Day 3 Cross Country Adventure

Today, nothing really interesting happened until we hit our midday stopping point. Rather than go into Springfield, MO the city, we saw a sign on the road for a cavern tour. Ilana looked it up on her handy blackberry. It looked pretty awesome and was not too far off the highway.
I was going to start describing when it was discovered, but here's a link: http://www.fantasticcaverns.com/about_us.htm
Here's a picture of the names:

Fun little tidbits- during prohibition era, the "auditorium" area of the cave was used as a speakeasy. It could accommodate up to 600 people. Later on in the 50s and 60s, it was used as sort of a social gathering place and 'famous' singers of the time would come and perform. Here's the stage:

Here are some other pictures of the amazing formations:

 
             Stalactite....

 

                  ...meet Stalagmite            

  

                  pretty ceiling

  

                    ooo, sparkly

It was a well deserved 2 hour detour. After, Ilana and I made the rest of today's drive into Oklahoma. Which, when you first enter it, is amazingly flat. I thought Illinois was flat. And, at 10 at night, it's 55 out. Cannot tell you how great it feels to not be freezing. Although, this is not normal for Oklahoma City either. Norm is 30s. I'll take what I can get. Considering Santa Fe is supposed to be somewhere in the 20s during our stay. Thank God we will be doing indoor activities- more about them when they come.

I will end this entry on the necessary immature humor pictures that again, couldn't not be taken: