May 30, 2024 - Farmington, Missouri to Clarksville, Tennessee

We had a slow start to our day because we really hadn't planned much for the day. Our first scheduled stop was the Bollinger Mill State Historic Site and Buford Covered Bridge but we had to make a quick detour to grab a photo of shoppers at the local Dollar General in Fredericktown!
It was fun to see since we had seen lots of signs to slow for horse and buggies!

After receiving a Spanish land grant, George F. Bollinger led a group of families from North Carolina to this area and in 1800 began construction of a mill and dam on the Whitewater River. It was successful and by the 1820s, a road linked Bollinger Mill with surrounding communities.

The mill and dam, originally constructed from logs, were rebuilt in stone in 1825 and the limestone foundation and dam are still visible today. When he died in 1842, his daughter, Sarah Daugherty and her two sons continued to operate the mill. During the Civil War, Union forces burned the mill to prevent the passing of flour and meal into rebel hands! Only the stone foundation survived. In 1867, after the Civil War, the mill was rebuilt again. It operated until the 1950s and was later donated to the Cape Giradeau Historical Society, then later to the State of Missouri in 1967.
We enjoyed seeing the displays inside the mill of the separators, scourers, roll stands, millstones, bran dusters, conveyors and chutes and learning more about the history of this area.
The Buford Covered bridge adjoining the mill is one of only four covered bridges remaining in Missouri. It is 140 feet long, 14 feet high, and 12 feet wide and was completed in 1868. It was originally a toll road and was made of yellow poplar wood. It has been renovated several times, as flooding and time have damaged the bridge.

From here we headed toward Metropolis, Illinois, home of the world's largest Superman statue. We crossed the Mississippi River along the way and the route soon changed.

We wondered several times what we had gotten ourselves into! Half the time we were in the middle of nowhere and had no cell service so we couldn't tell if there was a better route or not!

FINALLY, we made it to Metropolis!
The bronze Superman statue, located at the center of town, is 15 feet tall and 4000 pounds. There were plenty of tourists visiting while we were there and Tobey wondered if they came from another direction because we didn't see any cars on most of the roads we were on!

There was a HUGE store/museum with more Superman stuff than I have ever even imagined could be available!

It was a fun stop and we spent a while walking around the downtown area.

Back on the road, we made our way to Paducah, Kentucky to see the world's largest sewing needle.

Not nearly as exciting as Superman!

Along the banks of the confluence of the Ohio and Tennessee Rivers is an interesting floodwall mural project. The first twenty-panel section timeline was completed in 2001 and the last painting in the three block section in 2022. The panels depict the history of Paducah and there were interesting information plaques describing each painting.

Paducah Coca Cola Bottling Company was founded in 1903 by Luther F. Carson. The business moved to this building in 1939!

One of the first Boy Scout Troops in the USA was in Paducah. This mural depicts the history of Boy Scout Troop 1 in Kentucky.

We also walked a little while along the river side and enjoyed seeing some of the boats in the water.

We made one last stop in Paducah before heading off - Hancock's of Paducah, one of my favorite fabric shops! It is huge - actually a warehouse that mainly does mail order - and even though I don't need any fabric, I did make a few small purchases. Tobey was a good sport, but thankfully the shop is air conditioned and has WIFI and a bench for non-shoppers to patiently wait for their spouses!

Back in the car, we headed on to Clarksville, Tennessee for the night. I need to do a little research to figure out events for tomorrow, so good night!

May 29, 2024 - Licking, Missouri to Farmington, Missouri

We had an early start today on our "springs and falls" tour, which was a good thing. Googlemaps is good, but not always right - especially if the operator puts the wrong information into the map. Yes, that was me. Fortunately, we only went a few miles down a gravel road before we got things sorted out. At least it was a pretty drive and circled back to the road we needed.

Back on the correct route our first stop was Alley Springs and Alley Springs Mill near Eminence, Missouri.

The Spring is now part of the National Park Service and we enjoyed visiting with the ranger about the history of the mill. It originated as a flour mill built in 1894 and eventually they added grinding wheat and corn. Lumber was also abundant in the area and they added milling lumber. Overlogging in the area led to the closure of the mill in 1918 and the site was turned over to the state for a park in 1925. The second level had some of the original equipment and history plaques to read.

It's difficult to tell, but this large pool is the spring. It is the seventh largest spring in Missouri and is know to extend at least 3000 feet underground and is at least 155 feet deep. Eighty-one MILLION gallons of water bubble out of Alley Spring every day and flow into the Jacks Fork River! The water is normally very blue, but there have been heavy thunderstorms in Missouri this last week so the muck from the bottom has been stirred up giving it the greenish/brown cast.

