Day 2: Neosho, MO to Fort Smith, AR

Mari and I got up this morning and had the continental breakfast at the Super 8 hotel this morning. Nothing spectacular! We had gotten downstairs before 8am and it was already picked over, not much left. Mari made a waffle and I had toast. Yum. When I checked out, I inquired about the safe charge. Turned out they have safes in the rooms and you get the charge added on even if you don't use it. I did get the charge taken off, since we did not use it.

We gathered up the posse and headed out. We had a goal this morning. In the nearby town we were going to find my great grandfather grave. Without much information except what I had learned/researched from the internet we headed off to Granby Memorial Cemetary. The website that I had found was www.findagrave.com. We were trying to locate Shelton Allen White, the website said he was buried in the cemetery in lot 10A. With no markers or knowing how the cemetery was laid out with walked around randomly. Grandma ended up finding it.

I found it neat to find out about one of my relatives.

From Granby we back tracked through Neosho to get to on US-71 and head south towards Fort Smith. Oh, Mari decided that it was to far out of our way to go back north to hit the Precious Moments Park. After talking we decided we would swing by there on the way back home from Branson, MO. Since we did not go to the Precious Moments Park we decided to got to a cave.

We went to the Bluff Dwellers Cavern south of Noel, MO. The cost for the cavern is $12 a person. The price included a hour to hour-half guided tour. Some of the wildlife in the cavern we got to see was salamanders and a bat. The caverns are not very extensive but it is very well designed to get around in.

After the cavern tour we checked out the gift shop and museum. Mari, Ryan and Dad ended up buying a bag of sand with stones in it. They went out and "panned" for precious gems. Mari really got into it and was excited about some of the items she found.

From the Bluff Dwellers Cavern we went back into the town of Noel to have bit to eat. Stopped at a local cafe recommended by a worker from the cavern. We ate at Kathy Kountry Kitchen. Nothing impressive. It was funny when I sent the order of fried mushrooms back to the kitchen for Ryan when I tried one and it ended still being frozen in the middle. The cook brought the order back out after re-cooking them. Ryan started to explain to the cook what to look for to make sure that they are fully cooked.

On the road to Fort Smith. Mom was driving and she ended up passing me outside of Fort Smith. So, I assumed that she knew were she was going. Well she was driving like there was a fire. She got several cars ahead of me and ended up taking exit before she was supposed to. We did not get off at the same exit and did get off at the right exit. Garmin GPS is the way to go, at least 90% of the time. It did get to the front door of the hotel...this time. Well, did not do much after getting here. Mom did get here finally after sight seeing Fort Smith. I worked out, Mari tried the pool. After wards we meet up and had supper.

Not sure what we are doing tomorrow. Michelle is driving just leaving Indianola now 23:00 with her posse (Breack, Phoenix and Jason).  Sounds like they are going to drive straight through to catch up with us. We will stay another night here in Fort Smith.

Today total miles traveled was about 150 miles.