Carthage, MO is our next destination for our 5th wheel to be parked for a few days. On the road today we hoped to see some great icons along the Route.
We've already visited a few caverns in the past few months so we just couldn't resist one that called itself Fantastic.
They could have called themselves "Just OK" and it would have been more accurate. I guess it just wasn't as adventuresome to be driven around a large cave as it to be crawling around and walking around narrow passages.
Our entrance into the caves was via a propane powered Jeep pulling a large wagon.
During the 55 minute tour there were 9 stops along the way where the driver got out and explained what types of rock formations we were seeing.
The cave was found during the Civil War by a local farmer. He advertised for someone to explore the cave and 9 nuns signed up. They had to crawl through this tiny opening to get in.
Our driver turned the lights out to show us what darkness looked like. We'd never seen it before so everyone was in awe.
Back in the 1960's The Presleys singing group did music shows inside the caverns called Farmarama. They will perform there again later this month for the first time in 48 years.
As we've met and visited more and more people along the Route it seems they are like family to each other. This was reinforced once again when we arrived at Gary's Gay Parita Filling Station and Garage.
As we started taking pictures I noticed an old man sitting in his watching us. I assumed it was the owner and introduced myself. He was on his way to get diesel for his tractors but graciously opened up his station for us to look around. It was Gary.
While I'm talking to him about where we've been and who we've talked to along the Route Karen takes pictures.
He opens the Images Along Route 66 book and he asks us if we've seen this or that already. We had. They he goes page by page with us telling us the best places along the route for pictures of the old road, places to shop, people to meet, and best the best BBQ. Karen thought we were going to get a page by page all the way to LA!
He drew us a map to Red Oak II that was down the Road a ways on our journey today and not to miss it (he was right).
Gary recreated this garage to look like the ones that used to be on the Route because he knew it would draw visitors from all over the world and he wanted to meet them and talk to them. It worked.
As we came into Carthage we ignored Gary's excellent "map" and zoomed by our turn. We studied it more closely and matched it up with our GPS map and figured out where we needed to be and headed back up the road two miles.
How we missed THIS I'll never know.
We didn't really know what to expect but when we came upon THIS we knew we were there.
Lowell Davis has moved buildings from around the area onto this property to recreate the towns that used to thrive along the Route. We walked back and just kept seeing more and more buildings.
Lowell Davis' Red Oak II
This is how wide the place is as we were leaving. If you're ever in Carthage, MO this place deserves your time. If Lowell is around he'd love to talk to you.
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