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Health & Fitness

Underground Adventures

This blog's installment takes you on underground adventures.

This blog will take you on my latest road adventures, this time underground. Had a great time at my last two book research stops. They were Meramec Caverns and Bonne Terre Mines. You should check them out. They are just short one-hour drives from St. Louis and both are open on weekends during the winter. Took my assistant Pat along to keep me out of trouble.

The first stop was Meramec Caverns. There is a lot more to do here than just tour the magnificently decorated cave. To start, they recently added a zipline to the site. So if you like flying through the air, get over to Stanton, MO and give it a try.

You can also take an excursion boat ride on the Meramec River. If you feel like some enjoyable exercise, rent a canoe and power yourself along this beautiful Ozark stream. If you’d like to stay awhile, you can chose between the campground or the hotel.

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The site also has a gift shop, rock shop, snack bar, ice cream parlor, picnic area and lots of free parking.

And the tour was great. They assigned Pat and I our own personal tour guide. Most of the rooms on the tour route are quite large. On the second half of the journey the rooms are very well decorated with cave formations.

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The second road trip was to Bonne Terre to tour an old lead mine. Here again, the nice staff assigned Pat and I our own personal guide. Don’t think of a narrow tunnel passage, this place is massive. The tour even includes a boat ride on a huge underground lake. The boat leaves from a dock that is also used by scuba divers. West End Diving of St. Louis operates the diving facilities here. You can even get dive certified at this location. The dive route includes numerous submerged pieces of mine equipment, ore carts, buildings, even a locomotive. It’s like diving on a ghost town.

Back on the path. The foot and boat tour are both very safe but still an exciting adventure. After your tour you can enjoy a meal at one of the many restaurants in town. Pat and I had fried chicken. Also, just four miles away is St. Francois State Park.

As always, check out my website: www.theghosttownhunter.com

You will find more cave photos and other useful information.

Next Time: I Rent Mountains, They Come With A Key

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