The fun part of being able to travel is to see different places that are popular…This time we are near the boyhood town of Hannibal where Samuel Clemens, aka Mark Twain, made his fame…In Hannibal there is a cave named after him so we though it might be a good place to go visit when Josh, Sandy, Mary & Timmy came to visit…
After posing at a very old tree, we went inside to check it out and to get our tickets for the cave tour…The gift shop was awesome…There were so many things to see and take pictures of…
Our tour guide’s name was Courtney but she said that if anyone thought that she did a bad job of giving the tour then her name was Conner…lol Courtney did a fantastic job as a tour guide…Courtney showed us a map of where our tour would be taking us and where we would not be going…She showed us where someone first found an entrance in to the cave and then we went through the gated door in to the 52° cavern…Glad I brought a jacket or I would have been freezing…lol
The cave was introduced to electricity so there could be tours of the cavern…Before 1972, people who toured the cavern could sign on the cavern walls…In 1972, the cavern became part of the Historical Society and now no one can put their signatures on the cavern walls…The oldest signature that I saw was from 1922…I am sure there were plenty prior to 1922 but that was the only one that I could see…It would have been cool to put our names on the cavern walls…
Another fact that Courtney, our tour guide, told everyone was that Jesse James hid out here in this cavern…They found his signature in another part of the cavern where no one could go…Jesse James was hiding here so that he wouldn’t get caught after his bank robberies…but eventually he had to keep going…
Courtney asked everyone if we knew what this was up on one of the ceiling walls of the cavern…Many answers came out until she told us that it was bottom floor of the woman’s bathroom…lol No, it is bat body oils…They would hang on to the ceiling and their body oils would come off of their wings and bodies…At first we all thought it was bat poo…lol
Courtney explained every part of the cavern…There was an Alligator part of the cavern that was shaped in the form of an alligator…There is a part of the cavern where a “boot” is hanging from the cavern…This is what most of us was looking at…
In some spots of the cavern, there was only a 17 inch space to walk through…We all made it through but Josh had to make a funny comment about some of us not making it…lol and we made a comment about him too…lol
I do have to say that it was cool to go through the cavern but it wasn’t as impressive as the Luray Caverns or Skyline Caverns…There were very impressive regions of the cavern and the colors were just amazing…I can say we did it or Been There Done That…lol
After the cavern tour, we all walked over to the Sticks and Stones building…Mary got a bag of stones/dirt mix to do some panning to see what she got in her bag…After a little while, Tim went to get a bag too…He found and got more better stones that Mary but it was so awesome to watch the grandkids pan for stones and fools gold which they both got…
A piece of Fool’s Gold is back towards the long white crystal stone…Mary and Tim got some pretty cool stones…
After panning for stones, we walked over the community center where you can taste wine but we just wanted to relax…Mary was taking all kinds of pictures and I got my share of pictures…We relaxed a while and then headed to Lovers Leap and then to Sawyers Creek Cafe for some early lunch…We all had a good time and was glad for the family time together…
Everyone ordered something different on the Riverview Cafe menu…Everyone was pleased with their food but me…but that’s how it goes from time to time about cafes and restaurants…
