HELEN'S JOURNAL

The Meramec caverns of Missouri had been advertised almost since before Chicago and so despite the fact we had a long drive ahead if we were going to get to Oklahoma by tonight, we couldn't pass this piece of 66 history by.

The caves stretch 28 miles underground and are said to be the old hide-out of the outlaw Jesse James. Ranger Travis, the official guide told us all this and more. He led his small group, comprised of Leslie, myself and a middle aged couple from Oklahoma, around the echoing caverns with their amazing mineral formations, stalactites, stalacmites, mirror balls....

Mrs Oklahoma kept up a chirpy banter throughout the tour, asking Travis mainly about the cave pools; how deep, how old, how cold would they have been if Jesse was hiding waist deep in them... My DAT tape had run out just 10 minutes into the tour and, not having taken a spare with me, I was frantically rewinding and erasing in order to tape our little group in the dripping, echoing caves. Now I still don't know what it was that I taped over but I rest assured that it wasn't anything better than Travis finale. We were seated before a breathtaking curtain of glittering mineral deposit, over 70 foot high. Travis then proceeded to reveal that he was a bit of a dabster with the lights as he began to flick them on and off over the spectacle before us. Suddenly the caves began to resonate with Kate Smith's rendition of 'God Bless America'. Mr Oklahoma, who had so far been absolutley silent throughout the tour, burst into song behind me. Travis then played his trump card as we all watched the Stars and Stripes projected onto the 70 million year old formation.