There is a small trail that goes around the spring with a bridge back across the outflow.

With suggestions from the ranger, we crossed one spring and another mill off our list of spots to visit and headed next to Rocky Falls. The large swimming hole known as Rocky Falls was formed from molten rock 1.5 billion years ago. The volcanic rock hardened into reddish-brown rhyolite. The rushing spring-fed waters created a stream that wriggled into little cracks, eroding any of the soft rock and left smooth hard rhyolite "shut-ins." Rocky Falls is unique with a 40-foot tall waterfall that pours into the large swimming pool.


A shut-in is a term for a narrow constriction, or gorge, in a stream. Usually they are confined to a narrow valley or canyon and have lots of rock formations. It was a quiet spot when we first arrived, but soon filled up with folks enjoying the water and bringing their picnic lunches.

Blue Spring was the next stop. Located by the Currant River, at 310 feet, Blue Spring is Missouri's deepest. To give you some perspective, if the Statue of Liberty stood on the bottom, her torch would be underwater! Normally very blue because of minerals being dissolved underwater, the spring is again more green because of all the storms in Missouri. Bummer! It was only a mile roundtrip hike to get to the spring and the rock formations were cool to see.
Blue Spring flows into the Current River at this point. Across the river there were lots of folks camping and swimming in the Current River. It is not allowed to swim or even wade in any of the springs.

We made a short stop in Van Buren for lunch before visiting Big Spring, the largest spring in Missouri. It is also one of the biggest springs in the United States producing an average of 286 MILLION gallons of water every day! It carries over 70 tons of dissolved minerals and it grows larger every day!!! The water is 58 degrees and drains into the Current River.

Big Spring Historic District was designated as Missouri's first state park in 1924. The CCC built roads, trails, bridges, and even a couple dikes during the 1930s in the park. Eventually, the area was given to the federal government to form the protected Ozark Scenic Riverways area. We took a small hike to see where one of the dikes was located, but the trees and growth made it almost impossible to see, let alone try to take a picture. Trust me, we did see it!

That was the last spring in the Ozark National Scenic Riverways that we had on our agenda to visit today so we traveled north and east to the Castor River Shut-ins. We followed the trail then made our way down the rocks to the river. It was about 80 degrees and there were lots of people enjoying the sun and water!

The shut-in found in this section of the Castor River is little more than half a mile long and flows through the Amidon Memorial Conservation Area. The rocks in this area are pink granite and are beautiful!

We just took a break and watched others swim!

We climbed back up to the trail from the river and made our way to Farmington, Missouri for the night. It's a little out of our way, but there are not a lot of choices in these smaller towns for hotels! Dinner was at the Catfish Kettle. Tobey had catfish and I had shrimp. Both were pretty good and we were both impressed with their coleslaw and garlic mashed potatoes.

Tomorrow we continue our journey to the east and so far only have one stop planned. I guess we need to do a little research!

May 28, 2024 - Salina, Kansas to Licking, Missouri

Today's journey first took us from Salina, Kansas to Sedalia, Missouri with a short break in Warrensburg for lunch at Mary Jane's Cafe. Tobey had the burger and I had a pork tenderloin sandwich - something I hadn't had since I lived in Iowa. It was good, but not quite as good as I had growing up! It was huge and I ended up leaving the bun and eating the meat!

We continued on to Sedalia to the Katy Depot. During Tobey's Katy Trail bike ride trip in 2020 we stopped here, but the Depot was closed due to the Covid pandemic. Today we were able to go inside and visit the museum. It was interesting and I am glad we stopped!
This is Tobey today and the second picture was us in 2020!
We continued on to Ho Ho Tonka Castle Ruins near Camdenton, Missouri and got our first views of the Lake of the Ozarks.
The Ho Ho Tonka Castle was the dream of a wealthy Kansas City businessman Robert Snyder. He wanted to construct a European-styled castle in Missouri and purchased 5,000 acres of land, including his very own lake, and began work on the mansion in 1905. The businessman even imported stone masons from Europe to achieve the correct style, but unfortunately Snyder did not live to see his dream house completed. In 1906, Snyder was killed in one of Missouri’s first car accidents. After his death, Snyder’s sons continued work on the building and it was completed by 1920. After completing construction, one of Snyder’s sons took up residence in the huge castle until the family’s money ran out due to land rights lawsuits surrounding the castle’s property. Depression and poverty forced the son from the house and the building was opened as a hotel and lodge until 1942 when the entire building was destroyed by a fire.

