On the Road Again...

Well, we couldn't drive all the way up to WI without driving back. This time we discussed it and Jonathan said he'd rather try a different KOA than the one in Springfield, IL and then just drive a little longer with a fun stop on the second day of travel. Sooooo we left later into the afternoon the day we left WI and drove to Utica, IL where we stayed at one of the prettiest campgrounds I have ever been to. It is so painstakingly maintained and it shows. From the layout to the gardening, it is gorgeous. One problem though.... we chased a storm all the way there and though we missed it entirely it had made the creek next to our cabin rise by the time we got there. It was getting dark and so we unpacked, showered up, and tucked in to bed not too long after we got there.

In the morning I woke up to a rushing, flowing sound... among the birds chirping. I hooked up the dogs to their leashes and stepped outside to a flood all the way alongside our cabin and into the sites on the other side of the creek. Even the car was in 5 inches of flowing water! The pics speak for themselves here:

All the flooding past the creek side of us was tent camping sites. You have NO IDEA just how thankful I was that Richard talked me into cabins instead of tenting it this trip! That side of the creek was even lower ground that us so they were under at least a foot of flowing water. It was crazy! I'd LOVE to go back there sometime when it isn't rainy though because it was so pretty and we didn't get to spend much time there. Since the water was all over the place, we loaded and left that morning pretty quickly.

The fun stop that day was in Stanton, MO to Meramac Caverns. It is the hideout of Jesse James during one (or maybe more) of his raids. I love this kind of thing and thankfully so does Jonathan so we had a blast taking the tour! The camera didn't do so hot down in the caves, but I got a couple of pics anyway.

Joonathan at the decent to the cave's "theatre room". A natural stage area that they light to show the awesome brilliance of the stalagmites and stalagtites of the caverns. This area of the caverns is so old that the formations create an opera curtain like area with what look like platforms for performance! Gorgeous!

The three of us on the tour! Best I could get by myself!