Today everyone slept in until 7. Whoo hoo! When Mr. GT reheated the sausage in the microwave (I told you we were living high on the hog!), the kids all came creeping out of the woodwork wondering where the popcorn was! Apparently, reheated Missouri sausage smells like microwave popcorn. They were disappointed.
We stopped up to the house for our free air. Luckily, our leak was a VERY slow leak. We drove 15 miles to Viburnum to a tire shop. We had to wait about 20 minutes before they could look at it, so the kids an I walked across the highway to the convenience store for sodas. Only trouble was, instead of grabbing a $20 out of my purse, I had grabbed a $1 bill. I sent Rose Bud back across the highway to get more money. This place was the first place I was at where people looked curiously at the boys. No one commented, though. A few other people have just asked matter of factly where they are from.
The plug in the tire cost less than our snack at the convenience store.
We drove up to Dillard’s Mill, a 100 year old grist mill that still operates for tours. We were 10 minutes too early before it opened and it was very hot and humid there. It was pretty, though and Banana Boy saw a lizard. The tour was $2.50 and $1.50, but we skipped it. The kids were more interested in the fish in the creek.
It's time for another game of Spot the Lizard!
The kids opened presents from Nonny and the girls got rollers for their hair, 
while the boys got stretchy, disgusting, rubber, light-up bugs, which they loved. Banana Boy stretched and stretched his and thoroughly enjoyed it until he snapped me with it and it got grounded. Sunshine played and played with his and thoroughly enjoyed it until he worked the light-up mechanism out of it. Then he just enjoyed the stretchy part
The afternoon’s entertainment was to visit Onadaga Cave. From bitter experience, we’ve discovered that babies don’t enjoy cave tours, so Mrs. GT and Sunshine opted out. We drove to the nearest town, parked in a Sonic and connected to the internet (thanks to Java.net next door!) while Sunshine napped.
The rest of the GT’s toured the cave. Here are some highlights:
The guide said that somebody remembered that when there was a wooden bridge instead of cement that they would take you out to the middle of the bridge and then turn off the lights. --Daisy
There were two rocks that looked alike and they were called the tiwns and there was a rock on the top of the cave and water was dripping down and it dripped on to the shorter twin and then it bounced off, “Splooch” and it looked like the twin was squirting water out. --Pepper
There was a smooth rock which was a twin which wasn’t very smooth and Rose Bud touched it. There was this cool pond with these cool lily pads and there was a big hole. –Banana Boy
We saw four bats sleeping. --Daisy
Mr. GT says Onadaga Cave was better than any other cave he’s seen except probably Carlsbad. Mammoth Cave was impressive only because it was so big. This one had so many interesting and beautiful formations. The cave almost wasn’t. It was in private hands. Whoever first discovered it bought all the land around it and they were trying to decide whether to mine or show it. The formations were so beautiful and the miners wanted to use it for building material. But they found that when they took it out of its environment, it became dry and brittle. Had they mined it, they would have punched a hole right down into it and would have destroyed all the formations. In the 1950s the Army Corp of Engineers wanted to dam the river and make a recreational area, but in doing that, it would have flooded the cave. Eventually, the Army Corp of Engineers decided not to follow through with that plan.
We had originally planned to visit Fort Leonard Wood today also, but everyone is so carsick AND sick of riding in the car and it was so far out of the way, that we opted out of it.
Instead, we returned early to the cabin and went down to the creek to swim. Picture this:
Rose Bud is floating placidly down the current on her back.
Daisy: “SNAKE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”
Rose Bud (flailing and leaping): “AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!”
Mrs. GT: “Where?!” Catches a glimpse of something light brown and squiggly in the water. “Are you sure it wasn’t a stick?”
Daisy: “Sticks do not have a head and a pattern!”
Mrs. GT: “True.”
Rose Bud: “Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!”
Daisy: “I saw it lift its head out of the water! It was light brown and squiggly and it had a pattern! I KNOW it was a snake!”
We never did find out where Sir Snake went. Hopefully, it was far, far away. And try as she might, Mrs. GT could not find another.
Supper was Chicken Tikka Masala (sauce from a jar, not very good, although the kids loved it), zucchini and rice.
We’d picked up some movies from the house (they have hundreds) and the kids watched Shrek 2 (for the 7 millionth time!) After the boys went to bed, Mr. GT and the girls watched “Rudy.” I said they would think the only movies in the world were football movies (we’ve seen Facing the Giants a zillion times, too, and in fact we own it).
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