This is the house.
This was a view of the Lake of the Ozarks from the "castle" .
The water tower which served the entire property was at the top of the hill near the parking lot. It was not damaged during the fire in 1942, however, vandals set it on fire in 1976! The state purchased the property in the 1970s and has worked to preserve the crumbled walls of Snyder's dream home.

From the parking lot, we took the trail past the water tower to the spring which was used as the water source. Over 200 steps down ... 

The Ha Ha Tonka Spring is Missouri's 12th largest spring. It has an average daily flow of more than 58 million gallons! The spring water remains at 56 degrees F year-round. We made the trip down - and back up! It was more difficult on the way up because I forgot to bring a water bottle and it was about 80 degrees, but we made it.
One of the things we heard throughout the time there were cidadas! This guy buzzed my head. I was proud I didn't shriek, but I did jump!

Our last stop at Ho Ho Tonka was the natural bridge. It was an easy walk from the parking lot and very beautiful.

The bridge is formed in Gunter sandstone over Eminence Dolomite which is the "host" rock formation for many of the caves and springs in Missouri's Ozark Highlands area. It is approximately 550 million years old! Originally, a cave had formed here then collapsed, leaving the natural bridge and a sinkhole.

It was almost 6pm when we left the ruins and headed toward Licking, Missouri for the night. Much of the drive was up and down the rolling hills and through the Mark Twain National Forest. We enjoyed the winding roads and quiet scenery. 

Tomorrow we hope to see more new sights!

May 27, 2024 - Fort Collins, CO to Salina, Kansas

Today we started our journey toward Myrtle Beach, South Carolina driving in our van, not the RV. We have driven the Colorado to Missouri route many times, but we decided to take our time and look for things we have never seen before to check out on our way.

We left home about 10am today and headed toward Burlington, Colorado, home of the Kit Carson County Carousel and Museum. We made a lunch stop at Los 3 Garcia in Byers, Colorado. The food was okay, but they are VERY proud of their soft drinks - $4.50 for a pepsi! We chalked it up to needing a break and that helped pay for our time out of the car. :)

We arrived in Burlington a little after 2pm and made our way to the Carousel and Museum. This little museum which is housed at the county fairgrounds is quite interesting. Admission is only $1.00 per person and today they had free rides on the carousel which we took advantage of.  Rides are normally 25 cents! Inside the museum there is loads of information about the history of carousels and photographs from the early 1900s.

The Kit Carson County Carousel, also known as PTC number 6, was built in 1905 by the Philadelphia Toboggan Company for Elitch Gardens in Denver. It was purchased by the Kit Carson County commissioners in 1928 for $1,200! That price included sending it from Denver by train to Burlington, setting it up and an operator to teach them how to run the carousel! During the Depression, the building it is housed in was used for feed storage and the carousel fell into a state of disrepair. With Colorado's centennial celebration in 1976, the decision was made to restore the carousel to its original condition. Renovations were finally completed in 2001!.

The Carousel has 46 hand-carved animals that have been restored to their original paint. The animals have intricate carvings, real antlers on the deer and real horse tails on many of the horses! The music is provided by an 1909 Wurlitzer Monster Military Band Organ that also had to be completely rebuilt because rats had chewed all of the tubing while it was not in use!




We rode on the zebras - because I didn't do that in Africa!
After our ride, we had the opportunity to go "behind the scenes" and go inside to see the inner workings of the carousel! Dave, the operator, showed us the motor and explained how it worked. He was great and we enjoyed the special attention!


Back on the road we made our way to our next stop - Wilson, Kansas. Why Wilson? you may ask. Wilson promotes itself as the "Czech Capital of Kansas" due to the role of Czech immigrant settlers in the early history of the town. So what? you may ask. WELL ... Wilson also happens to be home to the world's largest Czech egg and we had never seen it before. It towers 20 feet into the air and is painted in the fashion of Central-Eastern Europe's famous eggs. The pattern on this egg is a traditional Czech design.


There were painted eggs all over the town - but none even close to as large as the world's largest!

We had a picnic dinner at the water park before getting back on the road to our stop overnight in Salina, Kansas. There are miles and miles of wind turbines and small rolling hills and open plains.

After driving almost 500 miles today, we are ready for a rest! Stayed tuned to see where our adventures take us tomorrow!