Wednesday, July 8, 2009 - I awoke today to discover I was a redneck. Yesterday, I ran out of sunblock, but thought there was enough to get by. Appearently not as parts of my neck were a bit red this morning. It didn't burn however.
We slept in. Last night we were in bed early. It was nice not having Old English Sheepdogs licking you in the face at 6am. We headed next door to the Horny Toad for breakfast probably around 10am. This is where we more or less made some plans for the day. It was decided to head south to Camdenton, MO to see the Bridal Cave.
As you drive down Rt 54 towards Lake of the Ozarks, you will see tourist signs for this and other attractions. The name appears to come from the fact that several couples have been married in this cave. It looks that with the proper lighting, many of the rock and silt structures in the cave appear as stage curtains.
After finishing breakfast, we headed out to the Bridal Cave. It looked simple enough on the map of the Lake we had. There was a big arrow pointing to it, right off of Rt 5. Unfortunately, we forgot the map, but I thought I remembered it well enough. We got on Rt 5 and drove, and drove and nothing. No signs... nothing. You know, if you're going to run a tourist trap, you need to advertise a bit to get people there.
Buffy ran into a grocery store for directions, which the lady inside didn't sound too sure where it was at. But off of her directions, it started to dawn on me as we had to take "old" Rt 5. The map I was looking at did not, at least fully, show "new" Rt 5. We came to old Rt 5 and then asked the question, left or right. We turned right. Wrong move. Turned around once the road ended and shortly there after pulled into a Quik Mart and asked more directions. This time the lady knew exactly where it was at.
We arrived just in time to catch the next trip into the cave. We learned how people used the cave as a hideout of sorts hundreds/decades of years ago. It was somewhat a tight squeeze to get through and a couple of points. The guide would point out natural formation that looked similar to an angel, jellyfish, Cousin Itt (from the Addams Family) and the Energizer Bunny. We also got to see, a sample at least, of what the early spelunkers used to explore the cave; a thin ladder and wooded foot bridge only 12 inches wide.
At the end of the cave was a mystery object we could look at in a pool of water about 20 feet deep. They are not sure exactly what it is, but believe it to be a part of a boat or raft from uncounted years ago, speculating that someone tried to build some craft to float through and out of the cave. However, the only exit out of the cave is either the way we came in or through a tiny tunnel underwater. The guide explained that only 17 people have made it out through the underwater passageway and it is extremely difficult and dangerous. For starters, the passage is too small for anyone to take scuba gear. In addition, the water is 40 degrees and hypothermia would set in roughly 10 minutes. The sand and silt is so fine on the bottom, that the smallest moves will stir it up to where one would not be able to see.
Leaving the Bridal Cave, we decided to take a different route which would take us accross a toll bridge. Two dollars and fifty cents and it still looked like an ordinary bridge. Oh well.
We stopped in Lake Ozark near the Bagnell Dam and parked the car so Buffy could shop for dogsitting gifts. She didn't find anything, but I at least picked up a T-shirt and some more sunblock. We finished up stopping at a bar and grill called Casablanca's for some good deep fried bar food and beer.
The rest of the afternoon was spent at the hotel's pool area. They have one of those pools that you can swim up to and order a drink. And by that time, it was happy hour... drinks were half price. Did we die and go to heaven?
For dinner, we were back at the Horny Toad and watch an "old man" band. This place has an outside stage and there's music every night. Tonight's band, which I didn't catch the name, was a bunch of older guys (late 50's, possibly early 60's) that played very well.
Tomorrow we have a pontoon boat reserved and we plan to do a half day on the late. Check back later.
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