Monday - NOT what we planned!

We heard so much about Hawksbill Crag that it was certainly on our "go to" list.  We decided Sunday night that we would get up early on Monday and see if we could catch the sunrise there.  We were up at 4:00 A.M. and ready to go.  We got in the car and cranked it up and what do we see??? Low tire pressure light flashing!  NOOOOOOOO!  Pepaw checked the pressure and we were about as low as you can be and still drive safely.  We found Walmart's website and it said they opened for auto service at 7:00 so we headed that way.  Walmart's service department doesn't open until 8:00!  Oh well, no one else does either, and we were already there, so there we stayed!  Our tire was repaired and we were done by 8:45 and BONUS - they didn't charge us because we had to wait so long!!!  Not their fault, but it sure made us happy customers!  

Now we had to make a new plan!  We decided it was a good day to go caving.  We took off for Mystic Cave and Crystal Dome.

 We got to go into Mystic Cave first - and we were the only visitors so we got a private tour!

This is "The Bell" the biggest formation in this cave and the one you will see on most of their advertising.

Loved these "frozen waves".

A stalagmite and a column with many stalactites on the ceiling around them.

There were some beautiful draperies.

And at the end of the tour they show how it was done in the "old days"...very "theatrical" with colored lights...Loved the Red, White, and Blue together!

After this tour we went back in to the Crystal Dome cave.  Both are on the same property.  This is the older cave and one of the things we learned on our tour was that there was a time that folks just paid their money and went into the cave without a guide.  A lot of them broke some of the formations and took them down the road to a shop and sold them.  It really makes me sad to see this!

We were part of a group on this part of the tour, so it wasn't as easy to get pictures.  This is the view from the entrance.

And one of the rooms.

I did get some other pictures but I want to take some time going through those and find the best of the formations.

After we finished the tour the manager told us about The Cliffs.  It is a restaurant near the top of a mountain.  This would be their last week open until spring and they only serve breakfast and lunch so we decided today was the day we needed to go on up the mountain. This is the view from their porch!

After lunch we headed back to Harrison.  I had read in the book we got at the visitors center that there was a beautiful cemetery (open to tourists!) We went by the visitor's center and got directions and headed out to see what was so special.  The trees were amazing!

There are those beautiful burgundy/purple leaves again!

It really was beautiful and I'm grateful they allow photographers a chance to capture the beauty.  It was very calm, peaceful, and everyone there was very respectful.

We knew Tuesday was going to be rainy - so it was off to Branson, MO to see what we could see there.  It was quite interesting. More on that tomorrow!