We said goodbye to our little lake cabin and headed back to St Louis, going over the same bridge we went under yesterday.

As we made our way from southwest Missouri over to St Louis on the eastern border, we saw a hodgepodge of sights: an Amish buggy, a hitching post outside a convenience store (with horses getting water and food), and roads so hilly we thought we were on a roller coaster.🤢

But we found a Mom’s Cafe serving a little of everything… mini sandwiches on hawaiian rolls, one cheeseburger and salads (basically whatever was left in the cooler).

As we drove, we had one more stop we hoped to see from Aerial America – Elephant Rock State Park. From above, the huge boulders look like circus elephants lined up. These boulders were buried deep beneath the earth’s surface until erosion, shifting plates and time brought them to the surface. There are trails, picnic tables and playgrounds all around and best of all, you can climb on all the rocks.

The rocks were a little slick due to the rain, but we made our way around and to the top.

Never to be without some dash of adventure… As we were climbing, Leo’s croc slipped off and became wedged just far enough and high enough that we couldn’t reach. We tried branches and anything else we could find but no luck. Score: Elephant Park 1, Leo 0

As he climbed down, we texted Mike who saved the day and brought the shoes they bought for white water rafting, which have actually turned out to be pretty comfortable. No need keeping one croc…

We hit the road for our last ride into St Louis. We are staying tonight at the Hilton beside the airport since our flight is at 10am. Our plan was to check in drop off bags, go to dinner, return the car tonight and grab an Uber back to the hotel. Thankfully, the good Lord fixed our plan…

When we asked the front desk to recommend somewhere close by for dinner, he said the best place in this area was the restaurant in the hotel. So we unloaded, the boys and I took luggage to the room while Mike stayed with the car. Once we unloaded the luggage cart, the boys stayed in room and Mike and I took the car back to Budget rental, which was literally the parking lot beside the hotel. Thank you Lord for the re-plan, because the car rental return was a nightmare! 20+ people waiting 2-3 folks working… I say 2-3 because really only 2 were working the other was just present. Anyway… 90 minutes later, we got the receipt that car was returned. Can you imagine if the boys had been with us and waiting all that time!?!?

Back at the hotel, the front desk was right! The hotel restaurant was pretty good, and the service was great. Afterwards, we came back to the room to repack and adjust to make the cooler into a suitcase. And got one more beautiful sunset. Finally finished repacking, we played one more whole game of garbage (that’s 10 hands) and are packed and ready for one more day of travel.

This time tomorrow, we’ll be back in North Carolina!