information. We got to see how lighting in the cave changed over the years, we learned about the sink holes in the cave and how they can fill up with water, we learned about the 10 women who answered a newspaper ad and were the first explorer's of the cave, we learned how soldiers like to use bat poop from caves so the owner kept the cave hidden and we learned that they had a formation that looks like a monster from Scooby Doo ;). We also had another visit from a butterfly- Isaac saying hello again.

After the caverns we got some lunch and I was searching for other attractions on the route and happened to discover there was a Precious Moment Chapel and Museum on the route. Of course we had to stop there! It ended up being one of my favorite stops but I am sure they boys didn't love it. I bribed them with screen time and so they mostly behaved. Anyways it had a great gift shop full of things I wanted to buy, a fun little precious moment "town" outside the gift shop, a beautiful trail with precious moment statues and fountains, and a chapel with amazing murals and stained glass windows. I enjoyed hearing the touching stories behind some of the precious moments Sam Butcher had created and hearing the story behind his mural in the chapel. There was also a room dedicated towards the son that Sam Butcher had lost in a car accident. It made me a little emotional, even though I know losing an older child to a car accident isn't the same as a miscarriage, it still triggered some feelings. I ended up just buying a surprise bag for young girls (3 things in a paper bag for $30 that supposedly are worth $800), a few pictures and a postcard. My mom bought me a precious moment that was of a mom giving her baby to an angel. When I opened the bag it had a PM doll with a wedding dress, a PM heart shaped necklace and a Christmas ornament.

We had a longer stretch of driving after the Precious Moment Museum and ended our day in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Our hotel was in a seedier part of town with quite a few homeless people. When we went to IHOP there was a guy sitting right outside the door. The kids and I talked about getting him a snack and water out of our car when we were done with our food but he was gone by the time we left. I need to do better at acting quicker on good thoughts.

Our fourth day we had been planning on going to The Gathering Place- a really amazing looking park- but it was just so warm that we decided we would go the Oklahoma Aquarium instead. I love aquariums and thought this was a pretty decent one. At a petting tank Steven touched something and said it was a shark egg and I said he was crazy. It honestly looked like seaweed with a bump in the middle. Then as we were walking a lady asked if we had seen the shark egg. I was shocked to find out Steven actually knew what he was talking about. I would say that the bull shark tunnel and the sea turtle that splashed Steven were probably our two favorite things.

After the aquarium it was a pretty lame day. We had a short drive and there was just really nothing to see and any places that we could have seen were closed because it was Sunday. Our hotel was in Shamrock, Texas which is pretty much the middle of nowhere. It seemed real empty and outside so deserted that it kind of was a little eerie. We also had troubles with the bathroom door because it would stick when you shut it. Not one of my favorite days.

Road Trip 1- Michigan to Illinois and Illinois to Missouri

On Thursday Steven, Ben, my mom and I started our journey from Michigan to Arizona. We made our first sign inspired stop at Geoscape Rock Shop in Paw Paw, Michigan. It had some fun dinosaurs and neat rocks inside. It was a good place to stretch our legs and Grams found a few things she wanted.

   After the rock shop we didn't have any other exciting stops until we made it to our first planned destination- Starved Rocks State Park. It was a little warm for a hike but not too terrible. It was also pretty peopley but thankfully once you got on the trails, they weren't too gummed up with people. We hiked first on the French Canyon Trail to see a waterfall but it was late summer so the waterfall was nothing more than a trickle. It was still very beautiful and we even spotted a blue butterfly that posed for a picture- Isaac saying hello :)

        

The next trail we decided to take was Lover's Leap. Unfortunately, even though it was a short distance, we didn't realize that it would have tons of stairs going up to it and that it was not a loop but it connected to even more trails. Grams got tired out and ended up sitting on a bench while we hiked on. We, not realizing how it worked, ended up taking a couple other trails before heading back to Grams. We did get some beautiful views of a lake and trees. And we even saw a dam and workers walking on it.

    

After we got back down to Grams we decided to head back to our car. We looked at the map and thought we would take a different way because the other way had been a little peopley. This was a poor choice with my lack of navigation skills. We ended up at the lodge which was not at all by the visitor's center where we had parked. After several set outs in the wrong direction, we finally asked a worker at the lodge for help and she showed us the right path to take. It turned out the lodge is above the visitor's center and we just needed to hike down. I am pretty sure Steven had directed us that way at one point. I really need to get better at listening to him because he has a much better sense of direction. 

    After our adventures at Starved Rocks we were driving to our hotel when we saw this awesome pink big foot statue and a pink horse statue. Of course we had to stop for some pics. 

    

On Day 2 of our adventures our first planned stop was in Springfield, Illinois where we visited Lincoln's Tomb and War Memorial. A fun fact I learned before visiting is that rubbing his nose will bring good luck. There was a sign specifically telling us not to touch the statue because of Covid but Steven and I broke the rules and rubbed his nose. Then we proceeded to pretend to pick it for a picture- we are terrible. After our fun we were able to go inside the tomb/memorial and see statues of Lincoln at various times in his life and read quotes he has given. It was a nice little piece of history we got to experience. 

The only negative thing is that when we were waiting to go inside I went back to the car to get a hair tie out of my suitcase and ended up slicing my finger on a razor. It bled real good- even through the band aide I put on it.

    

 

  

After that we were hungry which was perfect because the next place I had planned for us to stop at was the Cozy Dog Drive In. I had read that this place was the birthplace of corn dogs. When we got there they only had cozy dogs on the menu so I figured that was their term for corn dogs since they were the inventors of them. But I went ahead and asked the stupid question, "Is a cozy dog a corn dog?" The answer was "Only better." Ha. They were really good though.

  

After the cozy dogs we stopped at a random place called Henry's Rabbit Ranch. This is just a regular person's yard that has collected route 66 things, VW rabbits and apparently owns a lot of rabbits (the animal). There was a sign on his door saying he was recovering from surgery so the rabbits were not out and about but we still got to see all the junk in his yard. He also had a graveyard for all his rabbits that had passed away. Man was it hot and humid but Grams used to own a VW Rabbit so it brought back some memories for her and all the stuff made for some cool pictures.

  

Our last stop before the hotel was at the Uranus Fudge Shop and General Store in Missouri. There were lots of signs advertising it so we thought, why not? It was pretty funny and the shop keepers enjoyed saying punny phrases like, "Thanks for picking Uranus" They also sold lots of punny things and SALT WATER TAFFY. I love taffy so I bought myself a pound worth which me and the boys basically enjoyed on the rest of our trip to Arizona. Also, they had all these great photo ops outside and we couldn't resist taking a few pics.

 

 

Our final destination of the day was supposed to be the Ha Ha Tonka Castle Ruins but it was just so hot outside and the hotel had a pool so our plans changed. We decided to save the ruins for the next day and instead after eating some dinner, I took the kids out to the hotel pool. I even swam myself which reminded me how I like being in pools way more than being in lakes.