Time is just running. We are still following Route 66 religiously but don’t stop everywhere anymore. We drove by Red Cedar Restaurant in Pacific and the Sunset Hotel in Villa Ridge, did stop however at the Gardenway Motel west of Grey Summit. We liked the sign with the glass blocks so typical for the time of Route 66.

The old sign of the Diamond Restaurant we missed but photographed the remnants of the building.

Time for a change of scenery, the Meramec Caverns in the Stanton region were our next stop. Amazing caves with beautiful stalactites and stalagmites and stories on bandits Jessie James and his brother staying in the caverns, sharing their loot and escaping via an unknown exit.

From cave to springs we went this day by visiting Maramec Springs and the ruins of a 19th century iron works. Very nice park and lots of information on working with iron.

We stopped later at the beautiful Wagon Wheel Motel in Cuba and missed hwy 19 Drive-In Theatre and did not stop for the world’s largest rocker in Fanning-Rosati but went instead to the Elbow Inn close to Devil’s Elbow with its beautiful bridge for dinner and bear with the boys. The locals were mostly retired officers and specialists of the near by Army base and we had the opportunity to have great conversations with these super nice people. We even parked our RV at the fence of the Inn and slept right there.